Castilian in Italian Music: From Eros Ramazotti to 99 Posse
Hispanophilia seems to be a general trend in Italy. Eros Ramazotti sells more records in Castilian than in Italian, other artists such as Laura Pausini or Nek, who also sang on Televisión Española, have Spanish language CDs, too. Even Battiato recorded a CD in Castilian. All of this seems quite natural, Spanish is a world language and it is in many ways the standard language closest to Italian. In the case of Laura Pausini or Eros Ramazotti, the motivation may be partly commercial — we may term this Hispanophilia or "Commercial Hispanophilia."
In the world of Italian Hip Hop, Hispanophilia is especially strong. Italy's most popular hip hop mag is called AL (Aelle). Aelle is the abbreviation of Alleanza Latina, which is a translation of Latin Alliance — Latin Alliance was a hyper-group formed by several U.S. Latino rappers, including Chicano hip hop pioneer Kid Frost ("La Raza") and Sen Dog's brother Mellow Man Ace ("Mentirosa") (Cuban American).
Exotic Spain Hispanophilia
There is obviously a kind of All-Latin (in the sense of Southern Romance) connexion. On the one hand, there is "Exotic Spain Hispanophilia" that was clearly showing in Leonardo Pieraccioni's film "Il ciclone" and in many Italian dance tracks as well as in "Guapa Loca" by Italy's number one hip hop crew, Articolo 31. It was a rather cliché-laden ode to Spain.
However, in the beginning of their career, Articolo 31 were inspired by Latino rappers such as The Latin Kings ("Tumba la casa" from the compilation We're all in the same gang) which they sampled on "Ti tiro scemo" (1994): "Beccati un po' di questo stile latino/ Che fuma come un piatto di spaghetti pieno"
Chicanophilia
Many Italian hip hop crews, however, are inspired by Chicano hip hop (Chicano Hispanophilia, or Castilianophilia).
http://stage.vitaminic.it/sr_raza
Fellow Sardinians La Fossa, too, are mainly influenced by G-Funk and rappers such as (Kid) Frost. They rap mostly in Italian, but there is also some Spanish and Sardinian spoken ("il madafaka Skaz bendu tottu puru a rate"). Their news track "Potente sul beat" (on the compilation Murua 69... è solo l'inizio) starts with the following words: "Horale gringos/ La Fossa per il nuovo millennio" — "horale" is a Chicano interjection.
http://utenti.tripod.it/bboy76/lafossa.htm
Sardinia
This "Sardinian Hispanophilia" of course also has something to do with the influence of Spanish and Catalan on Sardinian languages. In Alghero, still today Catalan is spoken, and Sardinia's main languages, Logudorese and Campidanese, are partly Hispanicized. Sardinia has always been an especially multicultural island (SR Raza called their début CD Wessisla), from the ancient Nuraghes (13th century BC) to the Greek and Phoenicians (9th century), to the Germanic invaders, the Byzantinians, Saracenans, the kingdoms of Aragón (1297) and Spain (1717) — it is not surprising that many different influences can be seen and heard in Sardinian language and culture.
Quartieri latini
In "Quartieri latini," the rapper Rookie from Velletri (Roma) raps explicitly about the Hispano-Italian connection; he is influenced by NY Latino rappers such as The Beatnuts and Fat Joe. (This seems to be a more general Hispanophilia with a focus on all U.S. Latino rappers.)
http://stage.vitaminic.it/rookie
"No tengo miedo"
http://stage.vitaminic.it/malaisa2
Adelante devastante
En Mi Casa (Tave, Gep, and DJ Zago) from Rho (Milano) also have a Spanish name. Their best track is called "La x più pesante"; check out the Hispano-Italian chorus: "Adelante devastante/ la crew con la X più pesante/ En Mi Casa Brho compriende il flow/ dall' underground sempre solo Hardcore." Their flow reminds one of East Coast hip hop; inspired by Latino rappers and DJs such as Big Pun (RIP) and Tony Touch (aka Tony Toca).
http://stage.vitaminic.it/en_mi_casa
Minoranza rumorosa (Emmerre) from Venezia (Venice) are rappin' about "Erba buena and have a track called "Noizy Minorityz" by Chicano hip hop crew Brown Town Looters. No wonder that one of the members of the crew Loco has a Castilian name.
http://stage.vitaminic.it/minoranza_rumorosa
Revolutionary Hispanophilia
On the political and more southern side of things (at least geographically) there is 99 Posse, who mix hip hop, rock, and world musics. They hail from Napoli's centro sociale Officina 99; their new CD is called La vida que vendrá, there's even an all-Spanish track ("El pueblo unido jamás será vencido") on the CD.
http://www.nemo.it/giovani/musica/99Storia.htm 99's use of Spanish is, as Isaloca's, probably an expression of cosmopolitanism, but at the same time, it is obvious that it has something to do with hispanohablante América's revolutionary leaders such as Che Guevara, José Martí or contemporary Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos. Modena City Ramblers, a folk group from — guess what? — Modena, mixes Celtic sounds with Latin American influences, while singing in their local dialect, in Italian, and in Spanish. No wonder, there's probably no country (with the exception of Cuba, of course) where Che Guevara is as popular as he is in Italy. Also check out Daniele Silvestri's bilingual ode to Cuba and the revolution, "Cohiba."
"So you're a Sicilian, huh?"
In the extreme south, there is the island of Sicily, Italy's largest island. Like Sardinia, it's also been under the influence of many rulers and colonizers, from the authochthonous Sicans to the Siculians, from the Greeks and Phoenicians to the Arabs, Normans, Piemontesi and Spaniards. In some of his poems, Antonio Veneziano (1543-1593) mixed Italian, Sicilian and Spanish not unlike some of today's rappers:
http://home.earthlink.net/~artdieli/PoetryPage/PoetryVeneziano.html
May Italian rappers and singers continue to use their native languages as well as English and Spanish! Others may frown at foreign influences and call it cultural imperialism, but Italy's never been ashamed of incorporating influences of world powers and it has never been ashamed of incorporating universal languages.
In this respect, we may close with the following palabras or/and parole:
Thanks to TiF who gave me the idea to write this article and read through the text. Check out his site on Daria Morgendorffer and check out his article (in Italian) on Battiato.
Check out these sites as well:
Guests
by N. D. Schäfer ID: 359
Courtesy gezetera online
SR Raza (Sa Razza) from Iglesias for example (Sardinians call themselves "sa ratza," i.e. "the race," analogous to the Mexican "la raza") is clearly inspired by West Coast Chicano rappers. Their language is a Sardinian idiom, Spanish and of course (and mostly) Italian, as on their 1999 track "Nada pro nada" (Nada pro nada si fa solo per la strada/ per le storie che ci sono/per lo stile che ti porto – vero sueno bueno) from the Murua 69... è solo l'inizio compilation.
http://web.tiscalinet.it/srraza
http://www.69family.com
http://www.cdclubhiphopspace.com/lafossa2/lafossa2.htm
Malaisa n.a.c. Isaloca (Isa stands for Io sono Adrastea "I'm Adrastea," La Pina from Milano (her 1998 CD Piovono angeli featured former Beatnuts member Al Tariq on the track "Stessa gente," see my article on Latino hip hop), uses Spanish words in her raps, she even has a track that is called "No tengo miedo,", Spanish for "Non ho paura" (I'm not afraid). The music is produced by Ice One, Rome's hip hop pioneer who also produced Assalti Frontali's excellent hip hop album Banditi. Isaloca's use of Spanish words probably expresses her cosmopolitan attitude, actually, on the Vitaminic site it says that she hails from Bassano "ma cittadina del mondo" (but citizen of the world).
http://malaisa.cjb.net
http://go.to/enmicasa
http://www.brho.com
Also check out En mi casa Kru's tribute to Cypress Hill at http://www.geocities.com/enmicasa2000
http://www.novenove.it
Traeis aqui lo pullos y gallinas,
se no te quero matar col corcillo
a tal che convien dir con basso ciglio :
E se parliamo dicon: Putto pierro,
voto a Dios, te doy de corcighiadas,
e noi, per non provar tal bastonadas.
http://members.home.net/sfburton/arbasicu.html
Hasta siempre comandante!
Viva la lengua!
Evviva la lingua!
Asta la vittoria sempre!
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