Sardinia - Eyyyyaaa!
Nuraghes, Spaniards and Italians
Sardinia was always inhabited by people with different origins and backgrounds. The mysterious Nuraghes who built the homonymous strange towers (13th ct. BC), the Greeks and Phoenicians (9th ct. BC), the Romans and Germanic peoples — Sardinia is eclectic like culture itself is. After Byzantinian and Saracen intermezzi the Kingdoms of Aragón (1297) and Spain (1717) ruled the island. 1713 Austria came to rule Sardinia due to the treaty of Utrecht, 1718 Savoy took over and finally, in 1861, Sardinia came to be a part of the Regno d'Italia.
http://members.xoom.it/logudoro
Languages
The multitude of peoples who inhabited and ruled Sardinia also left linguistic traces. The archaic Logudorese, the Hispanicized Campidanese, the Pisan- and Genoese-influenced Gallurese and the Catalan of Àlghero are only some of the languages spoken on this miraculous island. Jews and Arabs also had some influence, the name of Friday in Sardinian is kenabura, due to the preparation of clean food for the Holy Shabbat. Words like nurra (abyss) and kankarru (grasshopper) are probably of Nuragic origin. Logudorese is the most archaic of all Romance languages, kentu (hundred), ghelare (freeze) — old Latin /k/ and /g/ before palatal vowels has been preserved unlike in all other Romance idioms. The vocabulary, too, is close to Latin: cras is the sardo loguodorese word for "tomorrow," pejus means "worse." On the other hand, Logudorese also has some phonetic traits that are clearly not of Latin origin, for example retroflex [d] (d cacuminale), which can also be found in some Southern Italian languages.
http://www.spinfo.uni-koeln.de/mensch/language.html
Sa Razza
Nowadays, especially the Sardinian middle class speaks Italian. Still, rappers Sa Razza (aka SR Raza aka Sa Raza) from Iglesias are multilingual. Their music is inspired by Chicano rappers such as Kid Frost and other west coast rappers, and so is their name which is a tribute to Kid Frost's "La Raza" (many Mexican Americans call themselves "La Raza" or "La raza de bronce.") Of course, the Hispanic influence is present in Sardinia anyway, and the "Día de la hispanidad" used to be called "Día de la raza." The multilingualism of Sa Razza reminds a bit of Frost's use of Spanglish. Sa Razza are rapping in Sardinian, in Italian mixed with some Spanish. The new CD by Sa Razza is due out in 2001.
Sa Razza on this site
La Fossa
Also La Fossa from Portoscuso are multilingual, but with even more Italian. The west coast influence is obvious also in the lyrics. Skaz is rapping in Sardinian on "Milioni":"il madafaka Skaz bendu tottu puru a rate" ('The madafaka Skaz sells anything, even rats'). But behind all the materialism and sexism, there is healthy irony. On "La santissima trinità" it says: "In preghiera nella chiesa di L.C.C. altrocchè cronici noi siamo i padri dei nuragici" (Praying in the church of L.C.C., we're not only chronic smokers, but also the fathers of the Nuraghes).
La Fossa started out dissing fellow west coast influenced rappers Sottotono from Varese, but when their CD "Around the rionez" was re-issued by an independent label, the track was deleted.
La Fossa on this site
Archaic voices — Tenores di Bitti
La Fossa are talking about the Nuraghes — some people claim that they were related to the Etrsucans. In any case, the traditional polyphonic music of Sardinia often reminds listeners of a distant past — like the Nuraghes. This kind of music is similar to other traditional styles of Corsica, Tuva, Syria and Morocco. The most popular polyphonous group are Tenores di Bitti from Barbagia.
http://stage.vitaminic.it/tenoresdibitti
Vero Sardo G
"Vero Sardo G" is Sa Razza's ode to the bandit Graziano Mesina. Sardina's banditismo is mainly about kidnapping people. Dori Ghezzi and her husband, cantautore Fabrizio de Andrè (1940-1999), were kidnapped in 1979. Nevertheless, they didn't lose their love for the island. Gavino Ledda (Padre Padrone) who started out as an exploited shepherd and is now a prominent linguist, says: "The Toscania special forces are making people crazy with their constant controlling. They should build a university instead. What chances do young people on Sardinia have? They're all unemployed." (Wochenzeitung 17/97) Sardinia isn't part of wealthy Northern Italy. Renato Soru, Sardinian founder of internet provider Tiscali (Number Two in Europe) is more than an exception. "Nella nostra terra there isn't much to laugh about. There's hardly any work, and cultural events are rare," Sa Razza told the now defunct Italian hip hop mag Aelle/AL (Alleanza Latina).
The South
Akhénaton (IAM, Marseille) stated on his solo CD: "La pro-Latinité est mon rôle." (Being Pro-Latin is my role). Sa Razza, too, feel that they belong to the south:
They also prefer Chicano Rap to other kinds of rap:
Sa Razza started rapping in English, then Italian and finally: "la nostra lingua madre: il sardo catalano." (Our mother tongue - Sardinian Catalan). Sa Razza's Quilo made mostly negative experiences in the north of Italy:
This statement reminds of Ahénaton, who rapped on "Métèque et mat"'s first single "L'americano": "À Paris je suis perdu, en Sicilie je suis chez moi." (In Paris I'm lost, in Sicily I'm at home.)
http://www.cattivielementi.org/interviste/sr.htm
Area Cronica
Area Cronica is an Italian hip hop posse from Novara. Members include Sottotono (Varese), Sab Sista (Torino) and Rival (Belgium), Lyricalz (Torino), Left Side (Torino) and from Sardigna, Brunello Team and Maku Go e Sardo Triba. Maku Go is responsible for G Funk Flavours, their CD "Saloon" includes guests Viracocha and Sottotono's Tormento. Brunello Team (Càgliari) are rather east coast inspired, including a version of Lalo Schifrin's "Mission Impossible Theme," "Missione possibile." On their début EP "Cercando una realtà," there is no patriotism à la Sa Razza — Italian hip hop.
http://stage.vitaminic.it/brunello_cercando_una_realta
Dies irae
Less professional are Sarda Krikka Famiglia — their booklet artwork is really awful. Surprisingly, "Il giorno del giudizio" is not that bad — it features melodic G Funk mixed by Sardinia's hip hop veterano K Wild, who also produced an EP by the cru Balenta (Nuragika Recordz 1998).
http://stage.vitaminic.it/sarda_krikka_famiglia
Ichnusa — das Bier der Sarden
According to an ancient legend, Sardinia was created by a divine footstep. God had only a little bit of granite left, so he created Sardinia. The Greeks called the island "Ichnousa," (the footstep). This name is still very popular in Sardigna, due to the Island's largest brewery, Ichnusa, now a part of Heineken. In Sardinia, people drink beer rather than wine; it's the region with the largest per capita consumption of beer is 60 litres in Sardinia, more than in all other parts of Italy.
http://www.massmarket.it/birra.htm
Sardigna natzione?
Sardinia is an island with lots of culture, with a wonderful history — the precarious economic situation and the resulting banditismo are the effect of a quasi-colonialistic relationship that the North of Italy and other Middle European countries have towards the South. Sardinia's languages are all non-official. It would be difficult to standardize a Sardinian language, due to local patriotism and the sheer linguistic richness of Sardinia. But on the other hand: Rumantsch Grischun has shown that it is not impossible to standardize a language based on different quasi equal idioms, and why is it necessary to sanction official use by standardizing? On a local basis, also languages not understood by other citizens may be used without necessarily excluding others.
http://www.spinfo.uni-koeln.de/mensch/Puddu.html
Discography
Acanto, Segnali di fumo (1995)
Guests
A linguistic and musical continent
by N. D. Schäfer ID: 359
Courtesy gezetera online
http://www.sardinia.net/BibliothecaSarda/004manno/002.htm
http://www.circolisardi.it/circoli/alessandria/la_mia_sardegna/storia.htm
http://www.ditzionariu.org
http://www.sarazza.it
http://stage.vitaminic.it/sr_raza
http://web.tiscalinet.it/srraza
http://www.lafossa.it
http://utenti.tripod.it/bboy76/lafossa.htm
http://www.cdclubhiphopspace.com/lafossa2/lafossa2.htm
http://www.tenoresdibitti.com
http://www.sardiniapoint.it/26.html
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/d.aubin/filetta.htm
Nel meridione si vive una situazione socio-culturale diversa da quella settentrionale: i ragazzi napoletani, sardi, pugliesi, calabri o siculi che siano, sono più nella merda, abbiamo un bel clima ma poco denaro.
In the south the socio-cultural situation is different from the north... there's less money in thee south, there's a nice climate, but life's tough.
Noi preferiamo un genere Chicano, hispanico ma comunque bisognerebbe capire che l'italiano è latino, quindi tutti quelli che fanno tanto gli americani mi stanno stretti.
Italian is Latin like Spanish - those who are always trying to imitate the Americans are getting on my nerves.
Vogliamo restare in Sardegna, noi vogliamo assolutamente avere la nostra base operativa nell'isola...stetti due anni a Torino: pessima esperienza di vita (Apparte Trzta dell'Undafunk records e altri pochissimi soci della scena torinese).
We want to stay in Sardinia... I was in Torino for two years - the worst experience of my life, apart from getting to know Trzta and other cats from the Torinese scene.
http://digilander.iol.it/h2/HHBiografie/smaku_go.html
http://www.ihhco.com/testi/testiMakuGo.htm
http://web.tiscalinet.it/sardakrikkafamiglia
http://utenti.tripod.it/djciussa/kwild.htm
http://web.tiscalinet.it/kwild
http://www.gamberorosso.it/birraitalia/20.asp
http://web.tiscalinet.it/sardignanatzione
Brunello Team, Cercando una realtà EP (2000)
La Fossa, Around the rionez (1998)
Maku Go e Sardo Triba, Saloon (1998)
Sarda Krikka Famiglia, Il giorno del giudizio (1999)
SR Raza, Wessisla (1996)