DJ Gruff
Rapadopa

"Style is very important. Even more important is not having any style which, in a well-trained person, means having all of them. Style is not a pattern to be repeated endlessly. The idea is to learn style and then surpass it. Only this way can we progress to new levels of learning." From the book The Spirit of Shaolin.

One nine nine three... the season of the Posse seemed to have ended an eternity ago, when "Rapadopa" burst onto the scene like a summer hurricane. Dj Gruff is one of the old guard of homegrown hip hop; Turin, Sardinia, Milan, and Bologna are the places where Sandro left his indelible mark throughout the eighties. A refined beatbox, breakdance, and acidic and alien scratches brought him to Bologna in the Isola Posse Allstars of "Stop Al Panico", which, alongside "Batti Il Tuo Tempo" by the Onda Rossa Posse from Rome, shook the Italian music market, climbing sales charts from the bottom and bringing to the mainstream the social demands of a Movement that loudly declares its existence. But as mentioned, soon this wave crashes against the wall erected against it, also because the market immediately takes the situation head-on and begins to produce harmless and futile rap records, shifting the public's attention from the message to the vehicle, managing to make it quickly become one of the many fast-food, quick-grab trends.

But hip hop has never been just and simply a musical genre; it is a philosophy that must be embraced and lived with consciousness and respect, day after day; following the Four Pillars that support it (rap, djing, breakdance, and writing) and always trying to give the best of oneself. Dj Gruff is a warrior of hip hop who lives the philosophy with the depth of a Zen monk and with the devotion of a Shaolin master he assembles this true Italian Manifesto of philosophy. Travel companions are the best the scene offers, so within the grooves of Rapadopa, we find the fierce hardcore of Kaos One growling his lyrics in Italian for the first time in "Don Kaos", where the urgency to express his discomfort even leads him to curse, or the delirious Papa Ricky feverishly melting his anti-clerical tirades in "Ho Visto Un Prete"; Esa of OTR with his youthful voice disarticulates a joyous tale of the problems that writers must face to fulfill their mission, or the seductive female voices, the sharp and "philosophical" one of Carrie D in "La Musica" and the more mischievous and soft one of La Pina in "Una Storia Che Non C'Era". Gruff's most trusted friends help him assemble a series of interlude-tracks ranging from the "psychedelia" of "Casino Royale" with Pardo of the band of the same name, as well as the pulsing bass of Alessiomanna also from Casino Royale that whirls in the hyper-funk of "B-Boys" or grooves in the more seventies vibe of "Cheat" or the warm sax of Dada which practically traverses the entire album, entering and exiting the beats and often dialoguing with Gruff's scratches. Topcat is a Jamaican rapper with a deep voice that sounds like it comes directly from the center of the earth, and in "La Cosa Nostra" his dark lyrics gain a melancholic sensuality that gives chills. The Italian hip hop Manifesto, I said, and there's nothing better than the initial title track to confirm my words... the wonderful trio of Neffa, Deda, and Gruff on an irresistible funk base crafted by the skilled hands of Neffa and the refined jazz of Dada's sax, melt into a freestyle that defines the highest level style ever heard here before, prophetically defining the highest peaks the three will reach a year later with the Masterpiece "SxM" under the name Sangue Misto and making history.

History that will see most of the participants of "Rapadopa" as protagonists in the hip hop scene, with excellent results, but without even coming close to the magic that Dj Gruff created in the golden three-year period 1993-96, gifting us with the brightest gems of homegrown hip hop ever, with the aforementioned "SxM", the very smooth flow of "Zerostress" and this authentic Manifesto.

"Hear how it sounds, how it sounds, hear how it sounds... the Rapadopa"

Maximum respect, Sandro.