Ivan Timofeyevich Dryomin (Russian: Иван Тимофеевич Дрёмин; born 8 April 1997), better known by his stage name Face, is a Russian rapper[1] who made his debut in 2015 with his EP Cursed Stamp (Russian: Проклятая печать) and has been producing music since.
Ivan Dryomin was born on 8 April 1997 in Ufa. His father, Timofei Dryomin (born c. 1968), was a struggling businessman. Dryomin has an older brother, Bogdan (born c. 1992). Their parents divorced when the younger son was less than a year old. Both children were baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. Their mother was devoutly religious, and was diagnosed with schizophrenia when Dryomin was in the eighth grade. As a youth, Dryomin participated in boxing at school and won medals in city competitions.
In 2013, Dryomin and his friends swore a blood brother oath to the allegiance of Adolf Hitler to lead racial holy war. However, Dryomin quickly realized the wrongfulness in such white nationalist views and has since disavowed such beliefs. He was a member of the gopnik subculture and joined "Aurora Gang", a youth street gang, and was nicknamed Batei Aurora, after the street he grew up on. This gang engaged in petty crime including underage drinking, vandalizing cars, shoplifting, and street fights. In 2014, Dryomin supported himself by growing and dealing marijuana and hashish from his rented apartment. He was caught by police and sent to live with his grandmother. It was then that he turned away from his life of hooliganism due to fear of being killed or incarcerated, and started to create music.[2]
In 2015, Dryomin attended a concert by Russian rapper Pharaoh and was inspired to make his own rap songs. His stage name Face was invented with his brother and is meant to characterize his many-sidedness and constant metamorphosis in his work. He released his debut EP Проклятая печать ("Cursed Seal") on SoundCloud on 30 October 2015. A video was released for one of its tracks,『Гоша Рубчинский』("Gosha Rubchinskiy"), a homage to the fashion designer of the same name, on 3 January 2016.
Face released three EPs in 2016: Vlone, Mayhem, and Playboy. He released the EP Revenge in 2017. He released two full-length albums, Hate Love and No Love, in 2017, as well as non-album singles『Бургер』("Burger") and『Я роняю запад』("I'm Dropping the West"), the latter a sarcastic take on Russian patriotism with a music video that features the rapper riding a bear and standing on a burning American flag.[3]
Face's songs are often profane, sexually explicit, and contain references to drugs, which has led to socially conservative law enforcement in Russia to cancel his concerts. In response to this censorship, he released a politically charged album, Пути неисповедимы ("Mysterious Ways"), on 2 September 2018, that criticizes the corruption and social problems in Russia,[4] which he has described as a "third world country."[5] Face had received offers from President Vladimir Putin's public relations officials to produce pro-government content for the Kremlin, but turned it down.[6]
His latest album, Slime, was released on 1 February 2019 and spawned the singles "Woof",『Мой калашников』("My Kalashnikov"), and『Спасательный Круг』("Lifebuoy"). He also released the titicular soundtrack song for the Mikhail Idov drama film Юморист ("The Humorist").
In March 2022 he criticized the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and subsequently emigrated to Poland, noting that he faces arrest in Russia for his critique of the government. Despite his music being in Russian and most of his fans being Russians, he pulled his music from Russian online stores to express his protest. In Poland he participated in a concert collecting funds for Ukrainian refugees, apologizing to them for Russian actions.[7]
Dryomin has several tattoos, including the words "Hate" and "Love" below each of his eyes, the word "Numb" on his forehead, the Playboy bunny and Vlone logos on each of his forearms, and the words "Rock" and "Star" on the back of each hand.[9]
Dryomin has been diagnosed with major depressive disorder and experiences panic attacks. He received treatment for mental illness for two weeks at a psychiatric hospital. He references this event in his song "Burger": "I'm so fucking crazy, I was in the loony bin."[10] The video for the song was partially filmed outside a psychiatric hospital named after former Moscow mayor Nikolay Alekseyev.
Dryomin moved from Ufa to Moscow with his brother Bogdan in April 2017. He has been dating Russian YouTuber Maryana Ro since September 2017.[citation needed]
