Italian Hip Hop Culture

ralmom101013

ralmom101013

Community Member
Jan 17, 2015
41
1
8
USA
Is anyone into Italy's hip hop scene? It's been pretty big since the 90's. Hip Hop took off in the US starting in the 70's, so it took awhile it seems to get there, but I've heard it's become pretty big. I've heard of a band called Articolo 31, and it's interesting because even though they're Italian rappers, they were considered East-coast styled rappers. Have any of you listened to Italian Hip Hop? What did you think of it?
 

Big underground scene, ignored by the big media like many other italian scenes.
Like anything else in Italy hip hop is regionalized, you will find roman rap, sardinian rap, neapolitan, piemontese and so on.
To complicate things they often use local languages and dialects, so you get italian hip hop and dialectal hip hop.
 
You rarely hear about hip hop culture outside of the UK and USA. However, it is a type of music that every country has fans of and the fans can create this style of music in their own language so many more can appreciate it. I have no doubt that Italy has a big hip hop culture. It is a shame that more people don't know about it.
 
I'm not a fan of Hip Hop music, not for the life of me! But I did listen to some Italian hip hop songs before coming to Italy, and then during my first months here, while I was still trying to learn the language. So, in other words, I listened to these songs for educational purposes :P They were the only Italian songs I was familiar with so they stuck in my head and actually, I've grown attached to some of them.

For instance, i used to listen to a lot of J-AX. It's not really heavy hip hop, but it's quite nice to listen to, especially if you get to understand the lyrics :P
Here's one of their quite famous songs: Ti amo o ti amazzo


Then, everyone must already know by heart this next song:


It used to be so popular! It's Fabri Fibra with Gianna Nannini, singing "In Italia".

The Italian Hip Hop culture exists,it really does, but they're indeed not that popular abroad. They have great success in the country though.
 
As far as I know the hip hop culture in Italy is mostly underground. You don't really hear them on the more popular music channels unless they've turned themselves into a more commercial type of music masquerading as hip hop.
 
Regina Juno said:
You rarely hear about hip hop culture outside of the UK and USA. However, it is a type of music that every country has fans of and the fans can create this style of music in their own language so many more can appreciate it. I have no doubt that Italy has a big hip hop culture. It is a shame that more people don't know about it.
Click to expand...

I actually first learned about foreign hip hop by discovering France's wide range of hip hop and R&B music! I was surprised at how popular it is over there, which lead me to want to know more about other countries and the hip hop culture surrounding them such as Spain, Italy, etc. I do agree, in Italy it is definitely underground, but in a lot of other countries it's fairly prevalent and becoming more popular by the day.
 
I have a few French pop CD and they are very good. It think the language itself makes it particularly appealing even if you don't understand it. Believe it or not, another underground pop culture is among Arabs, they have quite a few catchy songs. Most of these types of pops CDs are readily available. I can't say that about Italian pop culture. Perhaps, it there was a bit more media coverage, it would help.
 
Regina Juno said:
I have a few French pop CD and they are very good. It think the language itself makes it particularly appealing even if you don't understand it. Believe it or not, another underground pop culture is among Arabs, they have quite a few catchy songs. Most of these types of pops CDs are readily available. I can't say that about Italian pop culture. Perhaps, it there was a bit more media coverage, it would help.
Click to expand...
I totally agree with you, I think if it got more media attention, then it would become more mainstream and people would listen to it more! You're right about French music, the language is so catchy because it flows together so well, so I think that is why I was drawn to it as well. I definitely think Arab hip hop could be appealing too, I think the language is very distinct which would add a cool twist to the songs. I've only listened to a few Italian hip hop artists, but I think I'm going to listen to a few more and see if I can find a few more artists that I really like!
 
I didn't even know that hip-hop/rap was a thing in Italy! Though Rosie, the songs you shared are pretty dang good! I'm not a huge fan of American hip-hop/rap though either (Though I have my favorites, Angel Haze being my top favorite) but there are some pretty good ones. :)
 
This sounds interesting and I got to check them out to what they are like. I didn't know Italy had Hip Hop music, but then again, Hip Hop is global. If they are good at rhyming and have a good beat, I'm sure they'll have some success. Also, I wonder if they are rapping in Italian or English?
 
One of my personal favorites is Caparezza. I like him because he mixes modern day hip-hop sounds such as the Tech N9ne type sound with the nu-metal sound from the 90's. Also, when he sings, it kind of reminds me of Eminem.

 
I've never heard of this before.....I will take a look into them now that I know it exists. I'm a big hip-hop fan and I love the music and the style of the genre so I'm definitely looking into this.
 
Top Bottom