OXXXYMIRON

Oxxxymiron (real name Miron Yanovich Fyodorov) is a Russian and British hip-hop artist. His style combines grime, battle rap-influenced hardcore hip-hop and alternative/abstract hip-hop. Oxxxymiron was born in Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russia) in 1985 in Jewish-Russian family, his father was a physicist, and his mother was a librarian. In 1994 his family moved from Russia to Germany, where his father got a job, and in 2000 to the UK. Miron grew up listening mostly to Soviet 1980s rock bands like Akvarium, Grazhdanskaya Oborona and Yanka Dyagileva, but at one moment, while in Germany, started to be interested in hip-hop culture at the age of 13, and began to write rap songs in Russian. In UK Miron entered and graduated the Oxford University in philology, but wasn't able to find a job due to overqualification. There, influenced by local London grime and UK garage scene, he, with group of another Russian immigrants, continued his hip-hop activity and took part in Russian internet rap battles on hip-hop.ru site. After gaining popularity in Russian hip-hop community through internet due to his rich vocabulary, ingenious punchlines, intellectualism, and complex rhymes, Miron toured Russia and Ukraine in 2009, and became one of the most popular Russian hip-hop artists. He released two albums as of 2015, as well as two mixtapes, first one with his early, internet-battle-era songs (many of which are using other artists' instrumentals), and second with latter singles. Miron is also known for his live battle rap performances on Versus Battle, and his 2015 battle with Johnyboy hit one million views in one day on YouTube. Oxxxymiron lives in Russia now, in his native city of St. Petersburg. He refers to Big L, Ghetts, Devlin, Madchild (of Swollen Members), Eminem, and Kool Savas as his favorite rappers, and to H.P. Lovecraft, Andrei Platonov, William S. Burroughs, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Aleister Crowley as writers who influenced him.