Zoka, 1997

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

1-100       Compilations

HH from the Italian Diaspora

Artists

HH from the Italian Diaspora

Check out the event I organized in Italy around the theme of HH from the Italian Diaspora. Read my essay "Hip Hop from Italy and the Diaspora: A Report from the 41st Parallel" about the event at the journal Altreitalie's Web site.

Soon after launching this site, I began receiving email from Italians throughout the planet down with the Hip Hop Nation. It's now reached critical mass and the time has come to give them their props.

Australia

Belgium

Canada

France

Germany

Check out Gela City Sound, two Italian MCs out of Germany.

Luxemburg

Switzerland

USA

Read about my October 2002 symposium, "Eye-Talian Flava: The Italian American Presence in Hip Hop"

Graffiti

The interracial character of NYC subway art was noted by informed journalists and graf historians. But it's not usually noted that Italian Americans played a role in early grafitti:

  • Richard "Seen" Mirando was the "legendary whole car king of the 6 line" who bombed with the United Artists during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

  • Comet was an early member of the famed Crazy 5 that dominated the IRT 2 and 5 lines. The Comet and Blade partnership was a formidable force during the late 1970s.

  • Legendary writer Dondi's (1961-1998) mom was Sicilian.

  • FUZZ-1. Check out his new book Fuzz One: A Bronx Childhood.

  • Others include: Billy 167 of Slick, Inc., Boots 167 of Mission Graffiti, BOOTS 119, CAV of the Subway Vandals, COOK-2, DEE, FANE aka PI-2, John 150, KIRS, KZ, RISCO, ROCKY-1, SAR-1, SHARK, SI-1, SIKE, TEAR-2, TEK aka SIKO, and VINNY.

DJs

  • Brooklyn-born pioneer Francis Grasso (R.I.P.) helped establish the artistry of turntablism in the late 1960s. Check out Neil Strauss’s New York Times 2001 obituary.

  • Queens-born DJ Muggs/Lawrence Muggerud (photo) is Cypress Hill's Italian connection.

  • DJ Kid Capri (photo) aka David Anthony Love is half Italian and half African American.

  • DJ Skribble (Scott Ialacci) has his own show, Global Groove, MTV's only internationally-aired progam. His 1997 debut release, DJ Skribble's Traffic Jams, featured Lauryn Hill, LL Cool J, and Mary J. Blige. Skribble's latest compilation is Traffic Jams 2000.

  • DJ Luciano's CD mixes include Boat Drink, St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and the trilogy The Untouchable.

    • MCs

  • Italian artists like Frankie Hi NRG & Ice One keep telling me about Manhattan-born Don Scavone (photo). Scavone toured Europe with Cypress Hill and the Beatnuts, and he's worked with DJ/producer Mista Sinista of the X-Ecutioners.

  • New Yorker Manifest aka Vesuvio (photo) has been rhyming since the late 1980s. Manifest has three full lengths to his credit -- Vertigo (1995), Moonshine (1996), and The Anonymous (1999) released with producer Zinn and MC Furious Stylz on their independent Nightglow label. As a founding member of the L.A. group The Anonymous, he released the album Green and Gold which featured Manifest and Eminem on the title track. Manifest has also collaborated with Wutang's LA the Darkman, Jurassic 5's Cut Chemist, Dilated Peoples, Medusa, Mystic of Digital Underground, Divine Styler, DJ Drez, Erule, DJ Mark Luv, Mystick Journeymen, and Living Legends. Check out the lyrics to his righteous track "Neopolitan Gold":

    It's the Valiant Stallion / New York Italian
    My style's caliente / ONE LOVE to my gente
    Plenty of support from those that sport kente
    For rappers that produce I up the ante
    Squash that beef / Yusuf Rest in Peace / let the hate cease
    Stop worshipping the beast / start praying to the East / give thanks for this feast
    My increase happened after seven years of famine
    It's apparent you believe movies and TV
    Still can't see the fantasy they throwing at you
    They gotcha / check your history / know your culture
    Been shacking up since Antony and Cleopatra
    The hat trick hero / fear no evil / catch the fever like DeNiro
    POWER TO THE PEOPLE
    Love to see UNITY in my community
    One race / One heart / One place / One Great God

    It's the ramblin' man / arrived on a whim
    Banned from the land of the mandolin
    In a strange land / scrambling / hustling / gambling /
    Neapolitan Gold.

    In 2000, he traveled to Italy and performed and recorded with Italian artists Gente Guasta and Turi. Check out this interview. Want more? Here's some flicks from Manifest's live performance with Polo of La Famiglia.

  • Check out Marco Polo out of the Detroit/Mt.Clemens area in Michigan.

  • Guinea Love (photo) aka Correne Spero of the Long Island group Northern State.

  • Bizzy Bone of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, his mom is Italian.

  • In 1986, New York-based Matt Saladino (photo) aka Mighty and his brother recorded a tune called "Guido Rap," under the name of The Guido MCs. The flip side of this underground vinyl was "Bensonhurst 86th Street." As he wrote:

    "Rap at that time was all about the ghetto. Our style of rapping spoke to guys like me, cruising the streets in fancy cars and living the easy life with daddy’s money. The lyrics were commercial, over that included the theme from 'The Godfather'." (from the Phat Cat Records site)

  • Jo Jo Pellegrino (photo) from Staten Island came out with the wise guy-inspired "Fogedabouddud" in 2000 and it made the underground circuit. You can also check out "If it's war."

  • Out of Aliquippa, PA, comes "Real Goombattas": Omerta, Primo, & Bella Nicole. Download "NEEDAGOOMBATTA," a funny remake of Tony Orlando & Dawn's "Escape" (The Pina Colada Song), and "VIVA SAN ROCCO! ("Homemade wine, hard liquor, cold beer/Friday through Sunday our heads ain't clear/All weekend we wait all year, the wait's over now San Rocco's here!") Omerta's got solid musical roots: his immigrant grandfather James Egidio Faiella played the the mandolin and his dad Eugene "Benny" Faiella was the guitarist for the rock group The Jaggerz, whose 1970 song "The Rapper" made the charts. In addition to being a MC, Omerta also plays tradition Italian mandolin!

  • Lyrics Born (formerly Asia Born, born Tom Shimura in Tokyo, Japan in 1972), is a half-Japanese-American, half-Italian-American hip hop MC. He has lived most of his life in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a founding member of the group of artists known as Solesides (now Quannum Projects), and is half of the group Latyrx (with Lateef).

  • Marco Aleandro Zambito aka MARCO POLO (photo), was born in Rome. His father is Sandro Zambito, dancer/choreographer/actor, and Sammie Bouldin, dancer and singer with the 1960s girl group The Clickettes. from the 60s). He currently lives in Ft. Worth, Texas, after moving to the States to study on an academic scholarship.

  • Sicilian/Puerto Rican Sabac is underground MC out of the Bronx who raps about social issues. Check out his Sabacolypse: A Change Gon' Come. (Thanks Oliver!)

  • Mr. Hyde is a street rapper, with violent lyrics, who released his solo Barn of the Naked Dead in in 2004. (Thanks Oliver!)

  • Jedi Mind Tricks out of Philly. (Thanks Oliver!)

  • Genovese (photo) out of Yonkers.

  • Mikie (Savoia) da Poet (photo) out of Chicago.

  • Joe Summa (photo) hails from the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx.

  • Kaves, Admoney, and Edge of the Lordz of Brooklyn make the most of my borough's Italian street thug/mafioso wannabe image. The group debued in 1995 with All in the Family and followed-up in 1999 with Avenging Angels. The soundtrack of Sal Stabile's 1997 film Gravesend featured some band's tunes. The band morphed into the rock-rap group Lordz (photo) and released the CD "The Brooklyn Way" with great tunes "Outlaw" and "People Who Died." Check out Chuck Eddy's feature article in the Village Voice.

  • Don Pigro aka The Young Sinatra (photo) out of South Philly. Want tunes? Then, go here!

  • Joe Cassano (RIP), who born in Italy but raised, in part, in Brooklyn.

  • BL One is a writer from Queens who named his debut CD TMR Crew after his graf homies.

  • Raised in the Bronx, The Shark aka Michael Pennini is up and coming. In addition to rapping, The Shark co-founded the rap and dance label Bottom Line Records.

  • Dangerous Devil aka Griffin Bonacci, is an Eye-talian MC out of Salt Lake City, where he operates his "Son of Satan Records & Italian Entertainment" record label. And that's the truth!

    • Singers/Producers/Supporters

  • 98 Proof is a New Jersey-based independent Hip Hop label with a roster of Italian-American MCs.

  • R&B singer Alicia Keys' mom is Italian American.

  • Mya, her mother is Italian. 

  • Princess Superstar aka Concetta Kirschner (photo) — 1/2 Italian, 1/2 Jewish wild MC out of Philly. Nick S.'s article fills in the details.

  • Producer/emcee/label owner Lil Man (photo) aka LMN-Know has been a mainstay in the Phoenix underground since the early 1990s representing crews such as Tha He-B G-Beez, Goin Fo Broke, Basementality, La Borgata, The Summit, and High AZ Hell.  Born and raised in Queens, New York, Lil Man co-founded The Atomic Breakers, a local b-boy crew, in the early 1980s. In 1998, Lil Man formed the now defunct Brahma Records in Phoenix.  In late 1999 he released his first solo LP entitled That Grilt Cheez. He's produced tracks for Don Pigro, Lagik, 602nd Regiment, Odyssey, The Representative, and Cpydah Maan. Click for MP3s.

    Photographer Ernie Paniccioli has been documenting hip hop since the mid 1970s. A collection of his work came out in the book Who Shot Ya?. Check out this interview with Ernie.

  • Stress Magazine co-founder Clyde Valentin, is an Italo-African American (don't get me started).

    • Here's a sampling of famous Italo-African Americans (looks like a new page forming):

    HOME