Sometimes popularity comes to a person only after death. So it was with Van Gogh and with a legion of other geniuses who were not unrecognized during their lifetime. Many successful and sought-after people became even more successful and in demand after press reports about their death - Viktor Tsoi, Michael Jackson, Vladislav Listyev... But the conversation now is not about them, but about a person whose death excited the entire Internet - even those of its users , which we had never heard of any Guf before.
So, Guf. In the world - Alexey Dolmatov. The rapper, known for his speech impediment - burr, and a quote from the song “I'm on the seventh floor. It’s like number six, but one higher.” Despite the fact that his work is considered lowbrow even among not the most aesthetes from hip-hop culture, he is popular in certain circles, since Guf’s target audience is teenagers who are omnivores in principle. And so Mr. Dolmatov would still be reading his rap in second-rate clubs to drunken kids, but truly popular fame suddenly fell on him: it was brought by the message that Guf was dead.
It would seem, why does a person need popularity if he is already dead? However, not all so simple. Firstly, there are a great many versions of what happened on the Internet. Even respected news resources cannot come to a common opinion, let alone the grieving fans who attribute to their favorite death more and more interesting: either Guf died during a terrorist attack, or in a car accident, or from a drug overdose, of which the rapper was very fond. And some confidently claim that the idol of the young punks... is alive. Actually, Rufus himself also shares this opinion. And he even stated this several times. But the fans, shedding tears, prefer not to believe him: apparently, they love the dead rapper more than the living one.
Was this misinformation a well-thought-out PR stunt, or did it happen because of someone else? malicious intent, is not known for certain. There is an opinion that the spam attack was directed against Dolmatov’s fans: someone sent messages to their VKontakte accounts with the following content: “Guf died, find out more at *link*.” Moreover, in order to read the news, you need to register by entering your email. And once you have received such information, there is no need to explain what spammers will do with it.
Fans told their friends about Guf’s alleged death, and they told their friends, and as a result, only the lazy had not heard about this news. Although in fact, “the patient is more likely to be alive than dead,” and he is satisfied with the current circumstances. Because, as you know, the most effective PR is black PR.
Image sources: cs9926.vkontakte.ru, s0.tchkcdn.com
More and more often you can see the message “Guf has died.” Articles and messages in in social networks With such content they spread at lightning speed. However, the rap artist feels quite well and does not understand where the rumors about his death came from. The rumor, picked up, spread across the RuNet, simultaneously acquiring false facts and absurd evidence. Rapper Guf officially stated that this is not a PR stunt to support his rating. According to one version, someone made a mistake, or deliberately wrote false information about his death, but fans of his work took this news at face value, quickly spreading it. Thanks to social networks and blogs, the news of Guf’s death began to spread throughout the RuNet.
Guf died. But as?
There are tons of different articles and social media posts you can find online. Some claimed that he was hit by a car, others that he died from a drug overdose. However, Guf himself has repeatedly stated that he has no addiction to drugs, but the statements made earlier did not stop his fans. According to query statistics, in the search engines Yandex and Google, a query with the exact phrase “Guf died” is counted more than 40,000 times. In any case, even if it was someone’s cruel joke, it brought a lot of attention from listeners to his work.
Death of Guf and other stars
Similar messages, news and articles appear on the Internet not only in relation to the Russian rap artist. Many stars are forced to go to the grave before their death due to the fault of journalists who want to increase the circulation of their publications. Previously, materials were published about the death of Jennifer Lopez, Tom Cruise, Alla Pugacheva and other world stars. However, it is not always possible to find the original source of such information. Thanks to the fans, such news spreads very quickly, and it is almost impossible to stop this process.
Death is a great PR move
Not always news of death famous people in the field of show business they appear due to someone’s fault. As practice has shown, this is an excellent PR move to increase popularity. After people learn about the death of their idols, they begin to search for information and massively buy up everything related to them. Maintaining a star image is usually done by a staff of managers who develop several versions of what happened, and then release the information in print and on the Internet. The stars themselves who use this method always completely deny their involvement in such news, but many already understand that such a mechanism for maintaining the popularity of stars is an integral part of modern show business.
The message “Guf is dead” cannot be unambiguously attributed to this kind of PR, since his popularity among the masses has remained stable over the past six months, the rapper gathers hundreds of people for his concerts in all cities of Russia and such methods of promoting and increasing sales of his albums simply do not needs.
Guf died- a meme associated with fake news about the death of rapper Guf (Alexey Dolmatov). Since 2011, there have been attempts to “kill” him several times, which is why the phrase “Guf is dead” has become a mandatory comment on any news about the rapper or his work.
Origin
It is believed that the first rumor about Guf’s death spread on January 25, 2011. Then there was a rumor that he died in a terrorist attack at Domodedovo airport along with rapper Basta and designer Artemy Lebedev. Despite the dubious situation, only Dolmatov’s death was believed the most and they actively discussed whether it was true or not.
There is also a version that, against the backdrop of news of the terrorist attack, online scammers became more active. They published posts with the news of Guf’s death, accompanied by links that stole user logins for the spammer database.
Later, of course, Guf himself denied the news of his death. But the Internet could no longer be stopped, and especially the trolls, who wrote “Guf is dead” every time the rapper was mentioned.
In 2012, Guf recorded a track together with Basta, which contained the following dialogue:
- Guf, are you dead?
- No, it killed me.
It is worth noting that Guf’s work has also more than once become the object of ridicule. In particular, many will laugh at a line from his track "Is it easy to be young": “I’m on the seventh floor. It’s like the sixth one, but one higher” (Hello, ).
Based on the memes “Guf is dead” and “One higher”, hundreds of demotivators and . Many of them combined Cap phrases with news about the “dead Guf.”
Gallery
Alexey Dolmatov, better known as Guf, is an almost legendary rap artist, co-founder and former member CENTER groups. However, for some, Guf’s name became known only after constant exclamations about his death. There are, of course, a lot of versions about the reasons for the rapper’s death: a drug overdose, a car accident and even a contract killing, allegedly Guf’s death was the work of a professional sniper. But why is Guf really dead? What happened to the legendary rap artist? And did anything happen at all?
Guf: dead or not
From simple life observations one can already notice that it is often possible to gain fame and become famous only after death. Well, yes, a talent lives on, seems to be famous, has its own admirers and admirers, but suddenly it died... Television, radio, frantic sobs of fans are starting to talk about this. The information reaches the ignorant, it becomes interesting why they are mourning him so much. Information is spreading, everything more people interested in the mysterious hero. And the hero is becoming more and more popular.
Look at it like this, and not a bad PR move, by the way. It worked with Guf. Why is Guf dead? He is not dead, everything is fine with him, these are just rumors. They started after the explosion at Domodedovo airport. Newspapers began to be full of information about the death of the rapper. What is this: someone’s banter or a PR move conceived by the singer’s manager? History is silent about this.
The press manager of the CENTR group himself personally denied rumors about Guf’s death, adding that everything was fine with the performer.
But as usually happens. Guf is not dead - it’s uninteresting and boring, but dead Guf- this is a topic for discussion. And even Guf’s own statements cannot save him. This kind of information grabs you like an avalanche.
The lion's share of Guf's fans are teenage schoolchildren. Imagine the speed at which information about the death of a favorite performer spreads among the vulnerable souls of teenagers! Links on the Internet are sent to each other and to others in order to sympathize, support, register on a bunch of spam sites “in memory of Guf.” Meanwhile, Guf is glorified... being alive, of course.