| DA-108 | |
| Landscape: | yes |
| Origin: | Saint Petersburg, Russia. |
| Years Active: | 1992–present |
DA-108 is a rap band from Saint Petersburg (Russia) was formed in 1994 by DJ-108 and Cooper. A distinctive feature of the band is strong emphasis for flow with frivolous attitude to the content of lyrics (the term was even coined wack style — the style of nonsense).
Pavel Pachk'ay aka «DJ 108» was born in 1973 in Leningrad in the Soviet Union. In his children and youth he was engaged in breakdancing. In January 1990 Pavel went to study in the US for a month on an exchange program. During this he found and became interested in rap and hip-hop. In 1991 he went to the Institute he met Anton aka Fux was a famous breakdancer in Saint Petersburg. Then they decided to create a rap band.[1] Fux was a lyric, Pavel made a music. Name DA-108 was appeared into the title after reading the article "Solving a strange number».[2] They didn't have any musical equipment and all of their first records was made in a home studio on a tape recorder using the Soviet drum machine "LEL", using samples from southern hip-hop. The recorded demo album consists of 10 tracks.
In 1992 they purchased a Yamaha drum machine and a Lomo microphone and they began to record their second album. After some performances, Fux left the band in 1993. In summer 1993 DJ 108 met Rasim from the Academy-2 band. Thanks to Rasim Pavel starred in the video «Буду погибать молодым» (Budu pogibat molodym/To die young) of Mister Maloy MC.[3]
In 1994 DJ 108 met Roman Alexeev aka Cooper from «S.M.D.» band on the basketball court. Cooper became the third member of DA-108.[4] DJ-108 offered Cooper to make verse on the track «Московский гуляка» (Moscovsky gulyaka/Moscow reveller) of Sergey Esenin under music of famous hit of Malchishnik band.[1] March 8, 1994 was the first performance of this song.
The band toured around St. Petersburg and Moscow, participating in various festivals and promotions with some songs. Author of all lyrics was DJ-108 except track «Я хочу сказать» (I want to say) by Cooper. Lyrics of DA-108 strongly influenced by the absurdist poetry of Daniil Charms. This style was named wack style — the style of nonsense. The flow and music of DA-108 was influenced by oldschool rap bands Ultramagnetic MC's, House of Pain, Naughty By Nature, Das EFX. Signature feature of DA-108 was using quotes from Soviet films.
In 1994 the band was invited to the concert «Stop The Violence» by Academy-2 band, organized by Vlad Valov. Later DA-108 performed at the fest Rap Music 1994 where the group took second place, gave away the IFK band.[3] This year they were given the first interview for 5TV.[5] In 1995 DJ-108 bought a computer and recorded new main tracks of DA-108. Next year the band took the first place at the Rap Music 1996 Fest.[6]
DA-108 was making way for rap in St. Petersburg clubs allowed new teams to appear on the stage co-adapting young rappers to DA-108 Flava. In 1994, near the Gorkovskaya metro station, Cooper began selling audio cassettes of rap. DJ Kefir created radio advertising for him. Many rappers of St. Petersburg tightened to Cooper. They formed the group «DA-108 Flava» aka Горьковская туса (Gorkovskaya Tusa). This creative association included a lot of rap collectives : «X-team», «Адреналин» (Adrenaline), «ЧП», «D-Story», «Невский Бит (Nevsky Beat)», «Зелёный Синдром» (Zeleny sindrom / Green Syndrome), «Ikambi Gwa Gwa», A-Tone and others. In the future, many famous artists came out of this Association, for example, Smoky Mo and Krip-A-Krip.[7]
In November 1996 supporting Vlad Valov, appeared broadcast «Хип-Хоп Инфо» (Hip-Hop Info) on the Radio Record with DJ-108 and Anton Fux as hosts. At the same time Fux created a new project - Baltic Clan with STDK, Papa Gus and other rappers.
21 May 1999 debut LP «Дорога на восток» (Doroga na Vostok/Road to the East) was released on the tapes. This is a collection of songs from period from 1992 to 1998. 15 October 1999 album was released on CD by label Zvezda Records. In 2007 album was included in list of main Russian rap albums from 1999 by rap.ru portal.[8]
In 1998 DJ-108 and DJ Tonic created the broadcast «ХОП-инфо» (Hop-info) on the radio «ПОРТ FM» (PORT FM) but it didn't last very long. At the late 1998 DJ-108 opens record label «МАМАПАПА» (Mamapapa / Motherfather) where recorded young mc's and created radio spots.
In 1999 DJ Keet joined to DA-108 collective. 23 August 2000 was released a video by track «Праздник Эй-Тона (Say 26)» (Prazdnik Ey-Tona / A-Tone's holiday) was made in 1999 year. This track was a birthday gift for rapper A-Tone from DA-108 Flava. Despite the small budget and home-made quality, the video hit the chart rotation of MTV Russia in September 2000.[9] 10 September 2000 the band performed on «Adidas Streetball Challenge 2000» fest.[10] [11]
At the end of 2000 DJ-108 relocated in Moscow where works under sound production of Bad B. Alliance artists. From 2001 to 2002 he recorded second album. In 2003 Pavel returned to Saint Petersburg. In 2003 was released a video by track «Все Вместе» (Vse vmeste / All together) feat «Триатлон» (Triatlone) band.[7]
On 6 July 2004 was released the second LP «Комбинатор» (Combinator). LP was full of samples and quotes from soviet films - phrases of the great Combinator Ostap Bender and other cinematic characters as comments and interludes of tracks. Some tracks was created on poems of Sergey Esenin and Daniil Kharms.
In 2009 DJ-108 was interviewed for a documentary series «Хип-Хоп В России: от 1-го Лица» (Russian hip-hop from the first Person).
Since 2014 to 2019 DJ-108 was a judge of Versus Battle YouTube show including battle Oxxxymiron vs Johnyboy 12 April 2015.[12]
In 2016 album «Дорога на Восток» was remastered on vinyl by label «To Russia with Love».[13]
In 2017 Pavel published video from 1992 year where some famous Russian rappers (DA-108, Bad Balance, Mister Maloy) rapped and danced the one in the underpass.[14] In 2017 DA-108 and «Зелёный Синдром» (Zeleny sindrom / Green Syndrome) band performed the opening act of House Of Pain in SPB.[15]
30 March 2018 was released an album «Питерский олдскул» («St. Petersburg oldschool») including a lot of old unreleased tracks and some new material.[16] [17] This year DJ-108 participated on the solo album «Триумф» (Triumph) of Vasily Vasin from Kirpichi.[18]
In 2019 honor of the twentieth anniversary was remastered on vinyl single «Праздник Эй-Тона» (Say 26). Also DJ-108 gave some interview for some YouTube hip-hop blogs.[19] [20]
On 23 May 2020 Cooper suffocated with carbon monoxide as a result of a fire in his apartment on the eighth floor of a building in the Vyborg district of SPB. Together with the 43-year-old rapper, his 62-year-old mother Lyudmila died.[21] DJ-108 told in interviews for some media about the last years of Cooper's life and discussed his problems with alcohol.[22] [23]
11 June 2020 was released fourth LP «Это все не то» (Чужие 2005-2011) (Eto vse ne to (chuzhie 2005-2001) / It's all wrong (strangers 2005-2011)) consists of old unreleased tracks from 2005 to 2011.[24] [25]
22 June 2020 was released single «Бери шинель» (Beri shinel / Take your greatcoat).
1 July 2020 Bad Balance, DJ-108 and Lojaz released video for track «Высоко на небесах» (Vysoko na nebesah / High in the sky), devoted the memory of Cooper.[26]
The initial language of this article was Russian.