Russian rapper Ptakha (real name David Nuriev) was contacted the day after news of the bombardment that fell in Donetsk. This was reported to RT by the representative of the artist Marina Evstifeeva.
According to him, it turned out that footage of the bombardment was staged. Ptakha, along with another musician, “decided to troll Ukrainian soldier stars with indicative photos/videos on the front line, but the joke clearly got out of hand.”
Evstifeeva said that everything is fine for the rapper. Now in the Rostov region. Images of the fake bombing were also taken at the training ground.
On March 6, Nuriev said in an interview with RIA Novosti that he came to the DPR with humanitarian aid. He also announced that the movie “Brother-3”, in which he played one of the main roles, will be released in the fall of 2023.
Two days later, on March 8, TASS, citing a representative of DPR law enforcement, wrote that Ptakha came under fire in Donetsk. According to these data, the artist came to talk with the soldiers, but at that time artillery attacks began, after which communication with him was lost.
Later, Evstifeeva confirmed that her relatives and colleagues could not reach Nureyev – she did not pick up the phone, the phone was out of network coverage. At the same time, a video of the “bombardment” circulated on the Internet. In the footage, Ptah in military gear and helmet captures himself on camera. At one point gunshots are heard, someone throws a machine gun. Then the camera falls to the ground and the recording is interrupted.
After Evstifeeva confirmed that everything is fine with the rapper, she posted a video on the social network that is a continuation of the first. On it, the camera lies on the ground, shooting sounds are heard. Then Nuriev picks him up and explains that the Ukrainian fighters on the front line allegedly shot videos like this. The artist also showed that he was on the training ground.
Nuriev, 41, was born in Baku. Her father is Armenian by nationality and her mother is Azerbaijani. At the age of 9, the future artist’s family left Azerbaijan due to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and moved to Moscow.
Ptakha chose her creative pseudonym because of the similarity of clothes with the heroine of the movie “Above the Ring”. In this sports series, the famous American rapper Tupac Shakur played the crime boss Brady – “Bird”.
Nuriev started his musical career in 1996 in the band Les Misérables. In 2001, the band released their first studio album Archive, after which Ptakha broke up.
In the early 2000s, the rapper released solo tracks, and then teamed up with Guf and Slim to record several records as part of Centr. The group became the winner of the MTV Russia Music Awards 2008 in the category “Best hip-hop project” with the song “City of Roads”.
In 2010, Ptaha left Centr and created a new solo project under the pseudonym Zanuda. She herself explained that she’s getting old and “starting to get bored”. Nureyev, who later got together with other musicians, founded the current group Üç Whales.
In recent years, Ptaha has released solo records, returned to Centr and recorded a mini-album with them, participated in battles with other rappers and engaged in entrepreneurship. In particular, he was a record label, a booking agency, and co-founder of TsAO Records.
In 2006, Nuriev starred in a cameo role in the film “Heat”, and in 2008 Fyodor Bondarchuk starred in a fantasy film based on the Strugatsky brothers’ novel “Inhabited Island”.
Ptaha has repeatedly clashed publicly with other musicians from the hip-hop scene. In particular, they had disagreements with Guf, Legalize, Basta and others. In 2017, the artist released a video of a song in which he denounced those who participated in mass protests, describing them as “majors” going out with American money. In response, she was accused of working for the authorities.