A Very Brave Face

     Let's be honest...my knowledge and understanding of rap music in all its forms is akin to my knowledge and understanding of advanced theoretical physics. I mean, I'm aware of various artists from Eminem to Ice-T, and on to NWA and Dr. Dre. I also know that we can't travel faster than light and that nothing escapes from a black hole. Doesn't make me an astrophysicist! I also can recite a few lines from a rap song or two. I might even be able to do it correctly and in the right syncopation! Doesn't make me a rapper. That said, allow me to carefully raise my cranberry and club soda to the Russian rapper, known as Face.
    As I listened to a little bit of his work on YouTube and read about him in various publications, it seems that he has thus named himself due to his "de-Facing." A number of his tattoos cover his face and give him a somewhat menacing look. To his critics of this, and his music (if one can call it music), is to tell them to get on their knees and perform a lewd act. It's also quite clear to me that if his songs (if they can be called songs) were not populated by so much profanity, they would be galactically shorter. Because of these qualities and other things I've read, Face, it seems to me anyway, has taken a stand against civilization. 

    I'm reminded of the parting words of Satan as he left for Hell as told to us in John Milton's Paradise Lost:

So farewell hope, and with hope, farewell fear.

Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost:

Evil, be thou my good.

  

    It would seem that ugliness is now Face's beauty. He has also, for me anyway, said farewell to taste and judgement. But, and there's always a but... Face is also quite brave. You see, I only found out about Face because he has told Vladimir Putin to perform that lewd act I mentioned above...IN PUBLIC!! His loud and no doubt, obnoxious opposition to the war in Ukraine has become a rallying cry for many young people in Russia. While he doesn't have a huge record deal, he's quite the hit on YouTube. And YouTube in Russia might be an even bigger phenomenon than it is here in the US.

    And because Face lives in Russia and not a civilized country, he has had to go into hiding. You might think to yourself, "What is a little innocent barbarism compared to the might of the state of Russia?" Well, the easiest thing for me to say is, "Out of the mouths of babes." But it's more than that. Rap is, by its nature, oppositional. Face has taken up the mantle of opposition to Putin and Putin is not exactly liberal when it comes to opposition. Face has characterized Putin's regime as brutal and bellicose...and like I said, has told Putin to get down on his knees. And while we don't know where Face is, I trust he is safe from the evil tentacles of his tyrant.

    But if you, dear reader, will permit me to swerve for a moment...as I was reading about Face, etc., I couldn't help but think about a Hall of Fame Russian writer, Ivan Turgenev. Turgenev wrote one of my favorite novels, Fathers and Sons (1862). He also wrote, what some consider his masterpiece, Sketches from a Hunter's Album (1852). It's a scathing attack of short stories on serfdom as practiced by Tsar Nicholas I. There might not be a more eloquent protest to a social system than this. It was a time when the lower classes were treated as property or worse. Turgenev's mother employed serfs and treated them badly. And he despised the system.

    Now, it's no doubt unfair to compare Turgenev and Face. I am inclined to believe that Putin's Russia is far more insidious that Nicholas' Russia. The social, historical and economic conditions are vastly different. That said, Turgenev through all his protesting and writing admired the best of western culture. He didn't tattoo his face, nor did he use profane language constantly in his work, and he did not adopt an insolent posture to the world. He loved beauty. He strove to find beauty even in the ugliness of his time.

    I am not sure that Turgenev's refinement is possible in this day and age and that saddens me. And certainly, Face's self-conscious ugliness would have been unthinkable in Turgenev's time. As I have written before, there is an ugliness that has gripped the world. The creation of beauty is hard, it's the creation and allowance of ugliness that is easy.

    I said it before, I hope Face is safe and sound wherever he is. And trust me, even if freedom means tolerating the less than admirable qualities of Face, I'm all for it. I would never argue for censorship or political repression of the kind that has forced him into hiding. I suppose I just wish that our civilization could attract the sensibilities of a Turgenev rather than a Face.

write to Peter:  magtour@icloud.com