“If before it was marginal, today, believe me, unfortunately it cannot be compared to the movies, theater or classical music,” Mr. Matvienko said of rap in Russia, which he pointedly noted was an American musical genre. “It’s what our youth listen to.”

Image A Russian rapper known as Husky waiting for a court hearing last month. Credit... Alexander Avanesyan, via Associated Press

Last month, the police arrested Dmitri Kuznetsov, a rapper known as Husky, when he performed atop a parked car on a street in a southern Russian city after his concert was banned for what local prosecutors called extremist content.

Several other concerts were subsequently canceled, and the question of the acceptability of rap percolated up through the political system, making it inevitable, perhaps, that Mr. Putin would eventually weigh in.

Mr. Matvienko said a “huge number” of Russian rappers were popular with online followers, despite their music never being played on state-controlled television or radio stations. While rappers may lack this form of promotion, they have what Mr. Matvienko called an unfair advantage: They can swear.

“There is a lot of poetry in rap and it is very explicit,” he explained to Mr. Putin. “It is different from the falseness of pop, and because of this, perhaps, the youth accept it.”