Noize MC

Birth, early work (1985–2002)

Alexeev was born on 9 March 1985 in Yartsevo, Smolensk Oblast, Russia. His father is a musician and his mother is a chemist. His parents divorced in 1994. When he was about 8 or 9 years old, Alexeev first began to write poetry, and at the age of ten became interested in music. In the winter of 1995–96 he enrolled in music school, studying classical guitar. In 1997 he moved with his mother to the city of Belgorod, where he twice won the regional competition for classical guitar: 1st place in 1998 and 2nd in 2000. When Alexeev was 13 he formed his own rock band. His idols were Nirvana and The Prodigy. In 2001 Alexeev graduated music school and in 2002 he graduated high school with a "gold medal". That summer, the musician went to the Russian State Humanities University, and therefore had to leave his band and move to Moscow.

Formation (2003–2006)

Settled in an RSHU dormitory, Ivan started his solo career. In 2003, he organized the alternative rock band "Protivo Gunz", composed of non-resident students. It was in his dormitory period that he perfected his mastery of the hip-hop freestyle, and composed most of his demos as Noize MC. The tracks became popular among young people, thanks to the Internet.

From 2003 to 2005 Noize MC participated in various freestyle battles, and other clubs and network hip-hop competition. He regularly won prizes in battles, and the group "Protivo Gunz" toured Moscow and performed in clubs, bars, and outdoor areas.

In March 2005, Noize MC won against the famous rapper Young MC, in the final freestyle Battle at the festival of street culture "Snickers Guru Clan." Noize MC was invited by the organizers to become a judge and presenter at another large street festival, called "Snicckers Urbania"

In May of this year, Ivan Alexeev moved out of the dormitory into a rented room on the street Old Arbat. The band "Protivo Gunz" regularly appeared in impromptu street concerts. Some concerts were interrupted by police.

In the summer of 2005 and 2006, Noize MC went with "Snickers Urbania" on Russia. With the money, the studio recorded songs that were released in various rap compilations. In summer 2006, Noize MC signed to "Respect Productions" as a solo artist, but continued to sing with the band "Protivo Gunz". On 9 September 2006 his rock band won the Russian competition "Urban Sound".

Rise in popularity (2007–2008)

As the grand prize for winning "Urban Sound", Protivo Gunz was filmed in a low-budget video for "Pesnya dlya radioefira" (an old song from the solo repertoire of Ivan Alekseyev), which was shown on the TV channel "Muz-TV". At the insistence of the label, the artist was specified as Noize MC in the final output. In November 2006, the track appeared on the radio station "DFM". In March 2007, Muz-TV showed retakes from the making of the music video. The Estonian music video was directed by Hindrek Maasik.

13 April 2007 a contract was signed between Noize MC and Respect Productions, and the Russian subsidiary of Universal Music Group. Music journalists regarded the signing of the contract as a significant event not only for the artist, but for Russian hip-hop as well. "This event is not easy to overestimate," said analyst portal Rap.ru. "We have seen an underground artist become an artist with an international label name." There was originally a plan to release a Noize MC debut album jointly with Respect Production and Universal Music Russia, but several months later the previous label artist completely handed over rights to Universal Music Group.

At the same time, Noize MC won the largest Russian Internet competition – "7th official hip-hop battles portal Hip-Hop.Ru", which took place from October 2006 to April 2007. He participated in battles with over 3,000 Russian rappers from around the world. A video of one battle "Za Zakrytoj dver'u" went public in September 2007. The director was again Hindrek Maasik. In the autumn, Noize MC's work was widely broadcast on radio stations and music channels, taking 10th place of "100 Best Songs MTV-2007."

In the summer of 2007, Ivan Alexeev starred in a leading role in the project production center Pavel Lungin – the movie "Rozygrysh", a remake of the 1976 popular picture of Vladimir Menshov. Ivan played Igor Glushko, a senior in high school and young musician, who moved to Moscow from the Tyumen region after the death of his parents. Noize MC also composed the soundtrack to the film. The premiere took place on 22 May 2008. A music video for the song "Moyo More" was filmed based on the movie, and is being shown on the channel A-ONE .

Political activity

In February 2010, the car of the Lukoil Vice President Anatoly Barkov collided with a Citroen on the Leninsky Avenue near the Gagarin Square in Moscow. As a result, two women in the Citroen, one of which was pregnant, were killed. Witnesses claimed that Barkov had been in the wrong lane avoiding traffic, but authorities blamed the Citroen. Noize MC was in Vladivostok at the time, on a tour. One of the women in the Citroen was the sister of his friend. Within 24 hours he wrote the rap piece "Mercedes S666" in protest of Barkov's impunity. This song, and its animated music video, became very popular on the internet. (This reaction can be seen as part of a larger social movement against oligarchs' impunity in traffic violations.)

Noize MC, along with other celebrities such as writer Boris Akunin addressed the crowds at an anti-government demonstration on 10 December 2011.

In August 2014 Noize MC performed in Ukraine during the Russian intervention and partial occupation of Ukraine. During a festival in Lviv, he had a Ukrainian flag on stage and dedicated his performance to "all the victims of information warfare". More than 60% of his shows were subsequently cancelled, sometimes raided by drug or bomb squads, and authorities told the band not to play at alternate venues. Speaking to the BBC in November 2014, he said that his group was being "blacklisted" in Russia and added that they were "watched and monitored everywhere. It's pretty creepy. I'm really against war. And now this kind of position is considered dangerous."

Discography

Singles