Though hip-hop MCs often like to strike an outlaw pose, this highly skilled and steely Russian rapper lives it for real. Wanted back home in Russia on drug charges, Oleg Nechiporenko—who was born in St. Petersburg in 1989—was living in Spain when he began his music career in the early 2010s by sharing his chilling, bruising tracks online. Nechiporenko believes that his prison stint in early 2016—as he (successfully) fought extradition—helped sharpen his sound, which combines murky production textures, the hard and lean rhythms of trap, a proudly underground sensibility and his own dexterous flow in his native tongue. Nechiporenko’s first album after changing his handle from YVN KXX to kizaru and establishing the label and artist collective known as Haunted Family, 2016’s Mas Fuerte made him a sensation among hip-hop fans in Russia and became the first in a series of releases to top the country’s iTunes chart. Later albums such as 2019’s Karmageddon saw kizaru take more confident strides beyond the lessons he learned from his original American influences like Boot Camp Clik, Heltah Skeltah and Black Moon. “Honey’s Kettle”, a hard-hitting 2020 single recorded with HoodRich Pablo Juan, further confirms kizaru’s status as a made-in-Russia successor to those pioneering gangsta heroes.