13 Bastardi
Persi Nella Giungla

Sometimes talking about underground means labeling a product, forcing it somehow to be relegated to a submarket, channeling it into "alternative" distribution systems, and by doing so, defining it as such ends up rendering it unknown to most and preventing it from ever reaching an exorbitant number of sales.

In the same way, however, if underground means talking about true stories of one's daily reality, recounting the good or painful things a generation has to face without manipulating certain expository mechanisms, I don't think I'm wrong if I write that 13Bastardi, then, are perhaps the first to define themselves as "underground".
Beneath the surface of a society that moves forward through stereotypical days divided between family-work-television-mortgage-lifeisjustthis, the street people create.

They create sounds, movement, images, images that escape the average person but catch the eyes of the more attentive, like the 13B writings in black and silver appearing like mushrooms in the historic center streets of Naples, a city where, for years now, the 9 components (Castigo, Callister, Paura, Svez, Ekspo, Domasan, joz, Zin, and Vinch, this last one being the producer) of this reality, have campaigned as exponents of the noble art of writing rhymes and improvising them.

The power of this album lies in its stylistic variety.. different facets of rap for a truly complete album, and I find it necessary to mention all the MCs present and attempt briefly to indicate as far as possible the peculiarity of their flow, which ranges from the most reflective and conscientious style of Castigo to the more insane, politically incorrect, and violently astounding style of Callister, from Domasan's sing-song style rich in visionary figures (his storytelling is at times truly excellent), to Joz who, in excellent form, gives us great fits, Svez then is a pleasure to listen to, one of the few musically valid Italian rap voices (clear, clean, set, without the slightest flaw), Zin: what can be said, this guy is the future!
A choreography of sounds comes from his vocal cords with intertwining rhymes at the nth level and beyond, Ekspo, from the height of his experience and lyrical knowledge, entertains us with style and irony without ever being trivial, and finally Paura, simply mind-blowing for the fans of this genre, one hopes that his attitude will one day be synthesized into capsules to be administered to those who have never understood anything about this Culture.

Excellent productions by Vinch who managed to create the right beats to accommodate such a varied metric flow. Beautiful the melodic line with Angelo Pardi and Nunzia in the song "La Voce" and all the other grooves that follow the funk thread from no. 1 to 16 are of fine craftsmanship. Fantastic the skit with Ultra, an urban legend in the writing scene in Italy... noteworthy is track 09 with Alien Dee, which gives space to BeatBox (the guy has an entire orchestra in his vocal cords) a discipline that unfortunately never gets as much visibility as it deserves, kudos to the Bastards for this as well.
Two DJs scratch on this album, 2phast and Tayone, who need no introduction for those who are addicted to vinyl scratches, for everyone else, I just recommend listening to realize the level the two have reached on the steel wheels. In conclusion, the only guest MC within the album is a certain DjGruff, a guy who is to hip hop in Italy what Jesus is to Christianity.

In short, if you like rap, this is an album to have (listen and choose your favorite MC from the army), if you don't like it, get it anyway and hear what these guys have to say, who, with a little bit of the Italian language and a little bit in the Neapolitan dialect, debunk the false ideas the vast majority of the public has about hip hop, no self-celebration, no rhymes that are superficial, but many concepts and countless emotions expressed in time on productions really made as they should be.

Respect.