Where did the restaurateur work? Versus and the rest: how rap battles work and how they make money

Restaurateur - Locomotive of noise
Restaurateur - Nastroenice (feat. Sasha Skul)
Restaurateur - Memory
Restaurateur - In circles
Restaurateur - Jealousy (x Zorin)
Restaurateur - Chronicles
Restaurateur - I'm coming (x MFaTLee)

Restaurateur (Alexander Timartsev) biography

Real name: Alexander Timartsev.
Was born: July 27, 1988 (Age now: 31)
Profile: Co-owner, host of VERSUS BATTLE, singer.
Car: The last brand he drives is a BMW 7 Series.

Restaurateur, aka Alexander Timartsev, is the creator, organizer and host of “Versus Battle”, a performer from Murmansk, living in St. Petersburg. Born July 27, 1988. Many are interested in his height, the answer is 195 centimeters! A few words about his personal life: married (the wedding took place in 2013, his wife’s name is Evgenia). Has two children: daughter Vika (2013), son Arthur (2015).

In a recent interview with NEVSKIE NEWS, Harry Topor recalled how VERSUS began: “It’s very cool to be at the origins, then it was not something special yet. That is, it was some kind of strange and muddy movement. A guy I didn’t know well, nicknamed “Restaurateur” "invited me to take part in it. He said: “There will be a kind of battle without music with prepared lyrics, where popular performers will face each other. I thought this was a strange idea and, like, who would be interested in this, because... It’s not at all popular for us in Russia. Then I looked at foreign analogues and decided, why not try? Initially, my opponent was supposed to be a member of the “Black Economy” group, but in the end something didn’t work out for him.

Then I flew to Serbia and right before the plane I found out that they had found another opponent for me and it would be St1m in his new image of Billy Milligan. At that time, no one knew how to battle and did not know exactly how to do it. None of the audience, in fact, knew how to behave either.

I wrote the text in Serbia. It took about two weeks to prepare. Immediately after the first issue ended and I came home, I saw that the news was talking about the appearance of a new closed rapper battle in St. Petersburg. Everyone became very interested in what kind of event this was.

September 1, 2016 marks exactly three years since “Versus Battle” appeared in St. Petersburg, and “Versus Battle” has thousands of fans and millions of views on the YouTube channel.

At first, neither the heroes nor the organizers of the project knew that the idea would turn into a real movement and become so popular, but in 2013 the “pendulum” was swung. Now this, if not a new direction in the culture of rap music, is certainly a significant part of it. “Leningrad Rap Club” - this is what “Versus Battle” was called in one of the episodes of “Evening Urgant”.

“Versus” is a truly St. Petersburg phenomenon; it usually takes place in the 1703 bar, which is located near Ligovsky Prospekt. Two participants, three judges, three rounds and no beats or microphones. Everything is as simple as possible if you watch the video while sitting in a comfortable chair at home, but is it really so?...

How much does a Restaurateur earn on VERSUS?

We decided to clarify this issue, however, friends! Money loves silence! Satisfying your desire, we can cite a few very modest comments from the Restaurateur about money in Versus Battle: “Alas, I’m worse as an accountant than as a creative person. After the “Off-season” there was some money left in the project, but it’s completely spinning in it, and I still continue to work five days a week and live on it, and not on rap “I don’t see anything wrong with this. In the West, such battle projects have only begun to bring serious profits over the years.”

What more can be said about this? In the summer of 2016, a Battle took place between Oksimiron and Sasha ST, before everything starts, short interviews are taken from the opponents... So, Oksimiron accidentally mentioned betting on victory, and this is obviously not accidental, since in addition to advertising CODERED, DroP! , etc., an advertisement for the bookmaker LEON has appeared! A little information: Bookmaker LEON is a brand owned by Leon Gaming Limited. One of the main objectives of Leon Gaming Limited is to create an Internet site for accepting bets on sporting events with a European level of quality, not only for players from Western Europe, but also for the Russian-speaking audience. Having carefully studied the site, where there are a lot of transitions to other parental resources, we came to the conclusion that bets on Versus itself can be made. We don’t know whether you, friend, were satisfied with our answer to the question “How much does Versus earn,” but you got something... We'll keep you posted. In general, being interested in other people's money is bad! Watch and enjoy! Let's continue!

In February of this year, Restaurateur released a full-length release, “Five Bottles of Vodka,” consisting of 6 tracks, describing it as an album with a very “specific” sound.

On September 2, 2016, the restaurateur presented his new work called “I'm Coming,” which was made in collaboration with MFaTLee. The track came out quite aggressive and with an interesting chorus, so it’s definitely worth a listen.

On September 9, a collaboration with Lyokha Med was released, a track called “COPY”. Very soon, the bright participant of the “Fresh Blood” league of the “Versus” battle, Lyokha Med, will celebrate his 26th birthday and apparently, on the eve of his personal holiday, the performer decided to unload a little by uploading quite a large amount of material to the network. Just the other day, another video from the “Razborpometov” series was released, followed by a pilot episode of a new show in the next few hours. Between the two videos, the performer decided to present a track called “Copy”, which was recorded together with the Restaurateur, and which could have been released six months ago, and this is what was said: "Ayo, Kentuhi, I would like to say a few words: This track is a kind of starting point for me, so I would like to talk a little about the path of its creation. A year ago, namely on September 6, 2015, an offline selection took place for the second season of the fresh blood where I battled with the Old Woman. From that moment on, the stage of trial, error and accumulation of experience began, looking back I see a lot of mistakes in my performances, but still without them I would not have become what I am now at one of the battles of the tournament. I don’t remember exactly which one, I suggested to the Restaurateur to record the fit, he agreed. Almost immediately I wrote the text of the verse with the chorus and sent it to him, he also wrote it quite quickly, but for a very long time he could not write the cap. Probably more than six months passed and now a couple. weeks ago, Sashok called me and said that he would prescribe mouth guards the other day, which is what happened. You know, I’m very glad that everything turned out this way. The decision was made to rewrite the verse and chorus from scratch. I wrote, then prescribed caps and mixed this composition.

People, willy-nilly, judge their lives by time periods, on Sunday the official starting point will occur, I will turn 26. Time passes, there is little of it behind, but there is no more ahead. It is precisely because the release coincides with this starting point that I am able to draw a similar parallel about what has been accomplished. I repeat once again that this release was a wonderful gift for my birthday because listening to the verse from it and the verse that was recorded on this minus six months ago, I hear the difference, I hear significant improvements, I hear the path. The path I have traveled during this time and I am satisfied with this path. There were a lot of mistakes, a lot of laziness, but also a lot of experience. Over the past year, creativity has begun its journey along several vectors. Over the past year, you, Kentuhi, have appeared who are actively following the development of my omnidirectional creativity, and this is certainly pleasant.

Respects to Sashka, his work resonates with me from the moment I heard it, I am sincerely glad that our fit took place and took place right now, and not six months ago. Respects to the guy who made a minus on this fit. Double Respects to all Kentukhs who wait, react and are fenced."

On September 27, the presenter, one of the main founders and face of the “VERSUS” project, Restaurateur, presented his new work called “Wing Chun”, which was made together with MFaTLee. Loqiemean was responsible for the production, and the original cover was designed by waise art.

Restaurateur in 2017

The Restaurateur's new car!

At the beginning of March, the host and co-owner of Versus Battle gives an interview to Yuri Dudu, in particular, he spoke about Oksimiron, censorship and money - the latter was most interesting to the interviewer, and the most important thing is that Sasha burned out and talked about his new car. As it became known, this is a BMW 7 Series, a “space car” worth more than 4,000,000. rubles For the first time everyone saw this car at VERSUS BPM: DZHARAKHOV vs LARIN. It was done very effectively, a new snow-white “seven” with Versus numbers rolls up to the bar and Timartsev gets out of it.

Alexander Timartsev (better known as the Restaurateur) is a Russian hip-hop artist, presenter, organizer and co-founder of the famous project called Versus Battle. The Restaurateur's project became the most successful, first in Russia, and then in the world. The battle platform was created as a competitor to such projects as King of the Dot (Canada) and Don’t Flop (England), and in the end it overtook them several dozen times in views.

Versus battle records. The most viewed site in the world?

As of February 2018, Versus organized over 160 battles, putting about 200 rappers through it. The channel currently has 3.8 million subscribers. The most viewed video is the battle between Oksimiron and Joniboy, which has received more than 42 million views. In second place is the confrontation between bloggers Khovansky and Larin - 35 million. The “bronze” video on the channel was the battle between Gnoiny and Oksimiron - 30 million views.

Biography

Alexander Timartsev was born on July 28, 1988 in the city of Murmansk. From an early age, the guy became interested in hip-hop, preferring Western performers. He wanted to be like African-American rappers who wear wide pants, make cool beats and have excellent rapping skills. Alexander did poorly at school and had problems with discipline too. He was a typical hooligan who never opened a school textbook and spent all his free time somewhere behind garages with like-minded friends. He started smoking and drinking alcohol before anyone else in the class.

In 2008, Alexander Timartsev graduated from the Murmansk Trade College with a degree in catering technologist. In 2009 he was drafted into the army. Served in a special forces medical unit. After demobilization, Sasha moved to St. Petersburg, where he began to build his life. This city became his permanent place of work and residence. Perhaps it was the cultural capital that awakened the guy’s creative abilities.

The beginning of the creative journey of a Restaurateur

Alexander Timartsev began making acquaintances with representatives of St. Petersburg rap parties. Influenced by the new hip-hop movement, he began recording his own tracks under the nickname Tim51. Soon Alexander met the rapper Jubilee (who subsequently performed repeatedly on his battle platform “Versus”). He invited Timartsev to participate in a non-profit project - a street freestyle battle party, where guys who can rhyme on the go compete with their skills. The project became the Russian prototype for the famous American project called Yo Momma.

For a long time, Alexander Timartsev worked as a cook in a restaurant. After his shift, he would meet up with his fellow rappers to relax, listen to music, and freestyle. They gave him the nickname Restaurateur, because they knew where he worked. One day, on his way to work in a minibus, Alexander was watching videos on his phone and came across the English battle Don’t Flop, the format of which he liked. At the same moment, Alexander Timartsev began to think about creating a similar project in Russia, but the means and opportunities did not allow him to realize his plan. The opportunity to create our own platform appeared a couple of years later.

Creating your own Versus Battle project

In September 2013, the Versus Battle project started on YouTube. The first battle was between Harry Topor and Billy Milligan (better known as Steam), which over time gained a crazy number of views. The Restaurateur's platform became well-known in Russia; the most talented and accomplished Russian rappers began to come here to compete with their own kind.

The essence of "Versus" is that two hip-hop artists meet face to face in front of a small audience and, using pre-written texts, begin to rap, pouring out insults, hatred and humiliation at each other. Alexander believes that it is the prepared text that sounds brighter, more expressive and of higher quality than freestyle, i.e. invented on the fly.

Friendship with Miron Fedorov (Oksimiron)

In the creation of “Versus”, Alexander Timartsev (Restaurateur) was greatly helped by the rapper Oksimiron, who is currently the leader among Russian-speaking hip-hoppers. Miron Fedor was already a wealthy artist when he paid attention to young rappers. One day, the Restaurateur managed to sneak into Oxy’s dressing room while at his concert. The guys talked warmly, one might even say they became friends. After that, they met several more times and, while drinking light alcohol, discussed the possibilities of creating a battle project in Russia. Friendship with Miron greatly helped Alexander Timartsev in the development of the project, because thanks to him, such domestic rap stars as Krip-A-Crip, Johnnyboy, ST, Noise MC and many others came to Versus.

The "Versus" battle has achieved such a reputation that now the most famous hip-hop artists themselves are queuing up to take part in it. Many branches have appeared within the project - these are 140 BPM (fast rap to music), Fresh Blood (League of Aspiring Rappers), Main Event (tours with the most popular rappers) and others.

Alexander Restaurateur- a hip-hop businessman, a non-indigenous resident of St. Petersburg, came from the northern port of Murmansk. With hip-hop Restaurateur has been associated since childhood. Then he, like many of his friends, admired the work of Western performers.

Alexander Restaurateur host and organizer of Versus Battle
Real name: Alexander Timartsev
Date of birth: 07.27.1988
Place of birth: Leningrad
Restaurateur before Versus

Thanks to his sociability, Sasha was familiar with almost all St. Petersburg rap parties. But most of all he spent time with his boys. It was thanks to communication with these guys that Sasha attended several HUYAKS battles. Videos of the Restaurateur’s performances at HUYAKS are still preserved online.

In 2013, the Restaurateur meets the guys from Cuts & Scratches with whom they decide to create their own battle project. The guys thought for a long time about the name of the battle. Initially there were 2 options - “Contrast” and “Versus”.

As a result, the choice fell on the last option. In order to organize the first battle Harry Ax vs Billy Milligan, Sasha first had to save up a decent amount of money. On that moment Restaurateur was selling iPhones. After the first release of Versus went online, Sasha realized that battle rap had a chance to become popular in Russia. That is why Sasha continued to invest the accumulated money in the business he had started. As we now see, the Restaurateur was right. Over the 3 years of its existence, Versus Battle has become the most discussed topic in Russian rap. It was Sasha the Restaurateur who introduced the majority of Russian rap listeners to battle culture.

Personal life of the Restaurateur
Few people know, but Restaurateur married, and moreover has 2 children. Sasha met his wife Evgenia in 2012. The couple got married in 2013, and the same year the newlyweds’ first child, daughter Vika, was born. In 2015, the couple had a son, Arthur.
As he says himself Restaurateur, Versus does not bring money to his family; all profits from the project go into the project itself. Therefore, for Sasha, Versus is more like a hobby than a way to earn money.

Creativity of the Restaurateur
The nickname itself Restaurateur became attached to Sasha because he once suggested that the guys from HUYAKS hold a battle in the restaurant where the Restaurateur worked at that time. The battle in the restaurant was never held, but the nickname Restaurateur stuck with Sasha forever.
It should be noted that under this nickname Sasha occasionally releases tracks, and even has a full-length album “Five Bottles of Vodka” to her credit. The Restaurateur also recorded joint tracks with Vitya Classic and Sasha Skul.
In 2016 Sasha Restaurateur took part in the filming of the First Channel program “Evening Urgant”.

Alexander Timartsev restaurateur
restaurateur VK
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Alexander Timartsev VK
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restaurateur profession
restaurateur Instagram

The Versus(s) industry in Russia is weaker than overseas (and no one is surprised why), so the battles, which existed in the form of Internet duels, gave young artists a good chance to attract attention. This is how Noize MC became known to us all. But no popular offline battles have appeared in all this time. Although there were some curious ones among them - for example, the St. Petersburg gathering with (sorry) "Huyaks", the participants of which simply gathered on the street, chose opponents and competed in performing sometimes witty, sometimes not very, but almost always the most offensive freestyles with black humor in the spirit of American “Yo Momma” program. Among the few unwritten rules of this fun festival of disobedience was this: “You can’t touch the Restaurateur’s mom.”

Alexander Timartsev, aka Restaurateur is a tall, short-haired guy 25 years old, and he came up with Versus. The restaurateur really gives the impression of a person about whose mother, just in case, you wouldn’t say anything ambiguous. “I was actually working in a restaurant at the time,” he recalls. - The weather was cold, I suggested: “Let’s have a battle in my restaurant.” That’s how the nickname stuck.” “It was some kind of random thing,” says Resotrator about the creation of Versus. “We wanted to keep ourselves busy with something, so we decided to do a battle. The guys understood how all this could be removed. Was it difficult? It wasn’t difficult - we got on the bike and went. Some people don’t succeed this way, some have too many eggs, but for us everything turned out to be okay with this.”

What about earnings? I absolutely agree with Tihomir. I also think that the popularity of the restaurant itself, as well as the incredible number of views on YouTube, brings in a lot of income. I hope there is no need to explain how YouTube works in commerce? 🙂

Has Battle become financially successful?

Alas, I am a worse accountant than a creative person. After the “Off-Season” there was some money left in the project, but it was completely spent on it, and I still continue to work five days a week and live on this, and not on rap. I don't see anything wrong with this. In the West, such battle projects only began to bring serious profits over the years. We have everything ahead of us.

Now, probably, the situation has improved (for example, they cooperate with codred, with the bookmaker Leon), but still, I don’t think that he is raking in some crazy money.

Young music teacher, lover of animals and economics
Until recently, judging by his interviews, this is no longer the case, he worked in the airport, in the RIO shopping center, as an ordinary consultant, and went to eat at the bookmaker, without any hint of a star.

“Versus Battle” (English versus - against, English battle - fight, battle) is a Russian Internet show in the genre of rap battles, an analogue of the foreign projects “Don"t Flop (English) Russian.” and “KOTD (English)Russian.”
Published on Sundays. The first season was released weekly from August 25, 2013 to January 12, 2014 on YouTube. The second season started on March 1, 2014.
More than two million people have subscribed to the Internet show’s YouTube channel. Versus Battle won the public vote at the “Hip-hop.ru Awards 2013” ​​in the “Event of the Year 2013” ​​category.
There is also a spin-off project “Versus: Fresh Blood” (“Versus: Fresh Blood”), in which up-and-coming and little-known rap and hip-hop artists take part in battles.
In April 2015, the battle between Oxxxymiron and Johnyboy gained one million views and entered the history of world hip-hop as the most viewed battle in a day. On March 21, 2016, this record was broken by the battle of video bloggers Yuri Khovansky and Dmitry Larin, which received more than two and a half million views in one day. In June 2016, Oxxxymiron’s battle against ST overtook the most popular rap battle in the US at Summer Madness 2 between Loaded Lux ​​and Calicoe in terms of views.

Battle scheme
The battle itself takes place without microphones or accompanying beat. Before the battle itself, each of the participants is filmed separately, where they introduce themselves, talk about themselves, their future opponent and their personal opinion about him. The participants prepared a text for three rounds in advance, which they read in turn, standing face to face with their opponent. After this, three (sometimes five) judges give their votes to one or another participant. After the host announces the victory of one or another participant, the judges give mini-interviews one after another, where they explain the reason for their choice, and the participants talk about their impressions of the battle.
Also sometimes there are battles in the Main Event format (open event), where participants compete against each other on stage and the winner is determined by the vote of the audience.

It is worth noting that participants are not limited by censorship. So, this moment during the first season has already become a cause of conflicts between judges and participants. In particular, the battle between the 18-year-old (at that time) representative of “CAO Records” Basota and the Moscow rapper SayMeow aka Myauritsio aka MeoWizzy became very discussed, in which the latter used a punchline mentioning Sergei Bodrov, which one of the judges, a poet from St. Petersburg to Ivan Pinzhenin, who later gave his vote to Basote.
“How did you get into their party? Connections Plus you're not poor, bro. Now listen to the punch. As an MC, you died on this set, I covered you with a stream of dirt - you are Sergei Bodrov.
SayMeow"
It is worth noting that Myaurizzio himself was quite sarcastic about Pinzhenin’s reaction and ridiculed the judge. However, after the battle at an open event in the Moscow club “Plan B”, the same Myaurizzio was criticized by two members of the battle’s judges - stand-up comedian Yuri Khovansky and Nikita Gusinsky, better known as Papa Goose - one of the participants in the legendary association “Baltic Clan” . Both were outraged by Myaurizzio's text, in which he allowed himself jokes with elements of racism about his opponent - Beslan Almov, the finalist of InDaBattle IV, performing under the pseudonym Bes.
However, Myaurizzio again responded sarcastically to both criticisms, saying that he and his opponent have quite friendly relations, which were not influenced by racist jokes, and the judges should reconsider their views.

Performance by Pasha Technician at the Moscow battle Main Event (04/11/14)
Pasha Technik, a member of the Kunteynir group, put on a real show at the Main Event in Moscow at the Volta club in a battle against Brol. Coming onto the stage with a mug of beer, he poured it onto the first rows of the audience. At the beginning of the first round, Pasha took off his pants, while shouting insults at the audience, which, apparently, was not happy with his performance. Throughout his performance, he threw various objects at the audience, including: bath salts, a banana, a dildo, about 6 CDs with his album and several bottles of water. As he himself said, he did not prepare for the performance, and showed the audience pure freestyle.
Fights on Versus: Off-season (09.09.14)
On the day of the battles, many fights took place. For example, the conflict between Noize MC and standup comedian Yuri Khovansky has been brewing for a long time. Yuri Khovansky repeatedly spoke poorly of the work of this musician. As a result, Noize MC hit Khovansky in the face several times.
A former member of the group “Sins of the Fathers” - Galat was beaten by St. Petersburg rapper Dimasta. The conflict had been going on for a year and a half, when D.masta “gave bream” to all members of the “Sins of the Fathers” group for making unflattering statements about him. During the battle, D.masta violated the rules, interrupted and prevented his opponent from battling. At the end of the battle, D.masta hit Galat with the well-known quote:
“And know, I waited for you for a year and then from the stage I did not read these lines! So who the fuck is D.masta? I fucked you in the mouth!
Galat"
End of Season II of Versus Battle
In the last battle of the season, Artem Tatishchevsky and TricoPuchon were supposed to fight, but the latter did not show up for the event and received an automatic defeat - 3:0.

Censorship
In the battle "VERSUS X #SLOVOSPB - Ernesto Shut Up X Purulent", published on July 27, 2016, digital censorship appeared for the first time. Moments of mention of the former head of Chechnya Akhmat Kadyrov, Patriarch Kirill and “non-existent Ukrainians” were covered with interference.
“Moderation in battles is gradually appearing. If at first we proclaimed freedom of speech, now - ah-ah-ah, sometimes we wag our fingers from above. Moreover, people from some supervisory agencies began to follow us on Twitter. We try not to joke about the top officials of the state: if the joke is not worth it, it’s better not to. You can’t erase the words from the song, and they won’t censor the battle, but this is not our format: it’s better for us not to get involved in politics.

Alexander Timartsev (Restaurateur), organizer of Versus Battle »
Some of the following battles are also censored.

Blocking by Roskomnadzor
On December 15, 2016, the video of the battle “Oxxxymiron VS ST” with 15,000,000 views, included a few days earlier by Google among the most popular search queries among the Russian-speaking audience, was blocked on YouTube in the Russian Federation “at the request of government authorities.” Roskomnadzor explained that the blocking was caused by the fight between the Federal Tax Service and bookmakers:
“On YouTube there are direct links to the website of an illegal bookmaker, where everything is already there: information on how to place a bet, electronic payment systems, and so on. This is all prohibited by law.
Vadim Ampelonsky, press secretary of Roskomnadzor »
Release history
A teaser for the Internet battle "Versus Battle" appeared on the official YouTube channel on August 25, 2013.
Next to the name of the winner, the number of votes given by the judges to the participants in the battle (first and second, respectively) is indicated. The winner of the qualifying stage in the spin-off “Versus: Fresh Blood” is not determined, it is decided by the audience.

Rap battles - MC competitions - have gained incredible popularity on the Russian Internet. The locomotive is the St. Petersburg Versus: thanks to the battle, which usually takes place in one of the bars on Ligovsky Prospekt, the genre has stepped far beyond the boundaries of the subculture. The same Versus on YouTube has more than a million subscribers - four times more than, for example, the TNT channel.

Yesterday Versus published a post epic battle between Oksimiron and Moscow rapper ST (the results of the fight, however, were leaked in advance by the Life78 TV channel - to the indignation of the organizers and viewers): at the moment the video has already received more than 2.5 million views.

Photos

Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov

Oxxxymiron vs ST. Battle Versus #5 (season III). Age limit: 18+

“The poet has an eternal conflict inside,

The shadow of doubt strives to lie down,

Various demons, super ideas,

Sometimes the desire to lie down under granite,

Chaos and pain, troubles with yourself,

Fears of freedom, thanatos, love.

They write about me that I read hysterically,

Of course, [expletive], I'm alive.

I'm a third-rate poet

But a first-rate MC.

You are not this and not that,

It would be better to be inspired by the Backstreet Boys and "N Sync" -

Miron Fedorov, aka Oxxxymiron, reads in his opponent’s face.

The project is also developing dynamically in St. Petersburg #Slovospb: for now it is being held in a tournament format - with a prize fund of 100 thousand rubles. In the future, the organizers do not rule out changing the format. Dan Cheney, head of #Slovospb, believes that modern battles are more about poetry than about hip-hop culture.

On June 26, the MOD club will host an open battle Versus against #Slovospb: four representatives on one side will oppose four MCs on the other.

The Village talked to Versus founder Alexander Timartsev (aka Restaurateur) and #Slovospb organizer Dan Cheney about whether it’s possible to make a business out of MC fights, why it’s better not to joke about politics (but you can joke about brain cancer) and whether it’s easy to break through at battles for girls.

Only two people are involved in organizing the battle: me and my partner Ian. Initially, there were five of us, and it often turned out that we could not agree with each other - because of this, problems arose: something was disrupted, something was postponed... Now everything is going well for us: one call and the issues are resolved.

We have two leagues: Versus itself and Versus Fresh Blood for juniors. To perform on the Versus platform, there are two ways: either be a rapper with a history, or go through Fresh Blood and please the audience.

The battle always paid off, but before there was no income. Now? Yes, we are rich. Kidding. I arrived for this interview by metro. Income comes from working with sponsors.

Well, what do we do with our earnings: we hung new lanterns in the bar, sometimes we print banners. We love to drink. We pay for the participants’ travel (but the judges always come at their own expense). Operators and installation are the most expensive expense items. Development of 3D things. Website hosting. As a result, the income is not so much that we also pay fees. In addition, the guys come to us for views, they get them - and we get a modest commission.

Oxxxymiron is now a locomotive. He goes overboard every time, it's crazy. And the problem is that everyone wants to battle with Miron, no one wants to battle with each other. And Miron manages to participate once - maybe twice - a year.

Alexander "Restaurateur" Timartsev

Versus, by the way, has something in common with KVN: there are jokes about Maslyakov, here there are jokes about me. It's not very funny every time, but it's very cute. When I hear: “We’ve come to the battle,” I think: “Okay, that’s it, now there will be a rhyme “Restaurateur.” And I imagine Maslyakov - he stands and thinks: "Oh my God, idiots"

Many still do not understand what we want. Recently there was a battle - exactly as it was originally intended: there was complete silence in the hall, no one even whispered - that's what was needed. Humor faded into the background, personal hostility and some kind of scores dominated. This is how I want to continue. And people think that the battle is about jokes. However, humor is also important.

I recently had tea with my parents, they were watching KVN, there were jokes stolen from Versus (I think from Rickey F). They were adapted, the swearing was removed, but without the swearing it turned out not to be funny at all. We won’t sue, of course: we are normal guys. What I agree with Miron: copyright is a story that stops everything. We are open: steal from us, please. Although, if possible, still indicate authorship.

Versus, by the way, has something in common with KVN: there are jokes about Maslyakov, here there are jokes about me. It's not very funny every time, but it's very cute. When I hear: “We’ve come to the battle,” I think: “Okay, that’s it, now there will be a rhyme “Restaurateur.”
And I imagine Maslyakov: he stands and thinks, “Lord, idiots.”

Versus Fresh Blood members are usually bombarded with new stuff. I remember when I was little, I was traveling on the train and took with me the magazine “Around Laughter” - readers sent jokes to it, and the guys themselves came to us and told us jokes. Sometimes my cheeks hurt from laughing after battles. The guys set the trend of humor: they see what works and what doesn’t. This is not some kind of “Distorted Mirror”, in which the jokes are outdated - we have a direct hit.

Moderation in battles is gradually appearing. If at first we proclaimed freedom of speech, now - ah-ah-ah, sometimes we wag our fingers from above. Moreover, people from some supervisory agencies began to follow us on Twitter.
We try not to joke about the top officials of the state: if the joke is not worth it, it’s better not to. You can’t erase the words from the song, and they won’t censor the battle, but this is not our format: it’s better for us not to get involved in politics.

And everything else - please. Let’s say, disabled people are our favorite thing, but why can’t we laugh at such topics? Not over a specific person, after all. For example, there was a battle in which brain cancer was ridiculed, very harshly and vividly - I was ashamed, but it was so incredibly funny! And then people wrote on Twitter: “Thanks, I learned to laugh at my illness.” This is cool, we were very flattered.

We now have no freer platform than the Internet. At concerts they are not allowed to swear. We rode around Russia, it was fun - but this is a complicated story: due to censorship, the atmosphere is lost. We probably find television interesting, but we don’t need it: we can’t resist swearing and sharp satire. There was an offer from the TNT channel, but it was somewhat vague. They called me last year on July 27th, which was my birthday, and I was drunk. I say: “Let’s do it later.” So they never spoke on the phone again. Well, okay.

Our audience, it seems to me, has become younger over the years. We took over the YouTube zone, and it’s just young guys who live there. And the audience began to understand what was happening. They delve into the material, analyze the construction of the text, rhymes, and some tricks. The audience follows us. We try to teach her a little: for example, we ban her in the group for some stupid things. In general, it feels like the iron curtain has collapsed; there is a lot of information. It seems to me that 99% of the audience now understands everything better than I do. If you read the comments, you will learn a lot.

Bar “1703” has become a landmark phenomenon not only for Versus, but for the whole of St. Petersburg. I recently entered the word “bar” into Google on someone else’s computer - “1703” immediately appeared in the layout. In 2013 or 2014, we met blogger Yura Khovansky. Got drunk. Miron brought us to “1703” - there were still bare brick walls, paint all around, the guys were laying the floors. And no one. I've never been to a bar. But there was cheap alcohol here, it was comfortable, and good people began to appear. Liked. Where else to shoot Versus? We drank here all the time - we decided to continue drinking here.

At the end of the battle, usually all the left people leave, and all our people remain. You can see how a first-tier rapper treats a third-tier rapper to a cigarette, they play kicker, a connection arises, it’s very cool. In the conditional year of 2010, they could not intersect: inconsistency of levels.

#Slovospb also makes battles in St. Petersburg - I hope everything works out for them. We have no competition, as we face different tasks. We work with famous guys and promote not so famous ones. They find unknown talented guys. #Slovospb and I are friends, they come to us for battles. By the way, on June 26 we will have a battle between Versus and #Slovospb in the MOD club: their people against ours.

The Versus brand is developing, people are following it. We have over a million subscribers on YouTube: damn, that's a lot, I can't imagine a million people. I lived in a city with a population of 16 thousand people - and that’s 60 such cities.

The main thing for us now is to maintain our dominance. All VKontakte public pages for schoolchildren and rappers are filled with Versus. It's cool, we're everywhere.

Initially Slovo arose in Krasnodar, then began to spread its influence to other cities - although now the branches are closing. The Slovo battle appeared in St. Petersburg at the end of 2013, I had nothing to do with it. But I was very happy: the Versus project then greatly raised the fashion for this genre.

At that time, I was organizing freestyle battles - these are improvisations to the beat. I was wondering what it was like - offline battles, without a beat. I applied for the first season. At that time, the battles were not very similar to what is happening on the #Slovospb site now: the organization was lame, we performed on some kind of wooden pallet (today we use these for spectators to stand on - we build a kind of amphitheater out of them). It looked like a stool from which poetry is read. I participated in the first season of Slovo and reached the finals. There we clashed in a duel with Gnoiny, who is now a permanent judge and one of the creative producers of #Slovospb.

After this, SlovoFest took place in Anapa: they gathered the strongest participants from all branches - more than ten cities. I also took part, and then returned to St. Petersburg, where the second season of Slovo was supposed to begin. And then it turned out that the organizers had disappeared. They probably became uninterested because the battle did not bring financial dividends. The start of the season was delayed. With great difficulty we found the organizers - it turned out that they did not want to do this anymore. There were four of us: me, Gnoyny, Zaebatsu and Alexey Xarisson. We discussed and decided that I would take over the organization of #Slovospb. Krasnodar residents agreed with this.

The second season continued until June 2015. It ended - and we had some organizational differences with Krasnodar. The guys and I decided that we needed to separate from the Slovo project. We are the only branch that has become an autonomous project. There was a point of return, but the Slovo organizers decided that they would not talk to us.

The people of Krasnodar were very indignant because we left the name, which contains the word “slovo”. But we are #Slovospb, no one but us can be called that. A historical analogy can be drawn: in 395, the Roman Empire was divided into Western and Eastern. At the same time, there was no Rome in the East, but it was still called the Roman Empire.

In general, we are now in the 2016 season, the quarterfinals have passed, on July 31 there will be a semifinal at the MOD club, and the final in September. We are planning one or two more events before the end of the year. #Slovospb lives life to the fullest and, I think, it will only get more interesting.

Dan Cheney

Gleb Kripple was a judge in the first season. In an improvisational pair battle, in which I participated, my companion Alexey Xarisson said a few unflattering words about Gleb’s deceased cat. He was drunk and decided to take revenge for the cat: he attacked Alexei with his fists

From the very beginning, a constant party formed around #Slovospb. From the second season, this circle began to grow, permanent cameramen appeared, people who deal with sound and light, who help set up spectator stands, who stand at the entrance, control that there is no pirate filming, editors, designers. In total, together with the participants, there are from 30 to 50 people.

I remember Miron Fedorov The Village about bars on Ligovsky, 50. There was talk about “1703” and “Alfa-bar”. So, “Alpha Bar” became for us what “1703” was for Versus. The first two seasons took place there. It's quite an underground place: a bar with dirty wooden floors, chaos... Unfortunately, it closed. We tried to conduct battles in several rooms. MOD is the third club in which we hold events. I think we’ll stay here: here are the most convenient conditions, the most responsive and responsible organizers. Plus the city center.

This season received the largest number of applications for participation - several hundred, we selected a little more than 30. 80% of the participants in this season are from other cities. Lately, the level of participants from Moscow and Yelets has been very surprising. But all the St. Petersburg players were eliminated by the semifinals. On the one hand, it’s a shame, on the other hand, I’m not local (from Chelyabinsk) and I perfectly understand the zeal of the participants who come to another city to conquer the peaks. We help compensate for travel costs, and the person who wins the season will also take home 100 thousand rubles in prize money. So people from other cities have motivation.

There is a big problem regarding the participation of girls: lately everyone has been saying that girls have no place in battles. For some reason, people are angry that girls are storming offline battles. There is a rational grain in this: many girls who participated in offline battles did not even meet the minimum bar set by men. At one of the Krasnodar battles between a young man and a girl, a very painful topic for the participant was touched upon, and she burst into tears. In order to participate in the battle, you must have nerves of iron.

In this regard, one girl really stands out. We made a sticker pack with the participants of the season, and one of them is Yulia Kiwi, the girl who makes the best women's offline battles in Russia. She is the only girl whose battles I personally am not ashamed to watch. Julia Kiwi took third place in the second season, defeating current Versus finalist Booker D. Fred in a battle. Looking at her, I understand that girls should try. Not long ago we had women's battle: Julia Kiwi vs Masha Hima. Yulia won with a score of 3:0, but Masha also battled very well, I’m sure there are other talented girls in Russia.

There is a point here that no one wants to lose to a girl: in a male circle this is considered somewhat shameful. And girls must be prepared for the fact that if they start going to battles, no one will spare them. I hope that female battle rap will develop, although perhaps it is very strange for our culture when girls come out and throw mud at each other.

Battles were originally a form of hip-hop. However, lately the rap component has been disappearing: those MCs who focus on the beauty of the Russian word have weight. You don't have to be a rapper to go to the battle. The beginning of the last few centuries is marked by the flowering of poetry. The beginning of the 19th century is the golden age of poetry, the beginning of the 20th is the silver age. The current one can probably be called the plastic age of poetry. Now battles are underestimated, but they will certainly have a strong influence on the poetic form of expressing thoughts.

Many participants in our battles, even some judges, for example Lokos, started with freestyle battles. This is a slightly different format. Freestyle is the art of quickly coming up with a rhyme for the word you ended the line with, while getting into the beat. The offline battle format - when you prepare in advance - frees up your hands: the size and rhythm can be any. The complexity of rhymes is not in favor of improvisation. Freestyle retained its place in responses, so-called flips. When, for example, one of the participants has finished the round, and the second one is starting, having heard what the opponent said, you can come up with an answer during your round. Sometimes it’s mediocre, sometimes it’s great. But there are not many talented freestylers. Improvisational recitative has become obsolete and has been replaced by offline battles.

We have no taboo topics as such. A participant can read about anything - but there are topics that are not recommended to be touched upon. For example, a couple of times participants read punchlines about sex with minors or insulted the feelings of believers. We try to cut such things out of performances. There is a law on the media - it’s better not to take risks. Like Versus, politics is an unwelcome topic. You cannot call for inciting ethnic hatred or the overthrow of the current government - this is an article of the Criminal Code.

We try to ensure that there is freedom at battles, but we understand that we live in Russia and we need to think about the consequences. I wouldn’t want the whole project to be closed because of one punchline. Here Versus takes the brunt. They are like an indicator: if any problems with censorship start, they will come to them first. Since they are not touched, then everything is fine with us.

In the entire history of #Slovospb we had only one fight at the battle. And not a participant with a participant. Gleb Kripple was a judge in the first season. In an improvisational pair battle, in which I also participated, my companion Alexey Xarisson said several unpleasant words about Gleb’s deceased cat. He was drunk and decided to take revenge for the cat: he attacked Alexei with his fists. However, he was quickly stopped. There was no fight, but the battle was almost disrupted.

Is it possible to make a business out of battles? Probably possible, depending on what is considered a business. In general, any battle project is tied to expenses - few people work for respect. This includes rental of premises and equipment, payment of technical personnel, travel compensation for participants, and prize money. We are a non-profit battle, we do not have permanent sponsors (but we would be very happy if they appeared). Our only sponsor is the spectators who go to the events. We break even every time. I'm organizing the second season of #Slovospb and haven't really brought up anything. But I don’t want to stop due to lack of visible profit. The guys are counting on me. I know that without me everything will go to hell.

For the last six months we have been talking about putting the battles on television. This option scares off many people, because people think: “There’s censorship there! You can’t swear!” But the current participant Katrovaser reached the semi-finals without using swear words - we noticed this just recently. If one person can do it, others can too. Some people believe that battles should remain underground. But if offline battle organizers, MCs and viewers want the genre to survive in this cruel world of ever-changing preferences, they must be prepared for change.

COVER: Versus Battle official channel