- Year of foundation – 2022
- City – Odesa (Ukraine)
- Language – Ukrainian
- Genre – punk rock, pop punk, alternative rock
Lineup:
- Dmytro Odnorozhenko – vocals;
- Alex Yefimov (Fima) – sound producer.
History of the band
Heatspeech is a Ukrainian punk band created by vocalist Dmytro Odnorozhenko from the city of Sumy and sound producer Fima (real name – Alex Yefimov) from Odessa. The musical project emerged in April 2022 as an emotional and uncompromising reaction to the beginning of Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine. The duo became a kind of voice of resistance, which resonated in the hearts of listeners with its sharpness, directness and relevance. Thanks to these components, the group's work quickly gained popularity and won the hearts of thousands of fans.
But for Dmitry and Fima, hate speech was not a debut in music. Both artists have come a long way to recognition. On this track, you can also meet a musical school. True, it is not finished. However, various bands and projects were present in the lives of the duo members before.
The name for the group was chosen deliberately. The guys understood that the word "hate speech" could result in a ban on the Internet at any moment. The band members emphasize that their project began as a joke, which unexpectedly grew into something much more. According to the band members, hate speech is rather a spontaneous and situational phenomenon. It arose almost by accident. But it maintains its existence thanks to the feeling of an internal resource that can be directed to good deeds. If it weren’t for this, the musicians admit, they would have most likely abandoned this idea. Instead, the project allows for creative hooliganism. And as a result, fans of the project’s music receive songs that are worthy of the attention of music charts. Although, due to the content, they continue to live in a separate space of fans of the duo.
Creative Path
At the end of 2022, the band joined a concert tour together with Vidlik Projects. In the future, new performances on the Ukrainian stage were planned. New singles are being released one after another. And in July 2023, the band is invited to the “Faine Misto” festival in Lviv.
Among the most famous hits of Hate Speech is the work “Ruzzky Mir”. But, according to the duo members, real recognition and the first serious achievements in terms of listening came after the release of the track “I Will Kill All Gods”. The success was clearly reflected in digital statistics.
Style and development of the band
The culture and style of Hate Speech’s work always cause a wide resonance among the listening audience. The musical boundaries of the Hate Speech duo are virtually absent. The artists combine hip-hop, rock, punk, electronics and other genres in their work. The group’s songs are distinguished by their aggressive delivery and topical, acutely social themes. Dmytro notes that the band does not set any restrictions – neither genre nor content – for itself.
The main principle of hate speech creativity remains freedom of expression: they create what their soul desires. According to Odnorozhenko, “evil and bad music” is the best. This, according to the singer, is lacking in modern Ukrainian music. And listeners want drive, powerful sound and strong lyrics.
Despite the participation of invited musicians in creating the material, the core of the collective remains the founders and leaders of the team Dmytro and Alex. All other participants, like musician friends, perform as session artists. They join during live shows. At the same time, a team has formed around hate speech that helps with the visual style, merch and event organization. Among them is a designer who creates covers and girls-organizers. The artists jokingly call them “the managers of their lives”. The main creative process in music remains exclusively in the hands of the two founders.
The duo members emphasize that they remain as sincere as possible in terms of music. In their tracks, they reflect what they see around them and what really worries them. Hate Speech's creativity does not seek to please everyone: some people like it, while others do not perceive it at all. And this is absolutely natural. The visual component of Hate Speech's concerts arouses particular interest among the public. The pronounced stage aesthetics include leather accessories, chokers and other elements that complement the atmosphere of the band's live shows.
Social activity
Hate Speech continues to generate powerful feedback from listeners, transforming hatred of the occupiers and condemnation of social injustice into powerful tracks.
Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the Hate Speech band has regularly held performances, during which it has raised significant amounts of money to help the army. The artists have been covering meetings for various military units. As the members themselves note, their main motivators are the shame of remaining on the sidelines and the desire to avoid inaction. Gratitude from brigades and volunteer funds is certainly important. But the group does not aim to gain public approval. The main motive is not to deviate from its own principles and constantly strengthen the public good.
In the spring of 2025, the vocalist of the band Heatspeech DMytroy Odnorozhenko became a volunteer for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Currently, the musician serves in the 412th Regiment of Unmanned Systems NEMESIS together with rapper and serviceman Yarmak. Even at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Dmytro helped with rescue operations after the shelling of Odessa. Despite this, he always tried not to "put out the fire", but to prevent trouble.
Discography of Hate Speech
Studio albums are still ahead. And now the band has a mini-album "Golden Songs 2023" in its works. The release contains the duo's best hits and new compositions.
Famous tracks of the band:
- “Our house is burning”;
- “I will not die my death”;
- POLUMYA;
- “Volunteers”;
- “Shoot”;
- “Rusnipy”;
- “Palay” and others.
Interesting facts about the band:
- Before engaging in creativity, Dmitry Odnorozhenko worked as an operator at the Nova Poshta branch, a car broker, a translator and even a manager for sea transportation;
- The band has repeatedly faced blocking on the social networks TikTok and Instagram. And the song "Children of Satan" was removed from the YouTube platform;
- hate speech songs are heard in the video game "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl".
