Yo! Meet Lightowy!

A chat with one of the most unique and distinctive rap artists in contemporary Belarus.

08.09.2024

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Чытаць па-беларуску

Alexei Hryzunt, a.k.a. Lightowy, a.k.a. grizbe, is a young Belarusian artist who, with each release, boldly pushes beyond the boundaries of hip hop, the genre he originally started from. His artistic range goes from somnambulistic ambient epic of "Voda i Yeyo Otsutstvie" EP to electro-punk collab with Eng8, to accompanying an electronic folk artist Sneguole. Besides that, Lightowy skates, works on a conceptual photo project called "padnahami," and has a background in philosophy. As you see, we were justifiably curious to meet the multi-talented artist and chat about his creativity. So let's dive in!

The full audio version is available in Belarusian as an episode of Radio Plato Editorial Podcast:

– Your recent collaborations with Sneguole and Andrei Kurs are forays into completely different genres, yet they are both solid and confident. What is the common thread there? What is collaboration with artists about to you?

– The common thread in those projects is the desire to genuinely communicate in the languages of those artists. I mean communication on the human level first and foremost, and musical communication second. Both collaborations emerged from good personal relationships, although in the case of Sneguole, you could say that we became friends through working together. With Andrei we've been friends for a year and a half now. The difference between the two releases is the stylistic dialects used. Not sure that's the best way to phrase that, in visual arts you actually call that a "visual language". The language and sound of "Lightowy Kurs" are more familiar to me because I associate my persona with classic hip hop culture. However, Sneguole’s music is no less close to me, as it truly resonates with me. I guess I’m not a very conventional rapper because I listen to lots of stuff like electronic folk, ambient, and neoclassical music. If there's an opportunity to get into those genres – I'm happy to jump in. Because I find that really fascinating.

– In early 2024 you featured on Eng8's electropunk album Future Continuous. Not an obvious move for a rapper. How did that come about?

– Thanks to Radio Plato. Eng8 was working on his album and was looking for a Belarusian-language MC to collaborate. Somebody suggested me and that's how we linked up. And I always really wanted to feature on a dancefloor banger – so everything just fell into place. I sketched out the lyrics within a few hours and then recorded the vocal the next day. Of course the vocal single is often the main attraction, but I highly recommend checking out the whole album - it's truly an incredible piece of work!

– So how did this creative momentum start building in your life?

– I’ve always loved music, especially hip hop. I've always had MTV on at home, and my older sister would bring over fresh music and poetry. My introduction to hip hop was not only from MTV, but also from groups like ČPB (Čyrvonym Pa Biełym - Editor's Note).

I've been into skateboarding throughout my teenage years. I spent countless hours outside and street culture is in my bones. My first creative endeavors were connected to skateboarding, when I started shooting skate videos. I got my first video camera at 12 years old, and started shooting skate videos.

In 2014 I got into music when I saw my friend freestyle rapping. It got me interested so we started freestyling to beats together. At about 15 I got into poetry and at a certain moment I realized I can bring these two things together. When I was 17 I got into the Belarusian culture, started writing rap lyrics in Belarusian, recording just two tracks from 2017 to 2023. And then things really took off.

– Why do you have multiple creative aliases - Lightowy and grizbe? What's the difference between them?

– That's a big question. You could say it was a forced move. First of all, there is the language question. I don't think it's right to publish Russian-language tracks as a Belarusian-language artist. In my opinion, the protagonist's voice varies greatly depending on the language. That's why I have Lightowy and grizbe as separate protagonists. You could also say Lightowy is more "light", more connected to classic hip hop culture. While grizbe delves into the deeper layers of existence, a much more mysterious and dark character.

– How did you get into the Belarusian language?

– My grandma always spoke heavy trasianka (a mixed dialect of Belarusian and Russian - Translator's Note) so Belarusian never sounded foreign to me. I'm a city kid to the bone, I don't even have a dacha, let alone a grandma in the village to visit. My parents also come from Miensk. Maybe that distance from the roots explains why my grandma's vibe always felt so cozy to me. When I was about 15 I became obsessed with Belarusian culture and realized that if I do anything creative, I should do it in Belarusian.

I once saw this Ukrainian band from Odesa called Kolir in Y Gallery in Miensk. At the time, Odesa was a city where Ukrainian culture was not particularly widespread, so they were perceived rather as an exception. And I remember the vocalist saying: "Our goal is to show that Ukrainian is good". This thought has stuck with me: "Why not work on creating a high-quality cultural product, but in Belarusian?" That's how I started in this direction.

– So, does the Belarusian-speaking rap scene even exist in your opinion?

– Of course it does. First of all, there is Mandzik. Back in my student days I was more into poetry and all sorts of theoretical stuff, and I was really missing a simple personal connection with somebody with the same interests. So when I heard Mandzik I knew: finally there is the simple Belarusian music for me. 'Simple' as in human, without all the over-complicating. To me he is an outstanding personality and I'm happy to see him grow his audience so quickly.

Then there are all the oldschool legends of the Belarusian rap scene: Zeman, Angst, SP-Kava. Slava Litara eR from the band Macimora is my newest discovery, a major revelation. Although he himself would be upset to even be called a rapper, but what he's doing, in my opinion, will definitely make an impact on the Belarusian scene. The wider audience is yet to discover him. And then, of course, there is NPX O.G. I love the fact that he does not shy away from the darker aspects of culture and allows the grittier themes to be expressed in Belarusian. If culture and language can't handle that, then they simply aren't viable. NPX O.G. rides that edge well and, in my opinion, he's an extremely good producer. By the way, he recorded me back in the "Padnahami" days and still helps out and gives a lot of good advice.

When it comes to non-Belarusian local rap culture, everything is perfectly fine. We have Rap Crew, Murovei, and groups like Tripodryad and Pero. Also, shout out to Andrei Kurs. The beatmaker whose beats I simply admire! And of course, BJ.Skelbie aka The Sensetivist. He creates wonderful instrumentals and is also an outstanding MC.

– Let’s dive into how you approach your creative process. How do you come up with ideas?

– I don't really have a consistent workflow, actually. What I can share is a few interesting productive states, that I found sometimes bring good results. One of them I just discovered this summer. What it boils down to, it is to write every time I get a spare minute, every day. In fact, this is the most prolific approach.

– So, basically, self-discipline?

– Yes, self-discipline, but without any particular expectations. It's not about disciplining yourself, but rather practicing consistently. There is something you can write every day. Of course, depending on your state of mind and circumstances the results will be different. But that's the approach that brought me at least a few tracks.

More often than not, the whole track comes to me in one piece and it takes, like, five hours to 'download' it. Sometimes it's two days. Take, for instance my track "Tvoj Dobry Sused" that I made with The Sensetivist's instrumental. This Spanish track "Rap Ido 2" by Bejo that I used as reference was just stuck in my head. And it took me four days of constantly listening to the beat and laying down the lyrics line by line.

– Apart from writing tracks, you’re also working on your own photo album "padnahami", which you describe as "a fantasy-photograhy project – a dialogue between your third eye and the universe in its details". Tell us more about that.

– I got into photography at about the same time as I started making videos by making stills for the moving pictures at first. When I was 15, my sister bought a photo camera, and it gradually became mine. I started taking a lot of photos. Then I studied photography, first in Miensk and later I did an online course at the "Photographica" Academy from St. Petersburg.

At a certain point I identified as being a photographer first. Around 2020-21 I was not doing music at all, except an occasional freestyle, but I spent most of my creative energy on photography. It's an important tool of communicating with the world for me. By contrast to most creative endeavors focused to making things, photography is, first and foremost, about the search. I felt that was what I lacked, being rather introverted, and photography became the medium that helped me get out more. Plus, I've always been inspired by fine art, but never saw my place in it. Photography gave me all the necessary tools for it. And, of course, it is all about spontaneity. You either caught the shot or you didn't.

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– Do you find any common ground between music and photography? Besides cover art, of course.

– Cover art is actually very important. When I got into music I realized how much material I had for covers.

I have a funny story about that. Kacia Ačkoŭskaja, a photographer from Viciebsk was looking for a model. She was looking for a bald buddhist male. It just so happened that I just followed her on social media that day. I saw that post and immediately messaged her: "I'm your guy!" So, she came down from Viciebsk for the photo session. When I saw the photos that she ended up doing, I realized it was the actual embodiment of my alias grizbe. Just like I always pictured him in my head! Amazing!

As for Lightowy, that persona may not have such vivid representation, but it's out there somewhere. The music is closely tied to visualization for me. The problem is, I may not spend as much time trying to define this connection and reveal it. By the way, the track "Padnahami" is an interesting case in point. Its title gave the name to the whole project and the lyrics are its abstract manifesto.

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<h2>Miensk street culture</h2>

– Let's talk about skateboarding – another important part of your life. A few years ago, I went to a skatepark and was surprised to see that most of the kids were riding scooters, with only a couple of people on skateboards. In your opinion, is skateboarding dying out? Is there any generational continuity?

– Yes, definitely. I'm a skate coach myself, it's one of my jobs, and quite a lot of kids actually come to learn. I don’t know how scooters managed to capture the attention of kids so much. Must be the all-mighty marketers. The thing is, it seems really easy: you’ve got two hands holding the handlebars, and beneath you is a fairly stable structure. It seems easier to get started, although to me, it feels like starting on a skateboard is just as easy. That's just how it is – it's a different culture, and it's much more relevant right now.

– Just like techno in clubs.

– Yes. It's like the first obvious thought. You know, when your making something, there's always this first thought. And it's usually a simple obvious thing anyone can think of. When a kid first thinks how to get around the city nowadays, scooter is that first thought.

Plus, skateboarding, in my opinion, has a whole different aura about it. The OG street culture kind of thing. While a scooter is just another means of transportation. Skateboarding is a bit more than that. The percentage of crazy kids on skateboards is really small, but those who do come, even 4-6-year-olds, usually already have in mind that they will eventually be performing tricks and skating around the streets.

– How about the rollerbladers?

– They have their own thing. To me, the classic extreme sports are, first and foremost, skateboarding and BMX. BMXers – honestly, those kids are just like samurais. Kids riding their metal stallions everywhere. That's 15 kilos of high-proof metal, no less. Plus you need to work on them constantly. Huge respect! That's got to be the most demanding of the extreme sports. And of course, the most dangerous in terms of injuries.

As for rollerbladers, they always seem to exist somewhat separately. There are different types of rollerbladers: aggressive skaters sliding along various edges and rails – not that popular in our parts; then there's freestyle figure skaters, who have a completely different path. Also very cool, although they have their own goals.

– How is street culture in Miensk nowadays in general?

– It keeps developing on all levels. There's young kids joining all kinds of street activities, and there also grownups, like 40-year-old skaters.

When I worked at the skatepark I was amazed to see how the kids live such a different life and how everything there thrived. So, street culture is doing ok in Miensk. As for the street life of the extreme sports, we only recently got two skateparks. So, skateboarding has been and continues to be more of a street thing.

And that's a good thing. Skateboarding just became an Olympic sport a few years ago, which caused quite a stir. For many skaters, calling skateboarding a sport feels like an insult because, for them, it's more of a lifestyle – a culture with its own set of symbols, memes, and even its own mythology. Once it becomes a sport, it immediately shifts into a different dimension. Of course, there is a positive side to it. Way more advertisers start paying attention, which creates more skateparks and job opportunities for coaches. If our skatepark weren’t focused on training future champions, parents wouldn’t be as eager to sign their kids up for skateboarding.

<h2>The Philosophy of a Log with Wheels</h2>

– You graduated from the Philosophy Department at Belarusian State University. How did you end up there and what's the link between street culture and philosophy for you?

– Of course, there's a few ways to answer that. Do you want a joke or a straight answer? I've always been interested in the humanities, particularly in how they impact life. When I was choosing a major, I didn’t think too much about it. I saw that they taught philosophy, and I thought, "Great, that’ll work." And then eventually I really got into it. The thing that worked for me is the fact that philosophy gives you this breadth of understanding. Some people use psychotherapy for this, by working with their personal experience and through that, transcending to new levels of self-awareness. While you can also achieve that by working with the broader cultural experience. That's what philosophy is all about for me. Besides, it's a cornucopia of cultural references. I was also reading a lot of literature and poetry while studying philosophy.

Of course, philosophy and street culture felt like a wild combination at first. Skateboarding one second, then reading Hegel the next. The transition to philosophy student life was actually tough. During the first two years in the university my former lifestyle started showing cracks and then eventually fell apart completely. So more recently I was basically trying to put myself back together. It's just this year that I'm feeling like I'm coming back into my own. Perhaps, my music is part of trying to make sense of it all.

The first essay I ever wrote for a philosophy class was titled "The Philosophy of a Log with Wheels." Of course, it was about skateboarding. It seems that these injections of street culture allowed me to enjoy my studies, because despite the fact that the academic environment changed me significantly, I still remained true to myself. When you study different ethical systems, you realize how concepts like good and evil can vary across cultures and sometimes even seem completely irrelevant. And then there are ethical systems where these concepts don’t exist at all. That's a really mind-expanding realization. Call it a psychedelic side-effect of the philosophical studies.

– One of your Instagram posts is a very original conceptualization of the greeting "Yo!" What's that about?

– It started with me trying to visualize this interjection, that I've been using since being a little kid. I wanted to come up with a hieroglyphic symbol similar to "Om". One designer helped me with the creating the graphic for this concept – and off I went! Now I have dozens of notebooks scribbled with this symbol. I started putting it on t-shirts, we made a merch drop with it. Then I got into writing it everywhere calligraphically. In short, this thing is still to reveal its true powers. On "Yo!"

Hindus believe that the world is the vibration of the sacred primordial sound OM (ॐ) in the mouth of Brahma. The sound from which the world begins, and which, importantly, forms the backdrop of the world – both the form and counterform that define it. We assert that our primordial sound is "Yo!" – the root of hip hop, the root of the life in rhythm and rhyme, the life that rocks. It’s not only a "sound of self-assertion" but also a "sound of eternal greeting". Having created the world Brahma uttered "Yo!" to rejoice in his creation and greet the world.

– I often still feel like a guest in this musical realm. Maybe I’m just lucky, and I don’t want to jinx it, but I see a lot of warmth, kindness, and mutual support here. I'd like to use this opportunity to give a shoutout to everyone who’s been on this journey with me, especially KorneJ, Pasha and the entire Radio Plato team, particularly DJ Gulfstream, DJ MaxGreat, DJ Stwone, all of SmokingZone: The Sensetivist, FlattyVaib, MaxFill; the Poznań crew: Mandzik, GrooveDealerz, Domsun, Dzenadzeya, Lulu; Stas Čekhoŭski, Dasha Bialkevič, the band “Baču Uperšyniu,” Uladz Liankevich, Angst, Zeman, Litara eR, the band Macimora, Sneguole, ENG8, Andrei Kurs, SatvaReally, “VekZakrytykhVek,” and Vital' Stužka. Much respect to everyone, guys – sending heartfelt hugs!