President Putin believes rap should be controlled, not banned
Mr Putin also said he was worried about bad language in rap, saying he had spoken to a linguist about it.
While she had explained to him that swearing is "a part of our language", Mr Putin compared it to the human body, joking that "we have all sorts of body parts, and it's not like we put them on display all the time".
The Russian government has long had a complicated relationship with music.
Feminist protest band Pussy Riot claims Russia's intelligence service poisoned member Pyotr Verzilov earlier this year.
Under the Soviet Union meanwhile, most Western pop and rock music was frowned on and some Russian rock musicians faced persecution.
Classical musicians also clashed with the state. Composer Dmitri Shostakovich was denounced twice under the leadership of Joseph Stalin.