In recent years, the Russian rap scene has been on the rise - the popularity of battles is growing, new stars like Scryptonite and Pharaoh are appearing, and the Gazgolder label is experiencing another wave of success. However, we are still a long way from an American industry focused on the cult of consumption and expensive cars, and rap artists who are rightfully considered one of the richest people in the United States. But at the same battles, Russian rappers continue to accuse their opponents of poverty, and in their songs they often focus on their lifestyle, either saying that they are dressed “like homeless people,” or talking about an unprecedented increase in wealth and the purchase of branded items.
The Village spoke with three young artists - Galat, Booker D. Fred and Redo, who only recently abandoned boring jobs in favor of creative earnings, and found out how much you can earn from battles and why you should not come to the rap industry for money.
Galat (Vladimir)
I’ve been making music professionally for about three or four years, and I started with street battles, which later reached some unreal proportions.
The whole of Russia is mired in them, they even talk about it on TV. Well, I am one of those who simply gathered with the boys on the street in St. Petersburg and moved along this line.
In November I will release my first full-length album, and before that I mostly threw around unprofessional releases and battled again.
I studied at college to become a lawyer, specializing in social security law. Then I entered the university as a correspondence student, now in my last year. Most likely, I will get a diploma, although there were, of course, thoughts of giving up everything and devoting myself only to music.
My first job happened when I was 17 years old as an office manager in a law office. Mostly I sat on calls and helped manage business. I didn't have much success with this job because they considered me a staff lawyer, even though I had just graduated from college. I was tasked with checking documents before the trial, and, of course, I messed up. As a result, the office got the money, and I was kicked out. The funny thing is that I directly told them that I was not qualified enough. In short, it's their own fault.
Then he worked in various call centers on cold calls, and was involved in the distribution of goods. I negotiated the delivery of frozen cutlets to supermarkets and stuff like that. He was a printer's assistant, and then a printer, putting prints on T-shirts, but that didn't last longer than a month.
Ghostwriting makes me the most money- prices are low, but there are really a lot of orders
And finally, there was the place where I stayed the longest: a company that issues building permits. It was opened by a friend who invited me to the position of client acquisition manager, and I rose well: I made more than 100 thousand a month. He left there because he went to the hospital and decided to devote himself entirely to music. Clients for ghostwriting just appeared (writing texts to order. - Ed.), and they started paying for battles. Of course, not all battle participants receive money, but if the artist is famous, they pay him well. I battled in different ways - both paid and free. In any case, this is not exorbitant money and not the main source of income.
Ghostwriting brings me the most money - the prices are low, but there are really a lot of orders. Mostly aspiring rappers write, and texts are ordered for both songs and battles. I also sell my tracks on iTunes - this brings something, but less than the same ghostwriting. Selling merch is more profitable. We try to make T-shirts in small batches so that they sell out immediately.
After I started making money only from rap, my money became better, but it was an unstable income. Sometimes it’s really good, but sometimes you have to be homeless for a week. But mostly I don't complain.
Concerts bring in good money. After the release of the album, I will have a tour throughout Russia - probably quite profitable. I never wanted to work as a lawyer, I just had to. Making money through creativity is much more pleasant.
There is a huge difference in money between the American and Russian rap industries. There you can earn a lifetime from one track or make money from views on YouTube. Our transfers are much smaller. Ghostwriting, merch, concerts - this is how rappers in Russia make money.
I don't like the hype around money in the texts. I like to read about things that really touch the soul, no matter how snotty it may sound. But many people pick up on American traditions and read about the amounts they would like to earn, somewhat embellishing them. In the USA this is normal practice; no one will tell you that you are homeless and eat instant noodles. Such a person simply will not be understood.
I had many offers from labels, and they all consisted simply of the need to share money with them. Everything that Russian labels offer, you can easily do yourself. I have a manager, Vlad, a guy who is only 19 years old, but he handles all organizational issues alone. If the manager has brains, no label is needed.
Booker (Fedor)
I started rapping when I was 16, and at first I just wrote poems, like many teenagers. One day I looked at what the people around me were doing in the genre and thought I could kick some ass. Plus, there was some kind of need for creativity and self-realization, and over time it transformed into a career as a rap artist. This career brings me money.
I graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg State University with a degree in applied ethics. Unfortunately, with such an education you can only become a teacher. When I entered, they predicted mountains of jobs for us, but, naturally, this turned out to be untrue.
I quit my regular job about two months ago and since then I’ve only been doing rap. I, like any young person faced with the need to earn money after university, had many different jobs. I was a waiter, a bartender, an administrator, and a salesperson - such fairly accessible professions. But despite the fact that there were prospects for development and pleasant bands, I realized that if I gave myself completely to music, I could earn more.
I tried to release tracks even before the battles, but it was the battles that became a powerful catalyst for me, because I participated in almost all similar projects in Russia. I saw 200 battles live and more than 300 on video. For participation in some battles they can pay from 15 to 50 thousand, but the money is not offered immediately, and this does not happen regularly. This is not a stable income, but such fees can help a lot at a certain point.
This October I had my first two solo concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg. They went well, we gathered about 100-120 people in both cities. For most Russian rappers, concerts become the main source of income, because our albums do not sell well due to copyright problems. And for these two concerts we managed to earn a little less than 50 thousand rubles. But you can get much more. Concerts are your bread and butter and caviar if you are a famous rap artist.
I graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg State University with a degree in applied ethics. Unfortunately, with such an education you can only become a teacher
I've never been able to make money ghostwriting, and that's sad. This is its own sphere with special laws, into which it was necessary to join a little earlier. But I know that many guys write lyrics for very famous artists. For people who cannot tour constantly, this is the main source of income. In Russia there is a special attitude towards ghostwriting: it is supposedly something unworthy. In the West, huge teams of such people work with artists, and everyone knows about it, but they don’t pay attention.
There is a huge difference between American and Russian mentalities in the rap sphere. This kind of creativity is done by really average guys from the ghetto and very poor families, even if you remember Desiigner with the track “Panda”. Every guy like this has a fixed idea: to earn a lot of money and show superiority over those around him. Hence these grillz, heaps of gold jewelry and so on. And the earnings models themselves in Russian and American rap are significantly different. Because there are labels there that provide a lot of money, and also headhunters who snatch out young talented guys and help them develop.
In our country, 90% of rappers are self-made, they organize concerts themselves, make merch and everything like that. Even though Russian rap has made big strides forward in recent years, I still feel like I'm part of a group of enthusiasts.
In the West, a huge number of tops of the richest rappers are compiled, who at the same time are respected. Who are we? Timati? Basta, maybe. But Basta is a folk musician with the image of a reserved person who does not flex on his income. Lately, he generally gives the impression of an exemplary family man, a guy in a big jeep who solves business issues. This image of a simple Rostov guy is much closer to a Russian person.
Maybe I’m an idealist, but I think that you don’t need to come to rap for money: it’s creativity. If you want money, please go into business. The same Timati is not engaged in creativity, but in business, in my opinion. You can earn much more by opening a small business or selling drugs than by rapping.
Redo (Nikita)
I started playing music six years ago, listening to Eminem and Tech N9ne. Then they told me about grime and I just went crazy. It felt like this was a professional rap league where only the best of the best were recruited. At one of the entries, the guys forced me to read the texts written on the table, and were very surprised that I had not written it down yet. That's how it all started.
I didn’t have much success with my studies: I studied to become a physical chemist, but dropped out in my third year. My head was full of music, so I was *** in my studies and couldn’t really pay attention to other things. When you're constantly thinking about rap, it's hard to do the triple integral at the same time. Plus, my university was not in Moscow, so there were problems with electric trains, which also led to absenteeism. But my only regret is that I didn’t drop out after the first year - I don’t see myself in this field at all.
I had to make a living somehow, so I hung around and worked as a bartender. Just thought I love booze and coffee. Who else can I work with? I really wanted to learn how to make different cocktails - to get confused, earn money and put a mini-bar at home. People will come to register, and you don’t offer them tea and coffee, but a daiquiri with Long Island. But I always came across bitchy female administrators who stood over my soul and got in the way, so I never stayed anywhere for more than two months. Once I poured some coffee for a guy and he thanked me.
And in the evening I open VKontakte, and there a guy without an avatar asks: “What? Doesn’t rap feed you anymore?” Well, I realized that I need to continue to earn money somehow more safely.
Then I started doing design, but finding clients and creating a portfolio turned out to be difficult and time-consuming. Mainly I made logos, business cards, brochures, landing pages, and did a little merchandising. From time to time we managed to fail large orders, for example, design for the MEPhI baseball club - logo, uniform and everything else. Then they offered to do the same for Moscow State University, but something didn’t work out. This brought in money, but it took a lot of time to find new orders. Then I decided to engage in design only in the musical direction. In the end, something fell through, but our industry is very poor, and for the cover of the track they paid about 300 rubles. However, interest in this topic remains, so I create covers for my releases myself.
I also spent a long time looking for a job as a full-time designer and eventually found a small office where I always had one, which was very cool. And people usually came to make some kind of lousy business card or announcement. Do you know what traditions are in Russian design? They came and asked to write something in red letters on the blue air conditioner. But I came across people who came for business cards, and then ordered something from me privately. Not a lot of money, but enough to drink coffee.
But now music feeds me exclusively, and this is how I have been living for the last six months.
And in the evening I open VKontakte,
A there's a guy without an avatar asking: “What? Doesn’t rap feed you anymore?”
Of course, this is not a regular income of 60 or 70 thousand rubles a month. But I don’t chase sums and am content with the subsistence level, thanks to which I can have a roof over my head, put something on myself and feed myself. I rent housing on the outskirts of Moscow; I have already changed four houses this year - it’s a very nomadic way of life, which has become quite boring. But I have a huge amount of free time that I can spend on music. I don’t want to run and look for an extra thousand.
All my money comes from concerts and raves. Previously he performed at Smena, now at the Four by Four and Grime Ting parties. You get from 5 to 15 thousand rubles for performances. Previously, raves were more frequent, about two or three performances a month, but they didn’t pay that much.
And now they pay more, but there are fewer offers. I remember when at the very beginning we came to the Editorial Office, there were 20 people there, and when we started reading, someone left. Nowadays you can easily gather 100 people at a rave, and everyone gets into the theme, especially in St. Petersburg.
Now I'm waiting for money from iTunes: my album stayed in the top charts for three weeks and then disappeared completely. But this is normal, because there were no news feeds. And all year I was fed by merch. When his first batch came out, I gave away several T-shirts to fashionistas so that other people would look at them and buy them. As a result, the clothes sold out very well.
You can make money in Russian rap, but the amount of money depends on the general level of cultural development. Previously, no one cared about battles, but after videos with millions of views, many more people became interested in rap. Many performers complain that they used to gather 100 knowledgeable people, but now half a thousand come who don’t understand anything at all, just for the hype. Plus Restaurateur (Alexander “Restaurateur” Timartsev, organizer of the Versus battle. - Ed.) started paying for battles. Previously, we could only dream about this. Five years ago, only a couple of musicians were making money on rap, but now a low-level layer of hype boys gathers hundreds of people at concerts and somehow also makes money.
In Russia there is not much point in collaborating with labels. In essence, an uncle comes to you who does not help, but simply asks for 60% of the profit. Now the label is not so important as your booking team and manager. We have moved closer to the publishing structure in America, where the writer has an agent. Although, of course, there are labels that open doors for you. So Scriptonite got into the “Gas Holder” and made great progress. But before, a label was a prerequisite for an artist, because it provided a huge number of opportunities: CD sales, studios, recording, organizing concerts, videos. Now both the designer and the producer of the clips can be found via the Internet.
cover: Mitjushin / provided by the artist
Rapper Basta, who is already at the top of the Russian “musical Olympus,” has made further achievements. The 35-year-old native of Rostov-on-Don, about whose fate and path to the world of show business we have already written, based on the results of 2015, was recognized as the performer of the year in mobile applications according to Yandex. Music."
Star year for Basta
Vasily Vakulenko, as Basta is actually called, has become the most popular domestic hip-hop artist. By the way, two weeks earlier, on December 10, Vasily Vakulenko won the nomination “Best Hip-Hop Artist” at the First Russian National Music Award. Basta managed to beat other Russian rap stars, including his fellow countrymen the group “Casta”, Timati, and Dzhigan. “Thank you to all our people for their faith and support. Thanks to all members of the Gazgolder team. BandaGaza is a family, a team,” wrote the musician’s associates in the “Gazgolder” project on the social network.
It looks like 2015 was a truly stellar year for the rapper. Of course - after all, this year Basta not only recorded another album - a collaboration with Smokey Mo, as well as the soundtrack to the film “Motherland” by Pyotr Buslov, but also marked his appearance on the jury of the project “The Voice” on Russian television. When Rostov-on-Don celebrated the next City Day, Basta became, without exaggeration, the main person of the festive evening, giving a concert on the city's Theater Square. At least 100 thousand Rostovites and guests of the city gathered to listen to the star fellow countryman.
Where's my black Cadillac
The end of autumn was also marked by Basta’s “automotive” successes. Thus, in early December it became known that Vasily Vakulenko purchased a black Cadillac Escalade. The Rostov rapper liked one of the most famous and expensive American jeeps so much that he did not spare a pretty tidy sum. According to some reports, the price for such a car in the top configuration can reach up to 11 million rubles. 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. Well, Basta is quite a wealthy person in order to afford to give himself such luxurious gifts.
Basta is no stranger to social issues. First of all, the one that worries him as a driver. So, on November 5, Vasily Vakulenko got stuck in one of the Moscow traffic jams. And then the musician came up with an interesting idea - to film a series of reports about Moscow traffic jams. The rapper filmed what was happening on a mobile phone camera, giving advice to drivers and passengers of cars on the desired behavior during forced downtime on Moscow streets. Basta began posting the footage on the Internet.
The first rapper in Russian "Forbes»
It is known that Vasily Vakulenko is included in the list of “fifty celebrities” of Forbes magazine. This rating includes Russian stars of music, cinema, and sports. In 2015, according to the magazine, Basta’s income amounted to $3.3 million. In the prestigious list, Vasily Vakulenko occupies 26th position. The three main criteria on the basis of which the rating is compiled remain interest in the celebrity among users of the Global Wide Web, the level of total income for the year, and media attention to the celebrity. Well, Vasily Vakulenko’s income, despite the crisis, has really grown. So, in 2012, when Basta was included in the Forbes list, his income was only 0.5 million dollars, and in 2013 it rose to 2 million dollars. However, not only income, but also “exposure” in the media play an important role in compiling the rating. Thus, Nikita Mikhalkov, Ksenia Sobchak, Polina Gagarina, Kristina Orbakaite received much less income than Basta, but at the same time significantly exceeded him in terms of popularity.
Of the fifty top Russian celebrities, Basta is exactly “in the middle” - in 26th place. He, of course, is inferior to such figures as Maria Sharapova ($29.7 million), Philip Kirkorov ($10.4 million), Grigory Leps, but among Russian rappers he is the only one who managed to get into the elite list. Considering that Basta’s fortune and interest in his person among Internet users are growing every year, it is possible that in the coming year 2016 he will be able to take even higher positions on the Forbes list.
We should not forget that musical activity is far from the only area of interest of a public person. Thus, Vasily Vakulenko acts as a producer, director and actor. Back in 2014, the creative association “Gazgolder” created by Basta presented a film of the same name, in which Vasily Vakulenko played the main role. The film grossed $1.8 million at the domestic box office, which is a million less than the film's budget. In addition, Vasily Vakulenko is the owner of the Gazgolder clothing brand.
A little earlier, in October 2015, Basta filmed the soundtrack for Pyotr Buslov’s film “Motherland.” This film tells about the fate of Russians who find themselves in the famous Indian resort of Goa. The topic, by the way, is relevant - it is known that a large number of Russian citizens live in 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 conveys the feelings of a person living in a foreign land, but still yearning for his native Russian expanses. By the way, Basta’s new song was very fond of the Russian audience, especially in the wake of the rise in patriotic feelings observed in connection with well-known foreign policy events. So, there is nothing unusual in Basta’s success as a musical performer.
Photo: Gennady Gulyaev / Kommersant
On Sunday evening, Novy Arbat is not crowded. Passers-by lazily stroll along the street until they come across a local landmark - the line at Black Star Burger. The restaurant opened in September 2016 and is in demand among fans of the brand, who are willing to wait hours for a burger for 195 rubles. The queues are the most striking example of the hype that the founders of the Black Star label Timati (Timur Yunusov), Pavel Kuryanov (Pasha) and Walter Chassem caught.
The Black Star office in the center of Moscow has an ascetic design, no “luxury”. At the reception there are two stacks of papers - “for Timati’s signature” and “for Pasha’s signature”; in Pasha’s office there is a mourning poster in memory of the deceased DJ Dlee (Alexey Tagantsev), a shelf with music awards, a portrait of his wife and a wooden chessboard. 33-year-old Kuryanov is the CEO of Black Star, he determines the group’s development strategy. The wall opposite his desk is covered with printouts with analytics on artist audiences. Next to it, current and future projects under the Black Star brand are listed in a column - 15 in total.
The driver of business growth remains the label, Pasha says in a conversation with RBC magazine. According to SPARK-Interfax, in 2015, the revenue of the music business tripled, to 142 million rubles, and the Black Star Clothing Line (develops Black Star Wear stores and sells a franchise in Russia and the CIS countries) almost doubled times, up to 385 million rubles. Revenues for both businesses grew last year, Pashu said, with the label outpacing the Clothing Line. And in 2017, the financial champion of the holding will be the Black Star Burger chain, which will add at least two restaurants by the end of the year, Pasha promises.
The total revenue of the Black Star group of companies at the end of 2017 will exceed 1 billion rubles, RBC magazine calculated. In addition to music, clothing and burgers, the group includes the marketing communications agency Global Star, music business software developer Make It Music, barbershop and tattoo studio 13 by Black Star, football agency Black Star Sport, and gaming company BS Gaming. A virtual mobile operator, beverage production and other projects are at the launch stage. The group employs about 600 people. Timati and Pasha own shares in almost all legal entities of the group.
Rapper Timati (Photo: TASS)
Hot dog and Dr Pepper
Tens of millions of rubles are parked at the Black Star office - Ferrari, Bentley, Mercedes are huddled in a cramped area, with gloomy bearded security guards wandering between them. The fleet belongs partly to the founders of Black Star, partly to the owners of the building, the Rudyak family of developers. Across the road from the office is Rudyakov’s main asset, the Atrium shopping complex near the Kursky railway station. The first Black Star clothing store opened there at one time. Pasha and Timati are friends with Ernest Rudyak, who manages the family business (Rudyak left no comment on his relationship with Black Star).
The founders of Black Star have long learned to use acquaintances to benefit business. Pasha and Timati became friends during their school years: they both went rollerblading and skateboarding on Manezhnaya Square. Timati grew up in a wealthy family, Pasha in the family of a metro worker and a kindergarten teacher.
Timati’s father is a non-public businessman Ildar Yunusov, allegedly a co-owner of the Swiss investment company Stratus Trade & Finance and a member of the board of directors of the oil pump manufacturer Art Pumping Technologies. Talks that Yunusov Sr. sponsored the start of his son’s career were repeatedly denied by Timati and Pasha. “My parents never gave him money. With my pocket money we bought one hot dog for two and a can of Dr Pepper,” recalls Pasha.
Timati's business partner and best friend is rapper Pasha
Timati became interested in hip-hop as a child and introduced a friend to it. Soon both got a job on the team of producer Alexander Tolmatsky, who was making his son Kirill a rap star Decl. In the shadow of someone else's fame, the friends quickly got bored; their first independent project was organizing parties in the Marika and Most clubs. Later, they launched their own establishments as promoters - B-Club and Black October Bar. “Everyone around was relaxing, and Tim and Pasha were plowing. When someone laughed at the fact that the “majors” were running a business, I said: a little time will pass, and the guys will do everything,” recalls a longtime acquaintance of the Black Star founders, Sergei Dok, now the manager of the barbershop and tattoo studio 13 by Black Star.
Organizing parties helped me make connections. One of his new acquaintances, producer Evgeny Orlov, invited Yunusov to “Star Factory 4.” Thanks to the TV project, the whole country learned about Timati; he signed a contract with Igor Krutoy’s ARS Records (musical director of the “Factory” season). Pasha remained close by, helping with organizing concerts, recording songs and other processes. In the mid-2000s, friends decided that hired work was again slowing down their development. According to Pasha, they had to go into debt, but they bought the contract for a “fantastic” amount at that time - $1 million.
Life after Timati
A portrait of 50 Cent hangs above Black Star COO Walter Chassem's desk. Walter, too, was once “connected with criminal people,” Pasha said in an interview with Rap.ru in 2006. Today, the native of Cameroon is the “soul” of the label, he has been with the company from the very beginning. At first, Chassem invested a lot in business development: he made his capital from football transfers, Pasha recalled in an interview with Company magazine. In 2006, a start-up label created by three friends released Timati’s debut solo album, Black Star. “The image of a black star was born to me back in 2001, when I observed an eclipse,” recalls Timati. There were already plans to diversify the business, but in the early years, not all ideas could be implemented due to a lack of experience and funds, Pasha admits.
A graduate of the International University with a degree in finance and credit, he quickly assessed the futility of development according to the canons of Russian show business: “I recorded a song, went around the country with concerts, stuffed money into my pockets - and that’s all.” Pasha also understood that it was necessary to move away from the connection between Black Star and Timati’s personality and look for new artists. But until 2012, the label’s turnover did not exceed $1 million, attempts to develop a non-musical direction failed, and only rapper Dzhigan was able to promote the artists (in 2014, he bought out the contract and left the label). “Pasha structured the processes, and I took care of the artists and my development,” says Timati. According to him, for the first three to four years he “carried” the business on himself and reinvested 80% of the profits into the company.
Business partner Timati Walter Chassem (Photo: Arseny Neskhodimov for RBC)
Consultant Ilya Kusakin helped Pasha set up business processes (he still conducts trainings for Black Star employees). Together they cut costs and built a sales system, for which the label is today praised even by its competitors. They managed to attract another acquaintance of Pasha and Timati from the world of big business to the list of shareholders - Evgeny Zubitsky, co-owner of the Industrial and Metallurgical Holding (No. 190 in the Russian Forbes ranking, fortune - $500 million; Zubitsky's representative left questions from RBC magazine without comment). The breakthrough came in 2012: the label signed Yegor Creed and L’One and hired Viktor Abramov, one of the most experienced managers on the rap scene, as creative director.
"Trushny" label
“If I find someone spreading rumors, I’ll rip their ass off!” — the question about “cheating” views of Black Star’s videos on YouTube causes an explosion of emotions in the creative director of the label. Abramov was one of the producers of “Caste”, launched Rap.ru and the TV show “Battle for Respect”, the finale of which was attended by Vladimir Putin. In 2012, Abramov agreed to come for an interview with Timati and Pasha - it was interesting how Black Star attracted the “craven” artist Levan Gorozia (L’One): “Before that, their commercial gloss confused me.” At a personal meeting, the producer became convinced that his views coincided with Pasha’s vision.
The new creative director helped the label change its strategy for working with artists. Today there are 13 artists on Black Star, three of them - Creed, L'One and Mot - compete in popularity with Timati. The label is looking for newcomers through the “Young Blood” casting; the final choice is always up to the founders. Black Star invests up to 15 million rubles in promoting a new recruit.
“Chuika” rarely lets Timati and Pasha down. For example, they considered Creed’s potential three years before the artist shot with the song “The Samaya.” The partners convinced Pasha to dump the performer, but he insisted on his own and hit the jackpot: in 2016, according to Forbes estimates, Creed earned more than Timati - $3.6 million. However, Pasha calls these estimates “unreliable.”
A more recent example of Black Star’s flexible policy towards artists is singer Klava Koka. At the casting, she captivated Abramov with her vocals and ability to play various instruments, and at first the label team came up with the type of “very pleasant artist” for her. But the project did not follow the rails of traditional show business: Klava’s songs were dropped on radio stations with the wording “non-format”, Black Star had to urgently change its positioning. The producers took notice of the popularity of Coca's Periscope broadcasts and decided to experiment with the vlog format. As a result, in less than six months, the singer turned into a “fast-growing blogger” with 250 thousand subscribers. Abramov, with a satisfied smile, sends “greetings” to Koka’s critics: “Our Klava is good and not vindictive. Me not".
With the arrival of Abramov, Timati’s more “adult” image also became an important element of Black Star’s positioning. We had to destroy the halo of the “golden youth” and look for “really big” songs, explains Abramov. Progress is noticeable in the concerts: if in 2012 Timati did not pack the 6,000-seat Crocus City Hall, then in November 2017 he will storm the 35,000-seat Olympic Stadium. Abramov explains the growth in popularity by the quality of the show, sound, marketing and rejects claims of “non-market” methods of promotion. “To get money from advertisers, [companies like Black Star] need a lot of subscribers. And if there is no organic growth, investing in social media is justified,” says Kirill Lupinos, head of the Effective Records label.
Timati also determines the socio-political reputation of Black Star. Loyalty to Vladimir Putin, friendship with Ramzan Kadyrov, patriotism, healthy lifestyle - these patterns are firmly attached to the artist. Timati's comrades either share his views or refer to his apoliticality. Healthy lifestyle propaganda only interferes with the signing of promising young people based on less traditional values, for example, rapper Pharaoh, notes Pasha.
Artist as an asset
Two young men with laptops are sitting on the sofa next to the reception desk in the Black Star office. They are constantly calling venue owners to sell performances by Black Star artists. “We don’t wait for people to come to us. We come ourselves,” explains Pasha. Artists are the core of Black Star’s “ecosystem” and a highly monetized commodity, he says. The label’s total audience on social networks is 33.2 million users, mainly Instagram and VKontakte.
To realize the advertising potential of artists, Black Star launched the Global Star agency in 2015. It was headed by Pavel Bazhenov, the label's ex-director of marketing. “All artists work in their own niche. For example, L’One is about motivation; in its promotion we focused on the sports component. Now he is a top rapper among football players and other athletes,” says the head of Global Star. Gorozia already has contracts with Nike and VTB United League. L"One himself believes that the label manages to maintain a balance between the interests of the artist and advertising activity. “No one forces you to sign up for uncomfortable projects,” says the rapper.
“For testing,” according to Bazhenov, advertisers often choose product placement in clips. When integrating a brand into videos, the agency uses all marketing resources associated with the artist. Given the power of "social capital", Global Star can guarantee, for example, 2-3 million views per month. The most striking projects of Global Star are Timati and the meme song for “Tantum Verde Forte”, Creed as the face of the Garnier multi-channel campaign, branding of Timati and L’One tour with “Vyatka kvass”, cooperation of L’One with KFC. About 70% of the agency’s projects in 2016 were Black Star contracts. Global Star receives a commission for mediation, its size is not disclosed, as is the agency’s revenue. According to Pashu, advertising accounts for up to 30% of Black Star's revenue.
Other stars are already turning to Global Star: the agency has introduced the Mercedes-Benz and R.O.C.S. brands. in Valeria's video. The singer’s producer Joseph Prigozhin was pleased: “The guys are advanced and talented.” True, it “seemed” to him that the agency fee was a little too high: the amount exceeded 20% of the advertiser’s budget. Bazhenov plans to increase the volume of third-party orders from Global Star to 50% already in 2017, primarily through contracts in the sports industry.
Gold veins
Pasha decided to create clothes under the Black Star Wear brand back in the mid-2000s: “I started this direction myself, invested all my savings, about 6 million rubles, in the delivery of the first product, and 90% of the batch turned out to be defective.” As a result, it took almost ten years to establish the business: I had to go into debt (“they only paid it off last year”), use connections (the first store opened in the Atrium shopping center Rudyakov) and hit the big time in production abroad. When the ruble devalued in 2014, Pasha decided to move the production capacity to Russia: now almost the entire range is sewn at a factory near the center of Moscow. The Black Star Wear network has grown to 40 points (its own and franchise), some of them in the CIS countries. The label’s artists are involved in the clothing business: in stores you can buy collections in the development of which Timati and Mot participated, and L’One is also working on its own line.
Pasha is confident that at the end of 2017, both the music business and retail will be overtaken in terms of revenue by a new “gold mine” - Black Star Burger (BS Burger). Since the fall of 2016, the company has opened two restaurants - on Novy Arbat and Tsvetnoy Boulevard, both of which had a hype effect. “This is the second line in public catering in 25 years, after McDonald’s,” laughs Abramov. They invested 20 million rubles in the first point. (the money was recovered in three months), in the second - 25 million rubles. On peak days, one restaurant prepares 3 thousand burgers.
Ex-shareholder of the First Republican Bank Yuri Levitas came to Black Star two years ago with the idea of a fast food chain. He developed a “unique” recipe for preparing meat for burgers and asked Pasha for a long time to meet Timati. He gave in on the condition that there would be a vegetarian burger on the menu. According to legend, Levitas brought a grill to the first meeting at the Black Star office and cooked a burger for Timati there.
One of the reasons for the success of BS Burger is the secret recipe, Levitas is sure, other “ingredients” of the hype are speed (order in four minutes) and price. BS Burger occupies a niche between McDonald’s and more expensive burger joints: Levitas calculated the cost of a cheeseburger so that the product would cost 100 rubles. cheaper than competitors, and slightly more expensive than the world's most popular fast food. “For you, these hundred rubles are nothing, but for many they are of great importance,” he says. With a burger costing 195 rubles. average bill - 700-800 rubles. In 2017, up to five new restaurants will open in Moscow and one in Grozny. The latest BS Burger will be developed jointly with developer Movsadi Alviev, co-investor of the Akhmat Kadyrov Foundation. Levitas dreams of opening a restaurant in all major cities of the country.
The bet on the label’s audience has worked: Timati regularly makes burger promos on Instagram. “It’s not surprising that people come after he lovingly films videos of him eating, and the juice flowing down his beard and hands in black gloves,” says Abramov. Timati calls BS Burger his favorite project. “We won’t stop at burgers,” he says. The chain will grow into a division of Black Star Foods. It will include an ice cream parlour, coffee shops and a steakhouse, Timati lists.
It is impossible to calculate hype: this phenomenon does not have a mathematical formula, Levitas admits. Artists from the label often come to BS Burger, Black Star Radio plays in the halls, and clips and photos from Instagram with the burger hashtag are played on the plasmas. The queues are a consequence of the wide audience of Black Star artists who dream of joining the brand’s values for an affordable price, says Maxim Livesey, co-owner of the Brisket BBQ and Ferma Burger restaurants: “Their client takes a bite of the burger, squinting his eyes, and imagines himself on an 80-foot yacht.” .
When Yegor Creed gets his hair cut at 13 by Black Star, he writes on social networks as he leaves the salon. “Otherwise there will be a line of 500 girls lining up here,” laughs manager Sergei Dok. The studio is one of Black Star's initiatives vying for the next business explosion.
The salon, opened at the end of 2016, is fully booked: about 60 people come to get a haircut every day, appointments with tattoo artists are filled several days in advance. Former co-owner of the Tattoo 3000 network, Doc has long dreamed of doing business with Timati and Pasha. But the matter did not go further than discussion for a long time: there was no suitable point. Ernest Rudyak, who had vacated premises on Bolshaya Dmitrovka, helped. “Everyone must be thinking: how did they manage to sit on the street where the Prada and Louis Vuitton boutiques are located?” - explains Doc. He assures that the rental price is “market”; about 2 million rubles. per month (at a rate of 85 thousand per 1 sq. m), commercial real estate consultant JLL provides data.
The cost of haircuts at 13 by Black Star is approximately 15% higher than the market average. The most popular is a men's haircut for 2 thousand rubles. Star craftsmen were lured away from competitors. Co-founder of the Boy Cut network Nazim Zeynalov, from whom Black Star stole several employees, believes that the audience of 13 by Black Star is different from the listeners of the label’s artists: “The artists’ main audience is young guys who are not willing to pay that much. But they are targeting an audience from Dmitrovka, surrounded by the offices of large companies.”
Tattooed from head to toe, Doc notes that the tattoo workshop located on the second floor of the studio is more of an “image story” for Black Star. But you can also make money on it: the cost of an hour-long session is 30% higher than the market average (5 thousand rubles per hour). Doc wants to increase the studio's revenue to 10 million rubles. per month. He does not disclose the current amount of income, but clarifies that after five months of work, investments have “recovered.” Doc is preparing to open a barber academy that will help replicate the business. The plans include a salon for a female audience.
Another ambitious project of Black Star is a football agency led by Yuri Stromberger. This is a project at the intersection of sports and celebrity marketing: Black Star Sport (BS Sport) plans to sign contracts with young football players and turn them into stars for subsequent sale. BS Sport is advised by RFU Vice President Sergei Anokhin. The football players will train at the base of FC Strogino, the head of whose board of trustees is Anokhin, and the head coach is Stromberger’s father. The BS Sport budget includes up to 15 million rubles. in year. The agency can grow into a full-fledged football club, says Stromberger.
By the end of 2017, the holding should be replenished with the virtual operator Stars Mobile; plans include the production of soft drinks, gyms and a boutique hotel. Pasha is inspired by the stories of Sam Walton and Sergei Galitsky and follows the growth of the business empire of rapper Jay-Z.
“Our strategy is this: we have to make a cool product and try to grow the market, not the share of it. It’s better to have 10% in a market of 100 billion rubles than 80% in a market of 100 million rubles,” sums up Pasha. None of the analysts have ever rated the Black Star brand. In response to a question from RBC magazine about what kind of capitalization the label dreams of, Pasha thinks for a second and either jokingly or seriously says: “50 billion. Not rubles, of course.”
Rap is one of the most popular youth music genres. It has firmly entered Russian culture since the late 80s and early 90s of the last century.
It's no secret that the most famous foreign performers of this style, such as Eminem, 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Diddy, Jay-Z, earn tens of millions of dollars a year, and not always directly from musical activities .
But what are the annual earnings of domestic rappers? Let's look into this issue.
Of course, Timati (Timur Yunusov), who earns the most among Russian rappers, is probably the most popular and well-known domestic rap artist to the mass public, and to a public even very far from this musical style.
In 2014, he earned $1.5 million, which, however, is a full million dollars less than the previous year.
In addition to revenue from concerts and CD sales, he also has income from his own production center. Although not all rap fans consider Timati a real rapper, arguing that his repertoire is too pop to deserve the right to be called that.
The next biggest earner behind Timati is rapper Basta, aka Vasily Vakulenko, aka Noggano, aka N1NT3ND0.
But today you can make money not only from rap. There are many effective methods and they are described in detail.
No one has any doubts that Basta is a 100% rapper. In 2013, he earned $2 million, which is 500 thousand less than Timati’s earnings. Basta, like Timati, in addition to performing rap, is engaged in producing activities.
He also takes part in filming, both as an actor and as a director, producer and screenwriter.
Such performers and groups as Guf (Alexey Dolmatov), “Casta”, “CENTR”, “Krec” have quite high popularity among fans of Russian rap, and, accordingly, high earnings from their activities, but their exact annual income is unfortunately not known.
But, we can look at the approximate amounts that Russian musicians and groups performing rap compositions receive for one concert.
- Basta (Vasily Vakulenko) - 300,000 rubles.
- Guf (Alexey Dolmatov) – 300,000 rubles.
- “Caste” - 240,000 rubles.
- “Krec” - 200,000 rubles.
- Noize MC (Ivan Alekseev) - 170,000 rub.
- "CENTR" - 160,000 rub.
- “AK-47” – 120,000 rubles.
- Smokey Mo (Alexander Tsikhov) - 100,000 rubles.
- “Bad Balance” - 100,000 rubles.
As you can see, the amount of earnings for one regular concert for Russian rappers does not exceed 300 thousand rubles. Although, of course, there are exceptions when the amount of the fee can reach 500 thousand or more.
For comparison, let's take a look at the annual incomes of leading foreign rappers. Thus, Dr. Dre (Andre Young) earns $620 million, Jay-Z (Sean Corey Carter) and Diddy (Sean John Comes) - $60 million each, and Eminem (Marshall Bruce Mathers III) - $18 million a year.
If we talk about fees for one concert, then, for example, the famous American rapper 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) earns at least $250,000 for one performance.
That is, foreign rappers earn tens and hundreds of times more than domestic ones.
Of course, there are objective explanations for this. Firstly, the rap culture in the West, or more precisely in the USA, is much more developed than ours and has deep roots. Secondly, the American market is much larger and more saturated than the Russian one, and much more significant amounts of money are turned around there.
Nevertheless, the rap movement in Russia is gaining more and more momentum, and leading Russian rappers are quite wealthy, and one might even say rich people, although in terms of income they are still significantly inferior to their overseas colleagues. But time does not stand still, and it is quite possible that a period will come when the situation will change dramatically.
Rostov-on-Don, August 17, 2017. website. Forbes magazine calculated how much Rostov rapper Vasily Basta Vakulenko earns per year and figured out the components of the artist’s success.
Originally from the 1990s
In the 1990s, Vasily Vakulenko lived with his parents not far from a brick factory. The guy graduated from music school and became interested in hard drugs. Several times I ended up in a hospital bed for this reason. Vasya’s mother traded at the market, and her grandparents raised her son. It was they who gave their grandson his first Yamaha 51 synthesizer.
At the same time, Vakulenko got into the Rostov rap party. He performed with the group “Casta” under the pseudonym Basta Oink. In 1998, the rapper recorded the song “My Game,” which is still considered one of the artist’s best tracks. The aspiring musician was invited to perform at a festival at the regional Sports Palace, where 6,000 people listened to him. Thanks to that performance, Vakulenko received his first $100 and became known throughout the region.
Around the same time, two of the artist’s tracks were included in the “City of Happiness” collection, which was released in a circulation of 300 thousand cassettes. These songs were played in cafes at Black Sea resorts. Basta began performing regularly, mainly at festivals organized by large companies (Beeline, Sprite, SKZD).
On April 22, 2003, Basta “gave up” with drugs. He named this date in an interview with the YouTube channel “Vdud”.
In 2005, the then well-known performer Bogdan Titomir came to Rostov. He invited Basta to sell several of his songs. To this, the Rostovite, as they say, refused. Although, according to another version, Vakulenko nevertheless gave several of his texts to the author of “High Energy”. Titomir, in turn, showed songs of the “Rostov type” to the owner of the capital’s Kruzhka beer chain, Evgeniy Antimony. He was just about to invest money in the Gazgolder club on the site of the old Arma plant in Moscow.
At the invitation of Antimony, Vakulenko came to Moscow. He is paid for housing, food and given a studio to record an album. According to Forbes, it cost $100,000 to record the first album. At the same time, the Gas Holder was being completed. Banker Anton Treushnikov helped launch this project - he invested about $1 million in the club. This money was also used to build premises where musicians could work.
In 2006, the creative association “Gazgolder” appeared. Over the course of 10 years, the music label released 11 records. Basta became the best-selling Russian-language artist on i-Tunes and launched three of his own projects - “Noggano”, NINT3NDO and StereoBro. About a dozen artists work on Basta’s label. The audience reach on the Internet is about 15 million people. Last April, Basta conquered the country's largest concert venue, the Olimpiysky Concert Hall, attracting 35 thousand spectators.
In 2014, the Gazgolder label produced a film of the same name, which earned $1.8 million at the box office. Today Basta gives about 100 concerts a year. Each brings him an average of about 2 million rubles. The total income of all Vakulenko’s businesses is approximately 240 million rubles per year. Expenses account for half of this amount.
Let's remember that at the end of July Forbes magazine listed the country's richest celebrities. Vakulenko took 13th place in the ranking.
Last Tuesday Basta came to Rostov to... Kirill Tolmatsky filed a lawsuit against the rapper for insults on Twitter. According to the court decision, Vakulenko must pay 350 thousand rubles for four offensive messages on social media.
