The South | Drugs | The Mafia | Government | Immigrants | The World
The South | Drugs | The Mafia | Government | Immigrants | The World
A History of the Insulted World
The South
The sordid economic conditions of southern Italy, or the Mezzogiorno, and their devastating impact on poor people's lives figure prominently in rap Italiano.
Almamegretta's Suddd (The South) chronicles a history of underdevelopment and poverty of a "land depleted, defiled, red with blood, desperate," concluding with the chant, "If it persists, resist." 99 Posse's Zulu describes Napoli in the song by the same name as a "forgotten city, used and then abandoned, vilified by everyone." His is a city where kids, marginalized from mainstream society by a failed school system, unemployment, and a relentless sense of despair, see drugs and crime as the only alternatives. Sound familiar?
In La Romanella, Sud Sound System's Terron Fabio recounts in the Pugliese dialect the daily grind of looking for a job in a land without work:
Finding work in the Salento pennisula isn't easy,
you've got to approach someone who knows
you got to give him some money or else you you're not able to work....
Guys like me are hanging out in the streets
with illusions of a promise that's never realized.
Ca cu fatii a baciu allu Salentu nci ole mutu
tocca bbai sine a quiddhru ca sape
tocca cacci puru qualche sordu
se no nu la fatia nu pueti ttruare....
Vagnuni ca comu a mie stanu menati a mienzu alla strada
illusi te qualche promessa ca nu a mai rriata.
In 'O Bbuono e 'o Malamente (The Good and the Bad), Almamegretta poignantly address the desperate acts of survival and the dominant culture's dual standards for the rich and the poor:
Don't talk to me about morality.
Don't talk to me about honesty and criminality.
I grew up without any opportunity.
What I do, I do to eat.
In this world there are those who steal legally
and who exploit other's poverty.
So how come these people are good and I'm considered bad?Nun me parlate cchiù 'e moralità
nun me parlate d'onestà e criminalità
ije so' crisciuto senza manco n'opportunità
chello che faccio 'o ffaaccio sulo pe' magnà
ind'a chistu munno ce sta chi arrobba legalmente
e sfrutta tutte juorne a miseria 'e ll'ata gente
Allora pecché pe tutta chesta ggente lora so' bbuone e ije so' malamente?It is this economic tyranny that created a global diaspora of 27 million Italians who left in search of work and a better quality of life for well over a century. Almamegretta's name is a machronic hybrid of Latin and Neapolitan meaning "Migrant Soul." Southern rappers chronicle a history of economic exploitation and the creation of a global diaspora, from Papa Rick's "Emigrante" (Immigrant)
The South is ancient, wise, and generous
where bread taste like bread and oranges are plentiful
but people's smiles hind the bitter tears
of those who stuck in shit and those who are forced to immigrant.
Immigrant, Gianna is an immigrant's daughter....The history books say that the House of Savoy
united the nation
I've studied them [and] I don't don't believe it
It was a form of colonization....Il sud é una terra antica, saggia, e generosa
dove il pane sa di pane e l'arancia é prosperosa
ma il sorriso della gente nasconde lacrime amare
di chi rimane nelle merda e di chi deve emigrare
Emigrante, la Gianna é figlia di un emigrante....I Savoia dicono i libri
hanno unito la nazione
io ho studiato non ci credo
e stata colonizzazione....to Sud Sound System's recounting of workers leaving Apulia from Germany in "Soul Train"
Hey, where are you going?
You've never been on that train
Pale politician, you've never traveled in second class
on the train from Lecce to Schauffausen
filled with people, yea, people who are escaping
far away form their homeland
bitter and surrendering with a heart heavy like lead....Because in the South we have no choice but to immigrate
There's no work and the kids gotta eat
the cardboard suitcases are ready,
fill them with olive oil, wine, and ricotta cheese...Ehi, a ddu sta bbai
su ddhru trenu nu 'nci statu mai
Pallidi politicu nu nci a statu mai in seconda classe
sul treno che va da Lecce a Schauffausen
chinu de gente si ma gente ca sta fugge
lomtano dalla loro terra d'origine
amare e resa pesante come il piombo....Perché a guai da nui tutti quanti anu prtire
la fatia nu 'ncete li piccinni anu mangiare
la valigia de cartube stae pronta
mintici lu mieru l'oliu lu casu recorra....
The Sicilian Nuovi Briganti's 1994 tune "Fottuto terrone" (Fucked Southerner) is an angry testament to north Italian's historic bigoted reception of Southern laborers who were deemed prone to laziness, criminality, violence, etc. Racist northerners have long stated "Africa starts at Rome" and the separatist political party known as the Northern League (Lega Nord) calls for sending southern Italians, Africans, Arabs, and other migrants "back home." Given this history of bigotry, it should come as no surprise that southern Italian rappers have revealed the affinities shared by immigrants from Italy and those who have recently immigrated to Italy.
The South | Drugs | The Mafia | Government | Immigrants | The World
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