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Kasta

Russian rap group

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Kasta well-known to Russian-speaking audiences in post-Soviet countries. Kasta is a laureate and nominee of various music awards. Wu-Tang Clan had a huge influence on Kasta's early work, but over time, Kasta developed a unique southern style of Russian hip-hop. In the early 2000s, the group became famous for their hits "Мы берём это на улицах" (1999), "Наши люди" (1999), "На порядок выше" (2001), "Про Макса" (2002), "Ревность" (2002), "Горячее время" (2002), "Сестра" (2004), "Гончая" (2004), and in the late 2000s, "Вокруг шум" (2008), "Сочиняй мечты" (2012), "Прошёл через" (2020).

History

All members of the group started listening to rap at a young age. In September 1995, Vlady (Влади) and his friend Tidan (Тидан) made a rap group Psycholyric (Russian: Психолирик). A year later, Shym (Шими, Шымон) joined them. In the summer of 1997, Tidan left the group. In the fall of 1997, Psycholyric with other rappers from Rostov-on-Don joined the rap association Kasta (Russian: Каста). Basta (Баста Хрю) suggested calling the association Fu-Blood-Casta (by analogy with Wu-Tang Clan and Fu-Schnickens), but Vlady considered this name to be unpleasant and suggested leaving only Kasta from it, and in the end everyone agreed on this. In the summer and fall of 1997, rappers performed at the Rostov club Duncan and from January 1998, at the club Comanchero. In the summer of 1999, Hamil (Хамиль) became the third member of Psycholyric. In November 1999, Psycholyric was renamed the group Kasta, and the rap association was renamed the United Kasta (Russian: Объединённая Каста). United Caste released two albums: Трёхмерные рифмы (1999) and В полном действии (2000). In June 2000, Arkady Slutskovsky became the group's producer, with whom Kasta founded the Moscow record label Respect Production in 2001. At the end of 2001, DJ Khobot was appointed the group's team DJ. Viktor Abramov (Bugs) was appointed PR manager.

In 2002, Kasta released their debut album, Громче воды, выше травы, which was included in the lists of "The main albums of Russian rap" (Rap.ru, 2007) and "10 most important albums of Russian rap" (Rap.ru, 2009). Since 2002, solo albums by the group's members have been released: the experimental "Что нам делать в Греции" (Vlady, 2002), the parable "Феникс" (Hamil, 2004). In 2006, the maxi-single "По приколу" was released, and Zmey (Змей) joined the main lineup of the group. In 2008, Kasta bought all of its albums and the Respect Production label from its producer, Arkady Slutskovsky. The group's new producer was Vlady, and the concert director was Ruslan Munnibaev. In 2008, the second album "Быль в глаза" was released, which took second place in the category "Best Album of 2008" according to the readers of Rap.ru. In 2010, Hamil and Zmey released the album "ХЗ". In January 2011, DJ Khobot left Kasta. Since 2012, Vlady has released solo albums: "Ясно!" (2012), "Несусветное" (2015), "Другое слово" (2019), "Длится февраль" (2022). In the second half of 2016, the group reunited for studio work and recorded several albums: "Четырёхглавый орёт" (2017), "Об изъяне понятно" (2019), "Чернила осьминога" (2020), "Альбомба" (2021), "Новинки зарубежного рэпа" (2024).

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