Articolo 31
Nessuno

THE REVIEW

"Nessuno" is the album following the great success of Articolo 31 in the nineties, which is "Così Com'è".

At that time, J Ax and Dj Jad were still faithful to hip-hop, devoid of rock temptations and more hip-hoppy than ever.

Dj Jad confirms himself as a good beatmaker, he knows how to do his job well, even if the choice to sample Italian pop songs or international hits might be questionable. However, Articolo 31 self-labeled their style (and their crew of those times) spaghetti funk: therefore, using Italian music for their tracks makes sense and has its own originality.

As for J Ax, while it’s true that technically there were other Italian rappers better than him at the time, it is also true that in terms of lyrics he was among the best, especially for the variety of topics.

The title track is the best song and strangely also the most atypical. It is, in fact, a dark and very tough track, with a J Ax who seems genuinely angry and doesn't hold back at all. The rest of the album is divided between love songs, party tracks, self-celebration, and various reflections. 

The slower tracks are the weakest: Non so cos'è and Non c'è sveglia turn out to be boring (especially the former, which seems never-ending despite being under 4 minutes long), as well as Aria. Perhaps the reason is an inability to effectively combine melody with rap: in these tracks, the listener (at least I) can do nothing but wait for the chorus (by the way, not very satisfying), because the rapped part is insufferably soporific.

On the other hand, La rinascita is great, an energetic and convincing self-celebration track, just as Vai bello can be enjoyable with numerous guests taking on those who criticize them. Even the tracks made to party aren't bad: La fidanzata is an antidote against the blues, thanks to J Ax's witty verses, while Venerdì is a tribute to the last workday of the week, rather simplistic but pleasant.

Completely negligible is the duet of J Ax with his brother Grido, and simply senseless is Davanti alla tv.

The songs that theoretically should be the most "profound" of the album are terrible: Dall'altra parte della strada, dedicated to a deceased friend, is not intense enough, too optimistic for my taste, and not at all convincing; Il mondo dove vivo is melancholically stereotypical: the world is bad, people are bad, I'm bad. Meh.

Finally, a nod to Come uno su mille and Come una pietra scalciata. The former reprises Gianni Morandi's famous song while the latter is based on none other than Like A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan. Praise to the cleverness of Articolo 31, even though neither of the two will be released as singles (but I might be remembering wrongly), all in all, they are saved even if it's probable that Morandi and Dylan have turned in their graves. Oh, they're still alive? 

In conclusion, "Nessuno" is not a bad album, at least not by Italian hip-hop standards (but also compared to Italian pop in general, at least in the nineties). However, certain terrible songs, and the choice of samples, mean that this is a step back compared to the still not excellent "Così Com'è".

N.B. The rating should be considered only in comparison to hip-hop and Italian pop music.