An Italian Journey
Italy has one of the most innovative hip hop scenes. This article features Italy's most important hip hop crews and rappers, from North to South, from Varese to Sicily.
Varese, this city between the Lago Maggiore and the Lake of Como, is the homebase for Otierre
(Otr — abbreviation for Originale trasmissione del ritmo), who is musically close to the sound of the east coast like most European rappers. However, Sottotono, which consists of former members of Otr, remind the listener musically and sometimes also lyrically of gangsta rap. Both groups, even though inspired by American hip hop, have their unique style — no wonder then that stiloso — a true Italian hip hop neologism — is the key word of the Italian hip hop scene.
Not far from Varese is Milano, home of La Pina. She dropped two solo albums so far, but she's also rapping on Otr's Dalla Sede. On her new CD, Piovono Angeli, she calls her music "l'hip hop colle tette."
Also from Milan is probably the most famous Italian hip hop crew, Articolo 31. DJ Jad and J Ax provide everything from hard core to kamurshol, from "Vai bello" with its klezmer samples (now also available: the rock remix of "Vai bello") to "Come uno su mille" featuring Gianni Morandi. There's also a version of Bob Dylan's "Like a rolling stone" on Nessuno ("Come una pietra scalciata"), and on Cosė com'è, both the popular song from the Lombardia region "Gigugìn" and Lucio Dalla were put into the mix.
Like DJ Jad sez on the hard core track "Non c'è rimedio" — "Ain't a matter that I can't fix, coz I can do it in the mix. La R è l'unica cosa che ho di moscio" ("The R's the only weak thing I got" because he pronounces his Rs as do the French). 31's posse is called La Spaghetti Funk and members include DJ Enzo and Space One.
Other rappers from Milano include Zippo, who drops two tracks with live instruments, including "Zero
compromessi," a cover version of Gershwin's "Summertime," and Casino Royale who mix hip hop with other styles from reggae to rock. Piombo a tempo keep it strictly hard core. Former member Fumo now lives in Basel, Switzerland, where he founded a new group called Tempo al tempo. Their excellent debut is called Dalla parte di Caino.
Genova features dialect rappers Sensasciou. Their mix of raggamuffin, hip hop and mediterranean music — especially the Genoese trallallero — is slammin' and proves that tradition and innovation do not have to be opposites.
From Emilia-Romagna, or Bologna to be more exact, come Neffa and DJ Gruff. Neffa, whose roots lay — like those of lots of Italian rappers — in a centro sociale (occupied house, that's also a youth and countercultural center), were part of the cru Sangue Misto (=mixed blood). On Neffa's second solo album, 107 Elementi, there's a version of the Eagle's "I can't tell you why" ("Non tradire mai" featuring Al Castellana), and Napoli's La Famiglia and DJ Gruff are guests on the hard core track "Solo fumo." Other guests include the first Italian female MC Carri D and the Ethiopian-Italian DJ Luigi.
Sardegna is the home of the riones (can't be translated): like the Mexicans (and probably due to Spanish influence?), they call themselves Raza — although the pronunciation is different as well as the article. Sardinia's most famous crew is Sa Raza (now Sr. Raza). Their debut CD is called Wessisla. Both they and other Sardinian crews like La Fossa (Around the rionez) are makin' gangsta rap — musically and lyrically brilliant.
Rome is primarily the city of crossover, although there are also rappers like Ice One, il Funkadelico. The centro sociale Forte Prenestino gave birth to Onda Rossa Posse, which in turn spilt into two groups: AK 47 and Assalti Frontali. They're as good as RATM, both on the political and musical level. They are even supported by the left-wing paper Il Manifesto.
As Napoli's 99 Posse say: ¡Hasta la vittoria sempre! — 99's hip hop includes all kinds of influences, folkloristic as well as reggae, rock and drum'n'bass and Eastern sounds. Additionally, they've very political lyrics. Corto circuito is certainly one of the best Italian hip hop CDs and a must not only for hard core aficionados of Italian hip hop. Also from Napoli is the hard core cru La Famiglia. What is called a rione in Sardinia, is the guaglione in Napoli. Curre curre guaglió was 99's break-thru.
In Messina, Sicily, the Nuovi Briganti are rapping in Italian and Sicilian. Sensasciou are only using dialect, the Briganti and 99 are in between coz they're using both the local language and Standard Italian. The best tracks by the Briganti, in any case, are those in Sicilian. Like the Briganti themselves say: "
È il modo più diretto per comunicare
efficacemente con chi frequenta il centro.
È la lingua nella quale ci siamo sempre
espressi, sin da bambini, giocando per la
strada. Alla fine l'italiano lo abbiamo
parlato soltanto a scuola."
(Speaking Sicilian is the most effective way to communicate with the people who come to the centro. It's the language we always were using, from day one as children playing in the streets. Italian we only used in school, really.)
Guests
by N. D. Schäfer © 1999