Checking in on Kazakhstan, and having a reaction that’s much kinder than this screencap would suggest…
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[6.57]
Thomas Inskeep: If you’re not sure this is in part an homage to Wu-Tang, the only English-language lyrics these Kazakh rappers drop on “Wu Kang” are, in fact, “Cash rules everything around me.” The sound effects from the Mortal Kombat video game can also be seen as a tribute to RZA’s production for the Wu; this definitely gives me a similar vibe, but doesn’t actually sound anything like Wu-Tang. This Kazakhstani crew and their collaborators are clearly having a great time flipping rhymes off each other and occasionally pausing for little “wow!” interjections. Even though I don’t speak their language, “Wu Kang” is so compelling I keep returning.
[9]
Jessica Doyle: This is actually the second time Irina Kairatovna has built a song out of Mortal Kombat references. (Samsung picked up the bill for that one, in addition to bankrolling “Men Emes” and the most enjoyable live performance of “Señorita” to date. Keep on making unreliable TVs and sending some of the profits to my faves, Samsung!) Presumably the guys have high standards for this second go-round, even if Mark does sneak in an aside about not being a real rapper. (IK was apparently a comedy troupe before it became a satirical rapping collective.) You could exhaust yourself decoding all the sociopolitical commentary being made in the video, and I say that from experience. The song by itself isn’t as compelling: the variety of voices is okay but the backing beat gets repetitive after a while. If you like IK collaborating to produce bilingual pop-rap with lots of references to Kazakhstani politics, “Taboo” is less forceful but more musically interesting. Or just hang in there and see what IK comes up with next. They’re smart and curious enough to make new friends — at the very least, Aldiyar has hung out with Imanbek — and play new games.
[6]
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Really do not understand the cultural contexts and processes through which these Kazakh rappers can so fluently speak the references of 1995-2005 America, but I do in fact understand that this is a banger.
[7]
Juana Giaimo: I guess there is some sense of humor in this track which I’m completely missing due to the language barrier, but I can still feel it in how they exaggerate the way they rap and for the sudden vocal noises. Maybe the humor is a very big part of the song, but without understanding it, it all feels quite monotonous with that guitar loop and rather than having charisma, the three of them feel to me quite annoying.
[4]
Alfred Soto: Irina Kairatovna pivots around the English line “cash rules everything,” not the first and last time a rapper’s done so. The springy post-Timbaland beat impresses on first listen.
[6]
Katherine St Asaph: The playfulness is the key; you just get the sense they’re having a great time, certainly better than you.
[6]
Frank Falisi: Here are some things that aren’t: Comprehending the tractor beam appetite of global imperialism isn’t hearing Mortal Kombat samples in a pop song. The lurch of Empires forever can’t be boiled down to representative comics in a music video. Recipes aren’t their ingredients. Food isn’t love and it isn’t a battlefield, either. But if you soup it all together, when you whisk a little of the everything but leave it chunky and serve it hot, you create an artifact capable of bending meaning, something twisty that absorbs thought lobs from all sides, that can be polemic and politic and satire and also simply the thing that makes you groove a shoulder just so. So groove! Eat up! “Wu Kang” is and “Wu Kang”‘s the thing.
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