Fedez
Pop-hoolista

POP-HOOLISTA Fedez is probably the most well-known Italian rapper at the moment. And it doesn’t really matter if what he does isn’t rap. You can find his face everywhere: from the covers of Rolling Stones to X factor, from newspapers that celebrate him to those that dedicate ample space to the controversies that saw him clashing with some MPs from the Pd. His crime was writing the anthem for M5s. In short, between a first place on the charts and a TV appearance, the young Federico Leonardo Lucia, at just 25 years old and with a couple of albums under his belt, seems to have firmly captured the hearts (and wallets) of young Italian girls, ready to flood his Facebook timeline with hearts and boost his bank account through purchases on iTunes. The explosion of the Milanese rapper happened a couple of years ago, with the release of the interesting “Sig. Brainwash L’arte di accontentare”, which earned him three platinum discs and a collaboration with Giannini, who lately seems willing to give her voice to everyone (thankfully, it's just her voice). This year the goal is to confirm his success; he's trying with the release of Pop-hoolista, a title as ugly as it is spot-on. Indeed, populism is the recurrent theme of this massive album (20 songs are too many even for the Beatles, let alone for Fedez): the leitmotif is the classic “us versus them”, the palace opposing the square, the caste stealing, the chairs stuck to backsides, more or less veiled insults to the President of the Republic, priests driving limousines, and rants against the police. Same old stuff. Obviously, there’s no minimal political analysis, no desire to go deeper: it’s a tale of a sort of country in disarray “because of them,” without any admission of self-criticism towards the Italian people, who I see as the real makers of our national disaster. The apex of populism is reached with the collaboration with Jax (“Viva l’IVA”), which results in a sort of anthem to not paying VAT. A decidedly political album, therefore, with two or three not even too veiled references to Grillo, and the sympathy he feels for him (too much ink has already been spilled on the controversy). Here and there, there are sprinkled some more romantic tracks, probably on the “advice” of the record label: I warn you in advance, “Magnifico” with Francesca Michielin will be a hit, surpassing 30 million views on YouTube. In general, the numerous guests present on the album have the objective of appealing to the largest possible audience. And so there's Gemitaz and Madman, Guè and all the others; space for Noemi (“L’amore non è eternit”), Elisa (“pop-hoolista”), Malika Ayane (“Sirene”), and the already mentioned Michielin and JAx. There's also the classic critique of the trash TV world (“Non c’è due senza trash”), and an interesting yet useless contamination with the Salentini Boom da Bash and their Latin sound (M.I.A) However, if the content doesn't seem too original, one must admit that the boy has quite a knack for fitting rhymes together, wordplay, a vast linguistic range: basically, he has excellent flow. That's no small feat for someone who calls himself a rapper, even without being one. There are a ton of rappers who couldn’t land an original rhyme even by accident. Not him; he's particularly creative in this. Credit is due to him; some pieces are truly appreciable: the double entendres, the rhyme closures, a mix of words glued and fired over the base with notable talent. Go listen to “La bella addormentata nel Bronx,” “Voglio averti Account,” “Love Cost,” or “Cardinal Chic.” You won't regret it; they will definitely provoke a laugh and applause. Then there are the beats, commercial to the extreme, and the search for a catchy and melodic chorus: sometimes he succeeds, other times less so. But as has already been said, this isn’t rap. Yet, to put it in his way, “You know what? You can do ugly and hard as much as you want, rock, but I sing at concerts and you under the shower.”