For an authoritarian leader like President Vladimir Putin, this may seem like the height of liberalism. Putin told cultural advisers that the rising popularity of rap music will, not be banned by rather “we must lead it and direct it.” It is not clear what Putin rap might sound like but it is clearly going to be something Stalin rather than Solzhenitsyn would dance to. We all know what Soviet central planning did to the economy. We can now watch the same magic of centrally planned rap music.
In a telling moment, Putin observed that “rap is based on three pillars: sex, drugs and protest.” Given his repression of dissent and demonstrations, one can guess which of those social ills most concern Vladimir Putin. He warned that the music is laying out “a path to the degradation of the nation.”
Of course, given Putin blood-soaked reign, he might have a knack for gangsta rap to replace “sex, drugs, and protests” with “shootings, poisonings, and hackings.”