Frankie Hi-NRG MC
Ero un autarchico

THE REVIEW

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Francesco Di Gesù, known as Frankie Hi-Nrg Mc, was a self-sufficient artist when he chose the slippery surface of Italian rap to make his first steps in the music world. After more than ten years of career, many perspectives can change, but when it comes to style, have no doubts: Frankie continues undisturbed to "do his thing."

Unfortunately, over the years, the rapper from Turin has given little to his audience and I Was Self-Sufficient is the last of three albums released at intervals of 5/6 years (Verba Manent is from '92, The Death of Miracles from '97). If you consider that only half of the 17 tracks on the new record are real songs, it's fair to wonder about the reasons for such "scarcity." And indeed, there's an answer: in The Useless One, one of the finest pieces on the album, Frankie addresses the issue by lashing out at those musicians who "compose only to inflate the runtime" and provocatively describes his work as "an artistic sham dictated by a meager mercantile need." In short, the rapper focuses on quality, steering clear of market logic, which too often pushes artists to accelerate the creative process and produce mediocre products. The quality of this album's tracks remains consistently high, and in Rap Lamento, the sample from the theme of 90° Minute allows the beat to intertwine masterfully with an immediately explosive lyric.

Everywhere, the voice dances on the beats and seems to shape the words at will, giving depth and soul to every syllable. The choice of topics is careful and varied, and Frankie reaffirms himself as a keen observer and intelligent interpreter, both of the great "evils" of our time and of our small daily neuroses. The analysis of our society is ruthless, and the words, never trivial, reveal a sincere attempt to open minds through music (the refrain of Generation of Monsters is splendid and clear in this regard). Throughout the album, Frankie seems to grant us the privilege of wearing his unfashionable glasses, a sought-after emblem of his nonconformism and an ideal filter to scrutinize reality.

Even from a purely musical standpoint, the Piedmontese artist decisively follows his own path, conceding nothing to current trends and insisting on simple and direct beats that deliberately recall the sounds of the earliest rap. If there's regret for all those minutes dedicated to various interludes (some, moreover, delightful), it's only because we would have liked to hear some additional songs. Frankie, however, chose to experiment with a new concept of an album, where the message (or rather, the messages) emerge not only from his tracks but also from the words of other artists (including Arnoldo Foà, Antonio Rezza), sampled and inserted between one song and another.

In a few words... engaging from beginning to end!

I want to thank all the compliments I read in your comments (thanks to which I find the motivation to keep improving!) THANK YOU SO MUCH! BYE!