{"id":49278,"date":"2026-08-25T12:56:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T10:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/?p=49278"},"modified":"2026-08-25T12:57:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T10:57:03","slug":"kazakhstan-multilingual-music-q-pop-hip-hop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/kazakhstan\/kazakhstan-multilingual-music-q-pop-hip-hop\/","title":{"rendered":"From Q-pop to Hip-Hop: Kazakhstan\u2019s Multilingual Sound"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"flex flex-col md:flex-row justify-evenly items-center bg-yellow-100 my-20 p-10 space-y-10 subscribe\">\n\t<div class=\"container flex flex-col lg:flex-row justify-between\">\n\t\t<div class=\"flex flex-col w-full lg:w-3\/5 pb-4\">\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"text-3xl text-secondary font-bold mb-4 text-[#749D02]\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSupport Novastan, the European Central Asia magazine \n\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\tBy supporting Novastan, you are supporting the only English, French and German-language media specialising in Central Asia. We&#8217;re independent and we need your help to stay that way! \n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"flex flex-col w-full lg:w-2\/5 justify-items-center justify-center pb-4\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"rounded-md bg-accent-500 px-10 py-5 text-center w-72 mx-auto\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"block rounded bg-white p-2 mt-4 font-bold\" href=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/soutenir-novastan?language=fr\">Support Novastan<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>From Kazakh-Russian code-switching to French puns and Turkic-inspired typography, Kazakhstan\u2019s musicians are turning multilingualism into a creative language of their own.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Imagine you&#8217;re at a concert in Almaty. The lights go down, the crowd falls quiet, and a singer steps up to the microphone. What comes next is not quite Kazakh, Russian or English, but a mixture of all three. The languages intertwine within the same line, sometimes even within the same word. The audience does not blink; if anything, it seems more engaged. The mixture is familiar because it reflects the way many people speak in everyday life. Kazakhstan&#8217;s multilingual reality gives musicians room for creative wordplay, while language choice can also signal artistic values, identities and worldviews. The examples below show some of the ways musicians bend, combine and reshape the languages around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A multilingual music scene<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kazakhstan has a layered linguistic history. Kazakh is the state language, while Russian remains widely spoken, in part as a legacy of Soviet-era language policies. English, meanwhile, has become increasingly visible among young, urban and globally connected Kazakhstanis. Turkish, Korean, Japanese and other languages also attract interest through the cultural products consumed by younger audiences. Debates over Kazakhstan&#8217;s planned transition from Cyrillic to a Latin-based Kazakh alphabet add another layer to this already complex linguistic environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Public debates about language can sometimes suggest a simple equation: one language, one script, one identity. Official language policy strongly promotes Kazakh and often emphasizes standard or \u201ccorrect\u201d usage. Yet local hip-hop, Q-pop and indie artists frequently disrupt these expectations. They switch between languages and scripts, insert slang and borrow sounds from elsewhere, turning linguistic mixture itself into a creative resource.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Global hip-hop, Kazakh references<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2022, Irina Kairatovna, one of Kazakhstan&#8217;s most popular hip-hop groups, and rapper Shiza released the song &#8216;Kok tu&#8217;<a href=\"#_ftn1\" id=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a>, which opens with these lines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Original<\/th><th>English translation<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>\u0416\u0435\u043b\u0431\u0456\u0440\u0435\u0442\u0456\u043f \u043a\u04e9\u043a \u0442\u0443\u0434\u044b<\/td><td>Waving blue flag<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Boyz n the hood<\/td><td>Boyz n the hood<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\u041a\u0456\u043c \u049b\u0430\u043d\u0434\u0430\u0439 \u0436\u04af\u0437?<\/td><td>Who is from which zhuz?<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\u041a\u0456\u043c\u0434\u0435 \u049b\u0430\u043d\u0434\u0430\u0439 \u0440\u0443?<\/td><td>From which ru?<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\u0411\u04b1\u043b \u0431\u0456\u0437\u0434\u0456\u04a3 \u043c\u0435\u043d\u0442\u0430\u043b\u0438\u0442\u0435\u0442 \u049b\u043e\u0439, \u0431\u04b1\u043b!<\/td><td>This is our mentality, this!<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\u049a\u0443, \u049b\u0443\u0441\u0430\u04a3 \u0438\u043d\u0442\u0435\u043b\u043b\u0438\u0433\u0435\u043d\u0442\u043d\u043e \u049b\u0443!<\/td><td>Go, go crazy but intelligently!<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>True \u0431\u043e\u043b! True \u0441\u04e9\u0439\u043b\u0435!<\/td><td>Be True! Speak True!<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>True. True. True.<\/td><td>True. True. True.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This kind of language mixing is common in Kazakhstani hip-hop, alongside English phrases and references drawn from global hip-hop culture. The lyrics also contain words such as &#8216;zhuz&#8217; and &#8216;ru&#8217;, referring to forms of Kazakh tribal and clan affiliation. The result is both global and intensely local. Artists can signal familiarity with the traditions and conventions of international hip-hop while grounding their music in distinctly Kazakh social references, sounds and meanings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u0418\u0420\u0418\u041d\u0410 \u041a\u0410\u0419\u0420\u0410\u0422\u041e\u0412\u041d\u0410 &amp; SHIZA - K\u00d5K TU [MV]\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PUilAIADiAc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shiza is based in Shymkent, a southern Kazakhstani city where Kazakh is widely spoken. His lyrics are mainly in Kazakh, with occasional lines or words in Russian and English. Irina Kairatovna, by contrast, is based in Almaty and often uses separate verses in both Kazakh and Russian, alongside English words and phrases. This multilingual approach can also broaden an artist&#8217;s potential audience, including Russian-speaking listeners beyond Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ninety One and the politics of language<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ninety One, one of Kazakhstan&#8217;s best-known Q-pop groups, offers a different example. Q-pop draws inspiration from K-pop while developing a distinctly Kazakh-language pop culture. The group&#8217;s name refers to 1991, the year Kazakhstan gained independence, and the members have presented themselves through a strongly patriotic and decolonial frame while performing predominantly in Kazakh. They have played an important role in making Kazakh-language pop more visible to younger audiences. At the same time, they notably avoid Russian in their songs while freely experimenting with English and other languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Several of Ninety One&#8217;s songs turn this linguistic experimentation into wordplay. &#8216;Mooz&#8217; and &#8216;Ah!Yah!Mah!&#8217;, for example, contain English sections or lines. The group also plays with similarities between Kazakh and languages such as English, French and Spanish. In &#8216;Mooz&#8217;, meaning &#8216;ice&#8217;, the spelling uses the English-looking &#8216;oo&#8217; in place of the Kazakh letter &#8216;\u00fa&#8217;. In &#8216;Ah!Yah!Mah!&#8217;, English-style exclamations echo the Kazakh word &#8216;ayama&#8217;, meaning &#8216;do not pity&#8217;. A similar play between Kazakh and French runs through &#8216;Jur mapelep&#8217;, whose title sounds like the French phrase &#8216;je m&#8217;appelle&#8217;. In &#8216;Senorita&#8217;, the artists combine Spanish phrases such as &#8216;Mi casa, su casa&#8217; with the Kazakh word &#8216;bailandy&#8217; (&#8216;he or she became attached&#8217;), creating a phonetic echo of the Spanish &#8216;bailando&#8217;. These choices showcase the flexibility of Kazakh while also demonstrating the artists&#8217; linguistic inventiveness and cosmopolitan references.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NINETY ONE - Jur Mapelep | Lyric Video\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CcB_aO2r-js?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Playing with scripts and typography<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Script and typography provide another field for experimentation. Against the backdrop of Kazakhstan&#8217;s long-running debate over a transition from Cyrillic to Latin script, some artists have also reimagined writing systems used in the region before the Soviet period. Irina Kairatovna, for example, used Cyrillic lettering designed to resemble Arabic script on the poster for the short film &#8216;Turning Over Thirty&#8217;. Rapper Yenlik has used Latin lettering with a similar visual reference to Arabic script on an album cover. Sary, a band working in the growing Q-rock (Qazaq rock) scene, uses a logo whose Latin lettering evokes Turkic runiform writing. Through typography, these artists connect contemporary popular culture with older layers of the region&#8217;s literary and cultural history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Read more on Novastan<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/kazakhstan\/aldaspan-kazakhstan-dombra-heavy-metal\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/kazakhstan\/aldaspan-kazakhstan-dombra-heavy-metal\/\">From K\u00fci to Metallica: How Aldaspan Electrified the Kazakh Dombra<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"sary - Bir Amal\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BpAfSgAf1zE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">After 2022: new cultural directions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The balance between these languages is also changing. Whereas artists such as Irina Kairatovna have used Russian as part of a multilingual strategy that can reach audiences across the post-Soviet space, groups such as Ninety One focus more strongly on Kazakh-speaking listeners while also looking toward international, often English-speaking audiences. Demand for high-quality cultural products in Kazakh had already been growing, but Russia&#8217;s full-scale invasion of Ukraine gave questions of language and national identity new urgency. Some Kazakhstan-born artists who had worked in Russia, including Skryptonite, M&#8217;Dee and Dequine, returned to Kazakhstan and publicly condemned the war. More broadly, parts of the local music scene have increasingly looked toward Western and Asian markets, and some artists have declined to perform in Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Read more on Novastan<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/kazakhstan\/central-asian-rap-in-10-tracks\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/kazakhstan\/central-asian-rap-in-10-tracks\/\">Central Asian rap in 10 tracks<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">International attention has followed. In 2026, hip-hop artist Yenlik appeared on COLORS, the German online music platform that has featured international stars including Billie Eilish, Drake and Doja Cat. The platform has more than eight million followers, and Yenlik&#8217;s performance attracted more than half a million views. In 2025, the British platform Dazed interviewed the Kazakhstani indie artist Samrattama. Actor Iain Armitage, known for the television series Young Sheldon, has also said online that Kazakh singer Ayau is among his favorite artists, bringing her additional international attention. Taken together, these examples point to a broader shift: Russia is no longer the only external cultural reference point for musicians from Kazakhstan, as Western and Asian platforms become increasingly important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Yenlik - Bipl | A COLORS SHOW\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KrKUIg4CW80?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Russian still matters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet the growing symbolic importance of Kazakh does not mean Russian has disappeared from the music industry. Performing in Kazakh can signal patriotism and alignment with local cultural values, but Russian remains important in professional and commercial life. According to people working in the sector, contracts and financial arrangements with advertising companies are still often handled in Russian. In practice, working in the creative industries &#8211; and in urban professional life more generally &#8211; can still be difficult without it. It is therefore too early to speak of a complete &#8216;Kazakhization&#8217; of the music scene. What is visible instead is a substantial, but uneven, linguistic shift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kazakhstan&#8217;s multilingual environment, combined with the coexistence of several scripts and writing traditions, gives musicians unusually rich material for linguistic experimentation. Artists use language choice, code-switching, script and typography to communicate values, identities and worldviews. There is a clear decolonial current and a growing body of high-quality music in Kazakh, but the picture is more complicated than a simple replacement of Russian by Kazakh. Russian remains significant, while English and other international languages are becoming increasingly prominent in the country&#8217;s music scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These examples capture only a fraction of the linguistic experimentation taking place in Kazakhstan&#8217;s music. Future pieces in this series will look at the rise of Qazaq rock, the country&#8217;s underground music scene, and the ways Russia&#8217;s war against Ukraine has reshaped the choices and horizons of local musicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Article by Merey Otan, PhD in Eurasian Studies, Nazarbayev University.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" id=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> \u2018Kok tu\u2019 translates from Kazakh as \u2018blue flag\u2019, referring to Kazakhstan\u2019s national flag, which features a blue background, a golden sun and eagle, and traditional Kazakh ornamentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Kazakh-Russian code-switching to French puns and Turkic-inspired typography, Kazakhstan\u2019s musicians are turning multilingualism into a creative language of their own. Imagine you&#8217;re at a concert in Almaty. The lights go down, the crowd falls quiet, and a singer steps up to the microphone. What comes next is not quite Kazakh, Russian or English, but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2257,"featured_media":49284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4670,4],"tags":[5018,5022,470,5020,5017],"coauthors":[5019],"class_list":["post-49278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-sports","category-kazakhstan","tag-irina-kairatovna","tag-kazakh-language","tag-kazakhstan","tag-ninety-one","tag-q-rock"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49278"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49296,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49278\/revisions\/49296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49278"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=49278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}