Pananieba. "71"

The Vileika rappers Pananieba are the authors of the best debut album of 2010, Experts.by have claimed. They released their second disc the day before the New Year’s Eve – “71”. “71” is Vileika’s prefix, the number that symbolizes the band’s home town. The disc has a symbolic implication: according to SP Kava, it is the starting point of the band’s new stage of development. “It will be totally different from “In Marsh” and “71”. We do not know what it will be like but the things we are working on at the moment are totally different although the work has not been finished yet. I think that the differences will be more notable when it comes out”, - MC explains the importance of “71”.

If you recall Pananieba’s debut album “In Marsh” and imagine the band’s future, “71” seems rather reserved due to the new sound and ideas. There are no experimental zests of “In Marsh” that put the band on top of the Belarusian hip-hop wave. There are no live guitars (the only exception is the cover version of Neuro Dubel’s “I endure”) or hope that “Everything will be okay!”. But it has the natural, organic basis, severity and simplicity, acute problems and a civil position. If you ask what Pananieba sing about, it turns out that they sing about everything and nothing at the same time. But they sing very seriously which is typical of all Belarusian music. Sometimes it seems that the authors are 40 years old instead of just over 20. But it would be so good to listen to a funny Vileika story!

“71” is an example of Belarusian rap. It is serious and confident; it uses typical beats with sweet and flashy female vocal. But the Belarusian character of this rap is expressed by Pananieba’s charisma and sincerity and in the fact that they follow their own way. Judging by the two albums (2 albums in two years Is a lot!), their way will not finish after “71”. It may finish after the 71st album, if not after 72nd.