Market screamers or witches? The womanly face(s) of Russian and Ukrainian rap at the turn of the 2010s and 2020s

This article investigates prominent female artists in Russian and Ukrainian rap during the past decade. It employs theoretical and methodological approaches derived from scholarship on global hip hop and hip hop feminism in diverse geographical settings, while situating the analysis within the sociopolitical and linguistic contexts of contemporary Russia and Ukraine. The study highlights both shared features and points of divergence among these performers, their relationships with American and European female rap colleagues, and their interaction with male counterparts in the genre. The findings indicate that female rappers in both Russia and Ukraine engage with multiple expressions of femininity. In Ukraine, ‘reperky’ have successfully drawn upon local folklore, a key component of the nation-building processes that have shaped the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In particular, the widely recognized artist Alyona Alyona has played an important role in contesting dominant stereotypes of female rappers as either hypermasculine or excessively sexualized. In Russia, ‘repershi’ are constructing identities that move beyond Western models and male-dominated frameworks, as evidenced by their notable contributions to battle rap and the emergence of a distinctive Tatar rap ‘wave’ that offers decolonial perspectives. At the same time, established female rappers in both countries appear less inclined to engage with the socially conscious themes that are characteristic of leading male hip hop artists in Russia and Ukraine. Furthermore, questions of gender identity have yet to be explored in ways that challenge the conventional binary and heteronormative model.