Battle Beats: Celebrating Military Valor in Russian Rap

«As troops obeyed their leader’s commands, the relocated individuals sped away in various directions on their scooters,» reads a line from «The Best in Heaven,» a track paying tribute to Russian soldiers who died in Ukraine.

This song is part of «Glory to Russia,» an album that was launched this month by the group Rep Vzvod («Rap Platoon»). The album features 11 songs that celebrate Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and glorify the military.

Rap Platoon is among the few musical acts that have been producing nationalistic, pro-war tracks since the Russian invasion of Ukraine forced many of the nation’s most well-known artists into exile.

However, analysts believe these musicians are unlikely to gain mainstream appeal or effectively popularize Kremlin ideology among the broader public.

Andrei Mikeyev, the founder of Rap Platoon and a self-proclaimed war correspondent, started the group in reaction to anti-war artists such as Noize MC and Kasta, who left Russia following Moscow’s full-scale assault on Ukraine in February 2022.

«Rap is like a playground: boys fighting over toys. There was no cohesion among those who remained in Russia,» Mikeyev stated in an interview with the 360.ru TV channel. «I aim to mix things up, pairing well-known artists with ordinary individuals who are currently in the trenches and wrote verses during breaks between combat.»

«Glory to Russia» includes collaborations with well-known Russian musicians like Akim Apachev and Roma Zhigan.

Before the conflict, Mikeyev worked as the editor-in-chief for the pro-Kremlin outlet LifeNews and collaborated with state TV host Anton Krasovsky — who later publicly called for Ukrainian children to be drowned — while being friends with rapper Oxxxymiron.

The Russian government subsequently labeled Oxxxymiron a «foreign agent» and placed him on a wanted list.

«After gaining the approval of the liberal clique, he lost his homeland,» Mikeyev commented regarding his former friend, referring to Oxxxymiron’s profile with the Interior Ministry, which designated his nationality as “none.”

Currently, Mikeyev teams up with producer Andrei Chernyshov, known as KIT, who gained fame in the early 2000s as part of the rap group YUG and now creates beats for Rap Platoon.

The duo also manages Rap Platoon’s VKontakte page, where they post interviews analyzing tracks composed by those involved in the war. Mikeyev frequently appears in the videos sporting a cap adorned with the pro-war “Z” symbol.

In one interview, Chernyshov mentioned that he had offered a beat for the track “Let’s Bow to Those Great Years” to rapper Legalize, who turned it down. Legalize publicly opposed the war, left Russia after the invasion, and was labeled a “foreign agent” in 2024.

‘A musical allegory of the Russian Armed Forces Cathedral’

Several songs on the album address Russians who have left the country or those who support the war from abroad.

One track, “We Are United,” illustrates the composition of the Russian army: “Convicts like wolves and workers from the job site / Don’t mess up when picking your side.”

«In this song, a siren-like sound is accompanied by aggressive shouts, and the harmony shifts into a Phrygian mode with a lowered second degree, which amplifies the tension,» musicologist Anna Vilenskaya explained to The Moscow Times.

Throughout the album, she noted that the artists utilize a hybrid language that combines military and criminal slang — both intentionally masculine, aggressive, and rooted in a “closed code” that is challenging for outsiders to interpret.

This method has characterized Apachev’s work since the war began, according to Vilenskaya, who highlighted his frequent creation of new “blatnoy” slang expressions, such as “WagnerA,” a colloquial play on the name of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group.

Pro-war rap, she noted, heavily incorporates street culture, religious imagery, and military symbolism — icons, prayers, and bell-like sounds. She described the end result as “a musical allegory of a military temple,” where themes of war, death, sacredness, and “moral values” converge.

The album’s concluding track, “The Best in Heaven,” melds bell tolling and tributes to fallen soldiers — “Dogs of war go to heaven” — with critiques of expatriates: “Those who betrayed once will betray again. Stay there, we don’t welcome your kind here.”

The track features Roma Zhigan alongside rappers using the stage names ZHAR, Pasha Nero, and Somalyon Batali.

«In ‘The Best in Heaven,’ the acoustic landscape is constructed from the outset around a funereal intonation: bell tolls and two minor chords merging together by a semitone. The lyrics are densely packed with pro-war terminology — lists of weaponry, slogans like ‘Goida!’, phrases like ‘to the bitter end,’ and descriptions of military life,» Vilenskaya commented.

Streaming figures and a failed rap festival

Almost every post on Rap Platoon’s Telegram channel highlights support from the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives (PFCI).

Roman Karmanov, the fund’s director general, stated that the album has garnered over 10,000 likes and 92,000 streams on Yandex.Music.

This year, Rap Platoon sought nearly 20 million rubles ($261,000) from the PFCI to organize a “patriotic rap” festival in Nizhny Novgorod, according to grant documents reviewed by The Moscow Times. The application was denied.

Despite promotion from notable pro-war bloggers and the PFCI, the group’s audience remains limited. The album’s announcement on Mikeyev’s Instagram received only two likes. Rap Platoon has fewer than 100 followers on RuTube, just over 500 on VKontakte, and fewer than 1,000 on Telegram.

«This album lacks real viral potential. It seems more like yet another wartime tribute to corruption,» Vilenskaya commented. “‘Manifest rap’ may have its own audience, but it’s limited, and the genre is likely to remain niche and underground.”