Photographer Alex de Mora documents Mongolia's burgeoning hip-hop scene

by John Holland, CNN

The poet was a young man for the first time since 1996 Tugsjargal Munkherdene heard American hip-hop.

Four early years, Mongolia’s various Soviet government had fallen to the ground to open a new wave of cultural distinction. The easing of State censorship anticipated new era of free expression. This also means that G-funk, boom bap and came to the airwaves gangster music – including the path to and Eternal pressure on teenage Munkherdene, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s “187 of the undercover cop.”

“I realized I did not put them pulsation of my poems and started writing rap music,” he recalled in a video conference from the study of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital.

Is growth in Ulaanbaatar ger parts of the Munkherdene in one glance-chronicled in the city in a certain difficulty to be able to empathize idolized in music. ‘ It is composed of the semi-permanent and wide in the tents of their own (not in my mind, nor, in a word, into the Mongolian yurts) are the external things, because it is a city of 1990 tripled in size through the streets, and in the lounge, just as traditionally nomadic population, being drawn away, and to capital.

In most instances, the places, the houses of the return of some low-works burnt, the wood-a little brazier – who had until 2019 a ban in the coals of the boiling – the wrong side of the city, sending the other side of the sky, the lesser is always less than the winter temperatures of 20 degrees Fahrenheit. As a child, does not walk Munkherdene several kilometers a day to fetch water.

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Gee Mongolia’s Big Rapper Pakistan and riding a camel’s head. A scroll through a gallery of images of the photographer’s and filmmaker Alex delay the project, “Straight Unknown Ulaanbaatar.” credit; Alex de Mora

“We do not have recording – there were very few, and (be) very expensive. At the start of the tap is difficult,” he said. “We do not have a good way to make money, as high-quality audio and video, or to work in big companies. Radio and Television closed our music and videos. Hip-hop They thought it was a bad thing.”

Now, more than two decades after the age of 37, who are professionally known as Big Gee, is one of the country’s best-known MCs. A regular fixture in the Mongolian television and a star at the KFC double, which is heavily tattooed sports car-driving greatest rags-to-riches tale hip-hop.

But Mongolia’s landlocked tap outside the city that are little-known man. This is in part what prompted British tour director Alex from time to catch something from the scene with colorful characters in “Straight Unknown Ulaanbaatar,” a letter and a book that profile as the preferred city in the yards artists, as well as B-boys from record store owner and Tattooist.

“When most people think about Mongolia, think about the big open expanses, and maybe it has not heard a humped camel or two to think about men riding on horses, but they never thought … the culture in an urban film,” calling see a delay in London said. “that’s to show that – there is something different going on in the world so that they stay there.”

Mongolian Rapper Maberrant painted in the passenger seat of a car and the price of Alex out of time. credit; Alex de Mora

Tackling social issues

Husbands to “obsessed with music and sociology:” The delay photographed at the high-profile US rappers like Pusha T, 50, and they are proud members of the Wu-Tang Clan. He often clichéd tropes of eschews the hip-hop photography, the self-funded through an access path to Mongolia. Place show images of rappers deployed in part or in its distortions – or over – ears much warmer playful than usual nod class.

‘Obvious to try, and in closing dashes, not the kind of image, “he said.” It’s quite funny when you get your room, and Guy seemed out of control begins to understand that it is good to have some. However, this project wished to find a more intimate and personal moments. “

Big Gee, the picture of the cover of the book features a delay also serves as the documentary’s central figure and narrator. In the field of the report of the life challenges in Ulaanbaatar is a prayer concerned from the wider.

“Lots of problems for us in Mongolia – Social issues, unemployment, chronic alcoholism, corruption and many more,” he told CNN Munkherdene, adds: “The government is not taking care Mongolian people, we’re the only one to keep the charge “.

One of Ulaanbaatar’s sprawling ger districts. credit; Alex de Mora

The Rapper is known to speak out about abuses of power and the sky. But if these themes are common to hip-hop all over the world, as well as many other topics he raps about, they own the country, were ger district and the pride of Mongolian race (Munkherdene the word “Mongol” tattooed delivering the letter below the left). In addition to their lengths Chinese-rally operated in the alleged mistreatment of my instead of local workers – controversially so, by the use of a derogatory slur (Rapper his carrots told CNN that they are not used to the word Chinese people, although the music is they have been deleted from YouTube videos in question).

As many of the folk songs of Mongolian, woven from the top by means of music, there is a different important theme: the nature of the.

“I have protecting some of the songs (and one might say) that we are my people. Real wealth, what is money? Gold? In my opinion, it’s not gold or silver, it does not drive up drive, which is not great cars or big bands. Real wealth is pure human nature. “

Portrait of a city

Fittingly, the nature of the central character in the photo of the delay. Mountains, sand dunes in the world – every day – never be a rich blue skies Ulaanbaatar. Holding the eagle, and he walks about in the one, he shot up behind him he sees it by one of the Big Ges reached Pakistan and made from the hair of camels, he sat down, his own, it is to be found in the vast landscapes of Pop Proin consequat backdrops to substitute other part of the city.

‘Calling (Mongolia), and the Blue Sky, “for a very good reason,” the delay said. “It’s something that makes the images that blazed fiercely. I have never seen so much, and the blue sky sun in my life. “

However, Mora’s project assumes the perspective of a particular subculture, that is, in truth, the Mongolian broad portrait of the head. Prudence the bigger picture of the color photos of the city dwellers in different directions, after the completion of the kids to play in the streets, and the elders of the Accordion player.

Get great rewards for the statue of Genghis Khan in Ulaanbaatar. credit; Alex de Mora

In the letter, meanwhile, rappers on this footage and shots of Soviet-style murals, identikit tower blocks and Smokestacks client state that will endure. The combination of English Medium graffiti and signs indicate the different cultural forces at work within the city.

Horse singing rapper Maberrant young man aside and played Bach at the end of the credits nation looks at how nature sounds of wind chimes Other media and superstition.

“I do not want to judge people who are watching the film and the music,” said the delay. “1 wanted them to watch the film and understand the city and the personality of the people and the places … It was always a portrait of a city and a culture within a city. It was never going to be a critique or a Review of the music. “

‘Songs straight Ulaanbaatar“Printed in Lick Pavement, is available now.

News

Photographer Alex de Mora documents Mongolia’s burgeoning hip-hop scene

Tackling social issues

Portrait of a city

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