Along with the “goosebumps” from listening to the new track “Heat” by Max Korzh, the listeners received an impressive portion of reflections on the hidden meaning of the song due to the abundance of metaphors. A modern parable from an original rapper came out literally a day before the next presidential election in Belarus.

“Heat” by Max Korzh – the direct meaning of the text, analysis of the track

In the comments under the audio on Max Korzh’s YouTube channel, thoughtful users describe each line from the text of the track. All phrases are interpreted on the current picture of what is happening in the country of the musician. However, there are descriptions of the composition on the net without mundane political overtones.

The beginning of “Heat” sounds like an invitation to a fairy tale. Comparative images of what is happening to a person now and what he wants – to wrap himself in a blanket, lie down on a soft pillow, relax – this is how the author unites himself with the audience. He makes it clear that he knows this state of fatigue from himself. Further, after the words “listen to a fairy tale,” the performer, as if with ice water, returns the dreamer to everyday life, fear and helplessness.

The image of a negative hero who stole the sun in the famous fairy tale by Korney Chukovsky has already been used in rap. The popular ATL used this technique in a number of his compositions. The crocodile in the track “Heat” is called a certain sage who has long taken freedom and light from the people. If you think from the point of view of the lyrical component, each person or group of people with a bunch of problems has a main enemy who is to blame for all the troubles. With the condition that the release of the song would have come at any other time – not the election race in Belarus – the desired meaning of the Korzh track was clear to every suffering person in his own way.

The political meaning of the song “Heat”

In the first three verses, the rapper talks about the sage and the people controlled by him, who are not happy with the sun taken from them. In the political context, we are talking about Alexander Lukashenko, who has been the president of Belarus for 26 years. Moreover, the musician does not show his assessment of what is happening – the whole fairy tale comes from the perspective of the observer. Users especially note the words “get in here”, which are superimposed on the footage from the detention of the protesters, like a carbon copy. With the 4th verse, Korzh is trying to convey to both the people and the authorities a picture of the future – how people will adapt to survive without the “sun” and become heroes of utopia.

In the chorus, the author refers to the “crocodile” with the words “Give warmth”, the meaning of which is on the surface. And the third line of the chorus even visualizes – the author seems to be pointing a finger at people from the crowd: “Him, him, him …”. Due to the truly terrible reality in Minsk, the meaning of Korzh’s track is far from hidden – the story of what is happening on the surface. And the combination of a viscous bit, a sad fairy tale and a video sequence from the thick of events in Belarus plunges you into a heartbreaking euphoria.

Tired and angry people got their reflection on the cover of the track, where a large mountain of living people, literally “over the heads” of their fellow countrymen, is trying to reach the sun. The song turned out to be action-packed, disassembled into quotes and quite like the anthem of the protesters.

A deep and incredibly accurate allusion to the events in Minsk is precisely what “Teplo” is characterized not only by the Belarusian people and the media, but also outside the post-Soviet space. Among the listeners there were residents of Turkey, Bulgaria and Asian countries. The words from Korzh’s text fit perfectly into the video footage of rallies and riots, which are broadcast around the world. Whether such a coincidence of the hidden meaning was deliberate or accidental is not known. It is only clear that the performer, as never before, showed his personal unity with the Belarusians.