Rapper Basta - aka Noggano and N1NT3ND0. Currently, Vasily Vakulenko never ceases to delight us with his new tracks. Which, in turn, affects its popularity on the Internet. His activities are not limited to his rap career, he is also a composer, actor, director, producer, and TV and radio presenter.
Basta is the owner of a label called "Gazgolder", which was created in 2007, as well as a presenter on Next FM. We should also mention his program (Hip-Hop TV) on “Gazgolder”, which he hosts together with another rapper under the pseudonym Kupe.
April 20, 1980 is Basta’s date of birth. Born into a military family in the city of Rostov-on-Don. Since childhood, he went to music school, and he himself studied at school No. 32. After some time, Vasily entered the music school, where he began to be interested in Hip-Hop art. At the age of fifteen, he could already read his rap. A couple of years later (at 17), he recorded his first track, which was called “City”. This date can also be called the beginning of the musical career of one of the most popular Russian rappers, Basta.
Elena Pinskaya 2009 became Basta’s wife. The exact date of the wedding is June 12, but he got married on June 11, respectively. In winter, or rather on December 4, 2009, a daughter was born, whom they named Masha. On January 21, 2013, their family was replenished with another girl, who was named Vasilisa.
Few people know, but before their high-profile pseudonyms: Basta, Noggano, N1NT3ND0, Vasily Vakulenko was Basta Oink.
“Since childhood, they called me Piggy, because I scattered everything in unclear places,” says Basta.
The then young rapper used this pseudonym in the group “Psycholirik” (since 1997). At that time it was the composition of “Caste”. For his group at the age of 17, he wrote the song “City”, which was included in the album “First Strike”.
The proposal to rename “Psycholirik” to “Casta” came from Basta, and the leader of the group, Vladi, without hesitation, agreed to do it. "First Strike" was re-recorded and made the calling card of a new group called "Casta".
In 1998, Basta recorded one of his most famous songs, “My Game,” which, I think, is also known to you. It also marked the beginning of his solo career.
Vasily did not spend long at the music school in the conductors’ department. In 1996, he already had his first song - “My City” and a group - “Street sound” (which translates as “street sounds”).
Also in 1996, a rap movement began to emerge in Rostov, which over time became one of the strongest rap movements in Russia. Basta did not stand aside, observing this process; he himself took part in the so-called Rostov Caste (a young association of rappers), which over time acquired the name of the popular group “Casta”.
Vasily Vakulenko is also famous in lyric poetry. It was this genre that he chose next to write his rap tracks. The above-mentioned “My Game,” as I already said, has become very popular. This track became popular not only in Rostov, but even went beyond Russia. "Star fever? No, she didn't show up. Drugs and older friends appeared, real hooligans,” Vasya recalls. “I can say for sure that this song has saved me more than once. Sometimes they wanted to take a life, but when they found out it was me, they left me alone.”
He tried to record his entire difficult life in his albums. “In 2002, my friend Zhora extorted money from his mother, and we bought a computer. Vadik QP mixed the first demo for the future album.” By chance, these tracks came to Bogdan Titomir, who suggested moving to Moscow in 2004. For what Basta and his colleagues agreed.
A couple of years later we already had the opportunity to listen to Basta’s new album, which is called “Basta 1”. At the same time, we can also see the “Autumn” video, which began to be shown on TV. From the very beginning, Noggano began working with Gazgolder, the most closed club in Moscow at that time. Basta has not yet rushed to take part in rap parties. Soon Vasya met such rappers as Smokey Mo and Guf.
“One day I approached Guf at a concert, he remembered “My Game,” and he and I decided to do a cover version, which was released on the album “Basta 2,” says Vasya.
The breakthrough in his career happened after the filming of “City of Roads,” which was presented by Centr. Here his popularity expanded greatly; he was already known not only in Moscow and Rostov, but also in neighboring countries.
After this event, Vasily began to be nominated for various awards, nominations, etc. In 2007, the next album called “Basta 2” was released, which stood out for its diversity. 2 releases were released under the pseudonym “Noggano”, the third release was released as a famous rap artist in Russia. The well-known tracks: “Urban”, “The Sun is Not Visible”, “Rostov” and “California” were heard more than once at Basta’s concerts and were very popular.
2012 was marked by the recording of cover versions of Mikhey and the track “Mama”. A video clip was shot for the latter, which I suggest you watch:
This year Basta also performed at a large concert dedicated to the memory of Micah.
In 2012, Noggano appeared in a video about HIV discrimination.
Not so long ago, or rather on April 20, 2013, Basta released his 4th solo album, in which we can see rappers such as Smokey Mo and Rem Digga. Also no less popular people and groups: singer Tati, “Nerves” and Green Gray, etc.
Last year, another event took place in Basta’s biography: the “Basta+” concert, which took place at the “Green Theater” in Gorky Park. The day before, a collection of the same name was released, which included songs from different periods. It is also worth noting a couple of songs that are included in this collection, but have not been heard anywhere before.
On July 20, Basta took part in the filming of the film “Vladimir Mayakovsky. The third odd one,” where he performed the poet’s poems. On the occasion of Erik Bulatov’s eightieth birthday, the “Culture” TV channel showed the film “Spring in Florence,” for which Vasily wrote the music.
In November, photos of Basta with rapper Smokey Mo appeared, which showed the filming of a new video for a joint track. You can find these photos on Instagram or in the next news.
So. Basta is one of the best rappers of 2013 according to Time Out magazine. His album called “Basta 4” is one of the leading albums in sales in Russia. 2014 - Noggano announced his new work - the third album, which he promises to release soon.
Basta, aka Vasily Mikhailovich Vakulenko, is also known under the creative names Noggano and Nintendo. He is a prominent representative of Russian rap culture, singer, actor, musician, television and radio host, producer and director, owner of the Gazgolder label.
Basta's childhood
Vasily was born on April 20, 1980 in the family of a military man from Rostov-on-Don. When Vasily was born, his mother, student Anna Razdaibeda, was only 19. Moreover, Basta has an older brother who is the same age, who now works as a railway engineer. 
Basta spent his childhood in the care of his grandparents, since his mother studied (she has two higher educations, and later worked as an economist at a defense plant), and his father served. “I didn’t feel any special connection with them,” the rapper said.
Vasily first met his father, Mikhail Vakulenko, at the age of seven and never really got along. Subsequently, Basta's father, Mikhail Vakulenko, was in a car accident, almost died, and received disability. The man loved classic rock like Deep Purple and Queen. Basta himself was not a great connoisseur of the genre, but he treated these groups with respect. In those years, he himself listened to rapcore bands - Biohazard, Rage Against the Machine and Papa Roach.
In addition to secondary school No. 32, the future rapper also graduated from music school (piano and accordion class), on his grandmother’s initiative. “Be patient, grandson, you will need this later,” she urged. The boy's grandfather, who played hockey in his youth, forced his grandson to skate. In addition, the guy practiced judo. In general, the rapper’s grandfather is almost a sacred personality. Coming from a Cossack family who worked in a mine, he himself realized the need for higher education, graduated from a military school and the capital's civil defense academy.
Vasily was not an out-and-out hooligan, but he hated encroachments on freedom. In an interview, Basta said that if he were offered to return to his childhood, he would not agree. Any restrictions on his ideas and movements by his parents caused him irritation bordering on rage.
“I climbed through garages, jumped into the water for a bet and didn’t listen to anyone,” the rapper recalled. He was an adventurer from an early age. This is an integral trait of his character, without which Basta would not exist.
Surprisingly, the future rapper sang in a church choir as a child and was a sexton. 
At the age of 15, inspired by the work of Onyx, Wu-Tang Clan, Ol" Dirty Bastards and Busta Rhymes, he tried to rap for the first time. The debut was successful, and he decided to move further in this direction. His grandmother very opportunely gave him a Yamaha synthesizer. At that time, it was something incredible - as if today a schoolchild was given a Lamborghini. If it weren’t for her and his passion for music, Vasily would most likely have gone down a downward path.
At the end of 9th grade, Vasily entered the music school to become a conductor, but left after the first course, realizing that the classes had no practical value.
Carier start
In 1997, 17-year-old Vasily, who took the pseudonym Basta Hryu, joined the rap group “Psycholirik”, which, on his initiative, was soon renamed “Casta”. With his participation, the album “First Strike” was recorded in 1997 (tracks “City”, “First Strike” and “Just Jump Higher”). However, in 1998, the paths of “Casta” and Basta diverged. Although Vladi still speaks well of his former colleague, calling him the soul of the company. 
At this time, drugs appeared in the life of the aspiring rapper. He honestly, without hiding, speaks about this chapter of his life: “At first he just drank, smoked, and at 17 he injected himself for the first time. It wasn’t scary at all.” According to Basta, on the one hand, he felt like an absolutely adult, independent person, on the other, a loser, time after time missing out on all chances for self-realization.
At the age of 18, “Basta” wrote his first hit, the song “My Game,” which the author still considers to this day one of the most important stages of his creative career. Rostovites were the first to hear the new composition at Basta’s performance at the local sports palace. Soon his work was heard by residents of the Black Sea region and Krasnodar Territory.
Basta – “My Game” (ft Guf)
Then the performer left the stage for some time, returning only in 2002, when his close friend Yuri Volos aka Zhora suggested making a home recording studio. But after a long break, none of the producers wanted to collaborate with young rappers, and in search of a label that would take them under their wing, Vasily and Yuri decided to move to Moscow. Later, Basta spoke about this time like this: “Terrible labels, no chances.”
Gas holder
Basta’s demo disc (at that time he began to call himself Basta Bastilio) came across Bogdan Titomir, who became the guy’s producer under the auspices of “Gazgolder”. It was on this label that Basta’s first album, “Basta 1,” was released, which included 19 solo tracks by the rapper, only two of which were recorded together with KRP. The album included “My Game,” which has become legendary - according to tradition, Basta performs it at every concert. In the same year, Basta released his first video, “Autumn,” which was included in wide TV rotation. The success inspired the rapper to quickly release the video “Once and Forever.”Basta – “Autumn”
Without exaggeration, 2007 was a turning point for Basta. Firstly, his second album “Basta 2” was released, and with it a number of bright video works: “Our Summer”, “So Spring Cries”, “Inner Fighter”. The 50,000th edition of the record was sold out in 90 days. Listeners were treated to 17 compositions, including a duet with Guf (“My Game”) and singer Maxim (“Our Summer”).
Secondly, foreign computer game developers from Rockstar became interested in the performer, and Basta’s song “Mama” was featured in “Grand Theft Auto IV”, released in April 2008.
Basta: interesting facts
Thirdly, Basta became a co-owner of the Gazgolder label, and then opened a new page of creativity under the new pseudonym Noggano. In contrast to Basta's deeply lyrical tracks, Noggano delighted listeners with tougher, more daring and nihilistic hip-hop.
Under the new pseudonym, Vasily released the following three albums: “First” in 2008, “Warm” in 2009, “Unreleased” in 2010.
In 2008, the video filmed for the song “City of Roads” received the MTV Russia Music Awards. In addition to changing his pseudonym in the same 2008, the rap artist tried himself in different genres: screenwriter, director, producer and actor. This happened during the filming of his own film, “The Tea Drunkard.”
Vasily liked writing the script, so he began work, which viewers soon saw under the title “Fairy Tales for Adults.” In 2008, the video filmed for the song “City of Roads” received the MTV Russia Music Awards. In 2011, under the new pseudonym “Nintendo”, Vasily again surprised everyone by releasing a new album – “Nintendo”, which was performed in a style that was unusual for all admirers of creativity and the performer himself – “Cyber Gang”.
Today, Bast’s creative experience in the cinema genre has a fairly solid list, namely acting roles in six films, the most popular of which is “Heat”, 4 film scripts, director and producer in two projects simultaneously.
In the fall of 2015, rap artist Basta became one of the judges and mentor of the world-famous “Voice” project, and his colleagues were Polina Gagarina, Alexander Gradsky and Grigory Leps.
In April 2017, Basta presented a new video - “Sansara”. The song itself was dedicated to family values, and rock musicians Diana Arbenina, Alexander Sklyar, Sergey Bobunets, Andrey Zaporozhets (SunSay) took part in its recording. The video used real photographs of little Basta and his friends.
Basta – “Samsara” (2017)
In 2018, the rapper, following the fashion for YouTube shows with detailed interviews with famous people, launched by Yuri Dudem, created his own YouTube channel Gazlive. The first guest of the show was symbolically Yuri Dud himself. Earlier, Basta himself visited Dudya and spoke about his views on the modern rap scene and his income.
"vDud": Basta
However, after 16 episodes, Basta’s show was blocked by the YouTube administration due to the fact that the project’s sponsors were banned due to the service’s new policy.
In the fall of 2018, Basta and Restaurateur, the organizer of the Versus battle, became the jury in the channel’s new project “Friday!” - reality show “Voice of the Streets”. The concept of the project was similar to the show “Young Blood” from the Black Star label. Young rappers from remote corners of the country were given a chance to make themselves known throughout Russia. The winner of the show was promised 3 million rubles and a contract with Gazgolder. The first place went to a St. Petersburger under the pseudonym Sapa 13. However, apparently, the rapper and the label have diverged paths, since now his name is not listed among the Gazgolder artists.
Basta's conflict with Nemagia
In November 2016, two bloggers from the Nemagiya YouTube channel crossed Basta’s path. Mikhail and Alexey, the hosts of the show, became famous thanks to their satirical reviews and parodies of famous personalities.Bloggers took a photo of a certain actress from adult films and photoshopped her face onto a photograph of Vasily and his mother together, and then made several dirty jokes about the woman.
Nonmagic: review of Basta's mother
“Basta’s mother is a metaphor for Basta’s overwhelming emergency. It is this mother that we embrace with all our might, and no other,” the bloggers justified themselves. But the rapper saw the video and was expectedly offended. Basta promised to find the parents of the jokers and “talk” to them. Next, he called on all residents of Kemerovo, where the guys from Nemagiya live, to find scandalous bloggers and record an “extreme” video with them.
The addresses of the YouTubers were found out quite quickly, but there was no lynching. It all ended with Nemagi apologizing to Basta, and then releasing an incriminating video about the Tinkoff bank, provoking a much larger wave of hype.
Conflict between Basta and Decl
In 2016, Basta clashed (virtually and then in court) with Kirill Tolmatsky, better known as Decl. The reason was Decl’s tweet complaining about noisy music from the Gazgolder club. Kirill's apartment was next door to the establishment, and he could not sleep. In response, Basta wrote: “Decl is a shaggy b**-2.” The first time Basta called Decl a shaggy p*** was when he said in an interview that the representatives of Gazgolder did not like him because of his long hair.Offended, Kirill filed a million-dollar lawsuit for insult. A linguistic examination found Basta’s remark to be offensive, and as a result, the court forced Vakulenko to pay the plaintiff 50 thousand rubles.
Basta trolls Decl in court
But what is 50 thousand rubles for Basta? Soon he posted a series of photographs on Twitter that clearly illustrated his previous statement. He posted a photo of a young Decl with dreadlocks and a photo of a donkey whose fur was matted into dreadlocks. The publication was accompanied by the comment “noble wool.” Basta then asked himself whether Decl is a hermaphrodite or not.
Decl responded with a new claim, this time for 4 million rubles. And again the court sided with the plaintiff, although reducing the amount of compensation to 350 thousand rubles. Decl sent the money to charity.
Basta did not make any new attacks towards Decl, but there was no talk of reconciliation either. When Kirill Tolmatsky died suddenly in February 2019, Basta offered condolences to his loved ones, emphasizing that, despite the conflict between them, he was sorry that such a talented person left so early.
Basta's personal life
In the rapper’s personal life, everything is good and smooth. Basta met his current wife on the initiative of the girl herself. Rap culture lover Lena Pinskaya has long admired Basta’s work. They met when Basta was just beginning his path to the status of one of the most influential figures on the Russian rap scene. She liked the songs that the rapper released under the pseudonym Noggano, however, she did not know that Noggano and Basta were the same person. One day she and her friend were having dinner at a restaurant and heard a voice that seemed familiar. Vasily was sitting at the next table. He was with a companion, so Elena did not approach, but then she still stopped him on the street and said that she really liked his work. They started talking and exchanged phone numbers. And after six months they moved in together and since then they separate only when Vasily goes on tour. 
In 2009, Vasily Vakulenko and Elena Pinskaya, the daughter of the famous journalist Tatyana Pinskaya, legalized their relationship.
On December 4, 2009, Vasily and Elena gave birth to their first daughter, Maria. 4 years later, on January 21, 2013, another daughter, Vasilisa, was born.
Basta considers the birth of babies the most important achievement, and their upbringing as the main mission.
Vasily is a monogamous person. “I have a mistress - my music studio,” he jokes. Despite the huge number of fans, he cannot even think about cheating on Elena. There were difficult moments in their family life, but any relationship requires work, and Basta and his significant other understand this very well.
Basta now
Basta’s impressive experience in television brought him an offer of cooperation from the Match-TV channel in September of the same year. He was entrusted with becoming the host of a special episode of the program “Not About Fights”, the guest of which was kickboxer Khayal Dzhaniev.
There are not many artists in domestic hip-hop who have managed to overcome the psychological barrier, beyond which is work for a wide audience. Basta is one of them. Today he has three albums, solid sales and completely new creative projects.
And just recently it seemed to have been written off. But I found the strength to rewrite my destiny completely.
About ten years ago this man in his native Rostov-on-Don was called Basta Oink or Basta Bastilio. Having started together in Kastoy (their album “In Full Action” contains the very old “First Strike” with the participation of Basta), this Rostov rapper quickly stepped aside and went his own way. Many rap fans from the southern regions remember with pleasure his track “My Game,” although this was not what people expected from Rostov hip-hop. However, it was a real success, albeit a local one. The cassette with these recordings was most actively replicated by pirates, performances appeared, and they began to be recognized on the streets.
Basta's acquaintance with music was early. He studied at a music school and entered the school's conducting department, where, however, he did not stay. At high school age, Basta was already interested in rap.
“Hip-hop attracted me with its alternativeness and its share of protest,” recalls Basta. - At that time I led a peculiar lifestyle - I ran away from home, wandered, walked. And now we see young people and clubs, but at that time hip-hop was such a rebellious culture. And there was a lot of tension over clothes and appearance. But I really liked it. And I liked the music itself. They say that Wu-Tang is popular in Rostov, but this group did not impress me then. The sensations from Das EFX “Hold It Down” were much stronger.
Rostov in the late 90s was not at all some kind of super-advanced place in terms of hip-hop. There was little information, but its lack was more than compensated by the desire to build this mysterious and attractive culture here.
“We held the first hip-hop party in my memory at the Two Night club at the art school,” Basta recalls of the founders of the genre in his native area. - Tamtam from the group 2XL made the party obsolete; it was actually the first rapper group, and Vladi participated in it. 2XL had a hit “Right now as soon as I jump.” Vladi made music for them. There was the first party, Psycholyric performed - this is Vladi, Tidan and Shymmi. I performed, we had such a community called Street Sounds. There was a representative delegation from Aksay - Panama, Kalyan. And they are in camouflage, seriously dressed up. At those parties, essentially only performers gathered, but there were a lot of them. Somewhere they got themselves wide trousers - “tubes”, in general they were in style. There were no clubs in the current sense, but rappers found their places based on their interests. For example, “Draft”, even mentioned in “My Game”, Rastafarians, drug addicts in a positive sense, gathered there ... "
Then Basta seemed to disappear from sight. There were rumors that he was stuck. I didn't want to believe in them.
“There were drugs, it’s just not mentioned,” says Basta about the reasons for that uncreative pause. - You could say it was a difficult period in my life. I also wrote songs during this period, just very few and they practically didn’t go anywhere. Although “So Spring Cries” is a song from this period.”
“In the period from 1996 to 2001, the songs of the first album were written,” Basta continues the story of how his musical arsenal was replenished. - We didn’t have such a prospect then. The late Igor Zhelezka and I did this. We didn't really plan anything. Well, they hoped that we would now record some tracks and they would blow up. Those recordings didn’t cause such a big resonance.”
A new round of the spiral began to unfold in 2005 in Moscow. Basta appeared on NEXT radio, both as part of the “Rap-Story” section and with new tracks. Basta appeared at local parties. Now Basta (now Basta, without any endings) collaborated with the Gazgolder club, and it was from here that he began to pave a new route of attack on hip-hop and show business.
“In 2002, we set up our own studio in Rostov, where I restored old songs and added new ones,” Basta describes his intricate routes. - Some kind of compilation was formed, which we distributed to everyone. In Krasnodar, this disc fell into the hands of Bogdan Titomir, who first called and offered to buy several songs. I said that I don’t sell my songs. And three months later, not without Bogdan’s help, the opportunity arose to move to Moscow to specifically engage in recording and releasing an album.”
At the invitation of Titomir, Basta joined the creative association Gazgolder, which released his first album “Basta I”. The disc was released in 2006 and caused mixed reactions. For sophisticated rappers, he turned out to be simple, but he definitely hit the masses. According to Basta himself, “people’s recognition of themselves in these tracks turned out to be very high.” Videos were shot for several songs at once - on their own; for the most part they were distributed via the Internet. “Basta I” showed stable and confident sales, which attracted the interest of the Monolit company to release his second record.
“The first album was good: it was truly spontaneous,” Basta assesses. - That is, it was the dictate of the soul, or something. There were the most naive but honest songs. It is childish, in the good sense of the word, and genuine. The second one is also genuine, but there is more awareness of what needs to be talked about. Most of this material had already been recorded in Moscow. He’s, let’s say, more mature.”
In fact, the new album, called “Basta 2,” was listened to completely differently. It is more diverse, the range of topics covered is much wider, but the essence that attracted listeners in the first record is not lost. Rather, it is presented with a new sauce. “Basta 2,” released in August 2007, according to the publishing company Monolit, sold 50,000 copies in two months. And this is without clips and radio rotations. The number should grow, because Basta has at least one more trump card up his sleeve - a video is being shot for a joint track with the super-popular Maxim “Our Summer”. A more orthodox audience should be interested in the video for the updated “My Game”, recorded with the participation of Guf. And this is not all that Basta can boast of in the future. After all, there is also an alternative project by Noggano (“the project of a drug addict, rowdy, foul-mouthed, womanizer and bastard”). There are the films “Tea Drunkard” and “Ditches” made by the “Gasgolder” association - Basta writes soundtracks for them, and also plays in the first of them.
Basta (real name and surname - Vasily Mikhailovich Vakulenko) is a prominent representative of rap in Russia. Vasily Vakulenko is a singer, actor, TV presenter, radio host, producer, director. In addition to the pseudonym Basta, the singer is known under the creative names Noggano and Nintendo. Rapper Basta is also the owner of the Gazgolder label.
Childhood and education of Vasily Vakulenko
The biography on the Find Out Everything website states that Basta’s father was a military man.
Vasily’s parents noticed his musical abilities in early childhood. On the initiative of his grandmother, the boy was sent to a music school. There, unlike a regular school, Vasily studied well and made obvious progress.
Basta’s biography says that almost everyone in his family were military personnel. Both grandfathers served in the armed forces - one in the artillery, the other in the civil defense forces. Vasily’s father served in the missile forces, his uncle was a helicopter pilot and fought in Afghanistan. Another uncle served at the Baikonur cosmodrome. Even Vasily’s mother worked as an economist in a military unit. But Vasily did not gravitate toward military service; the future rap star was drawn to creativity.
Having matured a little, the future rapper began to get involved in Wu-Tang Clan, Ol" Dirty Bastards and Busta Rhymes. At the age of fifteen, the guy first tried to rap. He succeeded, and Basta began to improve in this direction, deciding to make a career as a rapper.
At the same time, Basta’s musical education did not work out. After school, Vasily Vakulenko entered the music school in the conducting department. However, after the first year he realized that this was not for him.
School No. 32, where Vasily Vakulenko studied, is located in a difficult area, between Rabochiy Gorodok and Nakhalovka, two well-known villages in Rostov. “Basta’s texts are vital because they are imbued with one’s own experience and experiences. And yet, they are very patriotic towards Rostov,” about Basta in the media.
In his youth, Vasily Vakulenko was also a sexton, served at divine services and rang bells. Basta also began singing in church - in the church choir. It was then that he met Mikhail Osyak, who is now Bishop of Gatchina and Luga Mitrofan. In 2016, the clergyman invited the rapper to a service in honor of his birthday; Vasily took part in the Divine Liturgy in the Pavlovsk Cathedral of Gatchina, before his concert in St. Petersburg.
Basta's career in show business
In 1997, Vasily Vakulenko came up with the pseudonym Basta Oink. At this time, he became a member of the rap group “Psycholirik”, later renamed “Casta”. With the participation of Basta, the group recorded the album “First Strike” (1997). But a year later Basta left the group.
When Basta turned 18, he wrote the song “My Game,” which he considers the best in his work. Basta felt popular, after which Vasily began to actively work as a musician, performing concerts in Rostov and along the entire Black Sea coast, in the Krasnodar Territory, and in the cities of the North Caucasus.
In the photo: musician Vasily Vakulenko (Basta) during a performance at the international music festival KUBANA (Photo: Artem Geodakyan/TASS)
For some time Basta he left the stage, but returned in 2002 when his friend Yuri Volos(aka Zhora) proposed creating a home recording studio. But none of the producers decided to collaborate with little-known rappers. In search of a label that would take them under its wing, the young rappers moved to Moscow.
The singers were lucky. Basta's demo disc (Vasily Vakulenko renamed himself Basta Bastilio) was caught Bogdan Titomir.
The popular musician became Basta's producer under the auspices of Gazgolder. Basta’s first album, “Basta 1,” was released under this label, which included 19 solo tracks by Vasily. The album includes “My Game,” which Basta traditionally performs at every concert. Then Basta released the first video “Autumn”, then the video “Once and For All” appeared.
In subsequent years, Basta worked a lot. In 2007, he released his second album, “Basta 2,” and with it came the expressive video works: “Our Summer,” “So Spring Cries,” “Inner Fighter.” The record's circulation of 50 thousand copies was sold out in 90 days. In the same year, foreign computer game developers from Rockstar became interested in Basta, and Basta’s song “Mama” was featured in Grand Theft Auto IV, released in April 2008.
Basta’s biography on the Find Out Everything website says that Vakulenko became a co-owner of the Gazgolder label. Soon a new pseudonym appeared in his work - Noggano. Noggano's new tracks featured a tougher, more daring and nihilistic hip-hop. Noggano, according to Vasily Vakulenko himself, is “a hooligan project. He is a swearer, a womanizer and a bastard. Asocial and immoral type." Naturally, the audience of Basta and Noggano, although these are characters of the same person, is slightly different: Basta’s is more decent, Noggano’s is “tougher”.
In 2008, Noggano shot a video for a song with the palindromic name “City of Roads” and received the MTV Russia Music Awards as “best performer from the Internet.”
Under a new name, Vasily Vakulenko released three albums: “First” (2008), “Warm” (2009), “Unreleased” (2010).
In 2010, the joint work “Basta/Guf” appeared - a record in a gray booklet and virtually without a title.
After some time, Vasily Vakulenko became interested in writing. He liked writing scripts. Basta actively took up a new business for him, and soon viewers saw his work called “Fairy Tales for Adults.”
In 2010, Basta received the Muz-TV award for the song “Turn Around,” and he was also awarded as “best hip-hop project.”
In the photo: musician Vasily Vakulenko (Basta), who won in the category "Best Hip-Hop Project", at the ceremony of presenting the annual national television award in the field of popular music "MUZ-TV" (Photo: Mikhail Japaridze/TASS)
In 2011, Basta delighted his fans with his new album “Nintendo,” which amazed him with its unusual “cyber-gang” style.
Also in 2015, Vasily Vakulenko won the nomination “Best Hip-Hop Artist” at the First Russian National Music Award.
In the photo: musician Vasily Vakulenko (Basta) (right), winner of the “Best Hip-Hop Project” nomination, at the ceremony of presenting the First Russian National Music Award (Photo: Vyacheslav Prokofiev/TASS)
In 2016, it became known that Basta became one of the mentors of the fourth season of the “Voice” project, and he was accompanied by Polina Gagarina, Alexander Gradsky And Grigory Leps.
At the end of 2016, Basta became the main star of Rostov-on-Don, after the head of the administration of the Don capital Sergey Gorban solemnly he received two medals at once - “For services to the city of Rostov-on-Don” and “185 years of Andrei Matveevich Baikov.” These two new awards, on the initiative of Gorban, were established last year, exactly on the 266th anniversary of the city.
Vasily often performs with other representatives of Russian show business. Together with the group “Nerves,” Basta released the video “With Hope for Wings.” Basta’s creative union with singer Polina Gagarina was also successful. Fans were impressed by the songs “The whole world is not enough for me without you” and “Voice”. In 2016, Basta and Polina Gagarina also created the composition “Angel of Faith.”
In general, Basta never ceases to amaze his fans with the variety of themes of his concerts. Here he is with the singer Alena Omargalieva introduced the listeners to the composition “I rise above the ground,” and suddenly surprised them with the performance of Soviet songs. Basta’s original work was a cover version of the song “Dark Night”, which was once performed in the film “Two Fighters” performed by Mark Bernes.
The single “The Master and Margarita” is one of Basta’s last works; the song became the soundtrack to the feature film “Me and Uda. Redemption".
The album “Basta 5, Part 1,” which, according to Vasily Vakulenko, included compositions composed by him over the past three years, appeared on the Apple Music service on April 19, 2016. As a media outlet, Basta took the top positions in both Russian iTunes ratings. His new album “Basta 5, Part 1” took first place in the album chart. Among the songs on the song chart, Basta’s creation also took first place - the single “Voice”, which Vasily Vakulenko recorded together with Polina Gagarina.
In April 2017, Basta presented a new video - “Sansara”. The song itself was dedicated to family values, and rock musicians took part in its recording Diana Arbenina, Alexander Sklyar, Sergei Bobunets And Andrey Zaporozhets(SunSay). The video used real photographs of little Basta and his friends.
Basta in the cinema
Basta often appears in films. Back in 2008, Basta tried himself as a screenwriter, director, producer and actor. This happened during the filming of his film "The Tea Drunkard". Then there were cameos and small appearances in the films “Ditches”, “Pruha”, dubbing. In 2013, Basta took part in the project “Vladimir Mayakovsky. Third wheel".
In 2014, the creative association "Gazgolder" released a full-length film of the same name, in which Basta played the main role.
In 2015, Basta recorded the soundtrack to the film Petra Buslova"Motherland". This film tells about the fate of Russians who find themselves in the famous Indian resort of Goa. “The Russian share, we have every right to this share in the share. The homeland will not let go, it gave birth to it itself, and will strangle it itself,” - this is how Basta feels about a person living in a foreign land, but still yearning for his native Russian expanses.
In 2015, film news reported on the filming of a new film from Gas Holder, Klubare. Basta wrote the music for the film and took part in the filming.
Vasily Vakulenko is the owner of the Gazgolder clothing brand.
At the end of 2014, Vasily Vakulenko purchased a black Cadillac Escalade. The Rostov rapper liked one of the most famous and expensive American jeeps so much that Basta did not spare a pretty tidy sum. The photo of the “boar Kadi,” as Basta dubbed his new acquisition, received tens of thousands of likes on the musician’s page on the social network.
Basta's personal life
From Basta’s biography it is known that he met his wife Elena by chance. The initiative was taken by the girl herself, a longtime fan of the rapper’s work.
In the photo: Basta with his wife Elena (Photo: Sergey Bobylev/TASS)
Elena is the daughter of a famous journalist Tatiana Pinskaya living in France. At first, the future mother-in-law, seeing the brutal rapper in tattoos, was horrified, but after reading his lyrics, she changed her anger to mercy. The woman agreed that the guy is very talented. Basta wrote soundtracks for Pinskaya's documentaries about artists Erika Bulatov And Oscar Rabin. Basta's father-in-law, Dmitry Pinsky, runs the DP-trade company, which deals with expensive wines.
In 2009, Vasily Vakulenko and Elena Pinskaya legalized their relationship. On December 4, 2009, Vasily and Elena gave birth to their first daughter, Maria. Three years later, another daughter, Vasilisa, was born.
In the photo: Basta with his daughters (Photo: instagram.com/bastaakanoggano)
Basta loves and sings about pu-erh tea.
Vasily Vakulenko often shares photos on Instagram, where he has more than 2 million subscribers.
America and its black population have given the world a huge number of wonderful discoveries: fast and fast dancing, amazing basketball, cute hairstyles and, of course, rap. It is this culture that has gained millions of fans. It is worth remembering the black singer TuPac Shakur. Inspired by his work, his imitators began to appear on the stages of clubs and small venues. Many of them grew into mature, self-sufficient performers: Eminem, Dr. Dre and others.
Rap and life of Vakulenko Vasily
The Russian stage also boasts successful rappers. One of them is the singer Basta. The biography of this performer began far from musical culture, and his name was by no means so original. Vasily Vakulenko (as the now popular rapper was called at birth) was born in Rostov-on-Don in the year of the Olympics, 1980. His parents were far from the creative sphere - they were military men. Ordinary and music school are closely intertwined in the life of the singer with the rebellious name Basta. Biography, personal life - all this has a rap flavor. Already at the age of 15, a young man organizes his own group and actively strives to understand such a cultural direction as hip-hop.
Basta's first hits
Being quite open and honest, Basta does not see himself as anything other than a rapper. After graduating from school, he entered the music school in the conducting department. However, after the first year of study, the young man left the institution. Under the influence of Wu-tanc clan, Busta Rhymes and other popular rap groups of that time, the singer finds his own style. In 1997, the hit “City” began to be heard on Rostov radio, written and performed by Basta. The singer's biography begins to sparkle with the beats and rhythms of rap. A year later, at the age of 18, the young man releases a new masterpiece - the composition “My Game”. This song blew up the charts not only in Rostov, but throughout southern Russia. It's hard to argue with the success of this masterpiece. It is worth looking at the lists of modern popular songs, and you will definitely see this track in them. From that time on, the concert life of the singer and his close, now deceased friend, Igor Zhelezka, began. The tour was only in the south of the country. Then a tragic event happened: Igor died. After this, the singer disappeared for several long years for fans.
Re-takeoff
In 2002, a close friend of Yuri Volos received a proposal to revive the Rostov rap idol “Basta”. The singer's biography begins to emit sounds again. A studio was created at home, and new tracks appeared. Although no one doubted the performer’s talent, there was no one willing to produce him. And only the fans, who had been waiting for his return for so long, gave the singer new strength. And he left to conquer the capital.
For a long time, Basta and Yuri Volos tried to enlist the support of some company, but step by step they were overtaken by failures. In honor of those difficult days, a song was written about “dreadful labels” and “lack of chances.”
However, Moscow believed in them and gave them luck in the person of Bogdan Titomir, who introduced the creative association “Gazgolder” to a singer named Basta. The artist’s biography begins a new round, and all of Russia already knows the talented rapper from Rostov. Then the first full-fledged project "Hyperlink" was born. Critics were delighted with this creation, and the large company Monolit set its sights on “adopting” the Basta group. The new album released by this holding did not cause such a strong reaction from the public as the previous tracks, not written to order. The cooperation stopped.
The lyrical image created by the singer was not entirely to his taste. And as a result, the emergence of two new performers: Noggano and Nintendo. The success of all three was confirmed by time. The singer is happily married to his longtime fan from Rostov, Elena Pinskaya. The couple has a daughter, Masha.
