From Lokhvytsia, Ukraine, to the wider underground hip-hop landscape, Ivan Toporov, better known as violetsinthewater, is building a sound shaped by language, culture, family and personal experience.
Hip-hop has always been a global language, but few artists approach that idea quite like Ukrainian rapper, songwriter and poet Ivan Toporov, professionally known as violetsinthewater. An independent artist from Lokhvytsia, he is carving out his own space in Eastern European hip-hop through multilingual lyricism, genre exploration and a deeply personal approach to songwriting.
His sound moves across grime, drill, Jersey club, Detroit rap, trap, trapsoul, trapwave, jerk, cloud rap, alternative hip-hop and spoken word, with elements of R&B woven into his musical identity. Rather than being tied to one particular sound, violetsinthewater draws from different corners of global hip-hop while maintaining a cohesive underground aesthetic. He represents his hometown, his independent label VITW and the LH City Gang collective.
What makes his approach particularly interesting is the relationship between music and language. With an academic background in Germanic and Romance philology, Toporov brings a unique perspective to his writing. He is a graduate of Poltava National Pedagogical University and Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Philology at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Beyond his academic work, he is a translator, interpreter, editor and language teacher.
His multilingual ability extends into his music, where he writes in Ukrainian, English, French, German, Spanish and Italian, while continuing to explore other languages, including Greek, Polish, Hebrew and Arabic. It is not simply about switching languages for effect. His understanding of linguistics informs how he approaches expression, rhythm, wordplay and storytelling. He also writes his own lyrics, choosing to keep the creative process personal and independent, without relying on AI-generated songwriting.
Behind the experimental production choices and international influences is an artist whose subject matter remains rooted in real life. Family, fatherhood, love, memory, personal loss, faith, growing up, Ukrainian identity and the realities of war all find their way into his work. As a husband to Esther and father to Zakhariia and Sofia, his family remains central to both his life and creative direction. These experiences give his music an emotional foundation that stretches beyond genre and sound.
For violetsinthewater, hip-hop is a space where different cultures, languages and personal experiences can exist together. His music reflects an artist who listens widely, studies deeply and creates without limiting himself to one scene or geography. In a culture that continues to evolve through international collaboration and underground movements, he represents another perspective worth discovering.