Morgenshtern

About

Also known as: Alisher Tagirovich Morgenshtern, Алишер Тагирович Моргенштерн

Morgenshtern, born Alisher Valeyev in Ufa, built his reputation through a YouTube show called #EasyRap and a string of parody videos before pivoting to original hip hop and trap material in 2018. His debut pivot paid off fast: the album Legendarnaja pyl', recorded live over a week in January 2020, hit a million streams on VK in the first half hour and set a platform record with over 21 million streams in two days. By July 2021, Spotify ranked him the most streamed artist out of Russia. His career has never been short on drama. The music video for his 2020 single Pososi became the most disliked YouTube video in Russia, and Russian authorities have repeatedly trained their attention on him, including a 2021 accusation from the head of the Investigative Committee linking him to drug promotion on social media, and a 2022 foreign agent designation from the Ministry of Justice. Collaborations with Timati and Eldzhey, often produced by Slava Marlow, have kept him a fixture in the Russian rap conversation.