MiXXXtape II: The Long Way Home

After the collapse of the label Vagabund, Oksimiron changed the vector of his creative work by recruiting a new team - back-MC Ochra (Ivan Evstigneev) and Portuguese beat-maker DJ DJ Porchy (Dario Vieira). The first work after Vagabund (and, accordingly, the first work from the line of tracks included in this release) was the single Rumbler released on February 27, 2012. The subsequent work of Miron, released in the period 2012-2013, was mainly accompanied by clips: on July 5, 2012, the clip “Gremlin's Song” ^[2] ; August 31 - “Lie Detector” ^[3] ; October 5 - “Not of this world” ^[4] ; October 13 - "Signs of life" ^[5] ; March 21, 2013 - “XXX Shop” ^[6] ; and April 6 - "More Ben" ^[7] .

During this time, Miron’s popularity increased significantly: Miron received the GQ 2012 Man of the Year award in the Discovery of the Year nomination ^[8] , opens his merchandise store Oxxxyshop ^[9] , records with Canadian rapper Madchild and becomes a special guest at his concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg ^[10] , etc.

The release was released on October 18, 2013, before the start of the long autumn tour “The Long Path Home Tour”. On the same day, a double clip was released for the songs “Chitin Cover” and “Drake's Strait” ^[11] . In an interview with The Flow portal dedicated to the exit of Porchy's “King Midas” mixtape, Miron, telling about the story of the creation of “ Gorgorod ”, explained why the “Long Way Home” called a mixtape:

People forget about this, but in the gap between the two records I had a mixxxtape 2 album pulling on an entire album, consisting entirely of new songs on the original beats - that is, in fact, another album. Moreover, many consider it my best release. I did not name the album just because after the “Eternal Jew” I wanted to do something whole, plus I already had the idea of ​​a total, intertwined “Gorgorod”, only I didn’t have the courage to embody it.

- Miron Fedorov. "Porchy and Oxxxymiron:" More than a family. " Part 1". Interview to The Flow portal ^[12]

In 2012 and 2013, Oxxxymiron won the Hip-Hop.ru Awards in the categories “Artist of the Year” and “Best mixtape” for “miXXXtape I” and “miXXXtape II: The Long Way Home”, respectively. He also won in the Best Video nomination, receiving 1st and 2nd place in 2012 for the Lie Detector and Out of Season clips and receiving 1st and 3rd places in 2013 for the Chitin Veil / Drake Passage and "XXX Shop". ^{[13] [14]}

Journalists Poster Daily in 2013 presented their rating of "Poster Wave: 25 best Russian albums of the year." In this ranking, “miXXXtape II: The Long Way Home” was ranked in the fourteenth place. Alexander Gorbachev called the mixtape “impressive canvas” combining such components as “maximum saturated grime , and verbal balancing act, and (unexpectedly) in places even something like singing” and noted his energy ^[15] .

Observers of the rap.ru portal placed “The Long Way Home” to 6th place in the list of the best albums of 2013, noting that this collection of tracks of 2012–2013 is “stronger than most albums released this year [2013]” and “absolutely stronger his own album " Eternal Jew " " ^[16] .

In October 2016, “miXXXtape II: The Long Way Home” got into the charts of the Russian iTunes on the sixth place. Despite the fact that this work was released 3 years ago, Oxxxymiron put it on iTunes shortly before his tour in Russia, which began on October 6 from Vladivostok. ^[17]