Grido
Io, Grido

"I don't go on TV to be a caricature
 I don't work thanks to a little favor
 I don't have an agent who pays off
 THAT'S THE SYSTEM AND THIS IS THE REVENGE!!!"

from "L'ennesima volta".

Beautiful people,

we are used to thinking that when an artist leaves a successful band or decides to go solo on an album, we should expect from them either something very similar to what we were accustomed to with the aforementioned band, or at most, a poor imitation of it. But the good Grido, on a break from his fellow Gemelli DiVersi, really surprised me!

In short, listening to the tracks of Gemelli, one already intuits that, when it comes to rhymes and metrics, he stands head and shoulders above his (albeit not evil) colleague Thema, but with this solo debut, he lets loose an hip hop soul that we had rarely had the chance to see before! First of all, all the tracks are produced by THG who is at his classy best here: if we were used to seeing him as a simple stage DJ who didn't quite fit in with the pop and often instrumental sounds of Gemelli, here he shows us that, when it comes to beats, he has nothing to envy from sacred monsters of the Italian scene like Dj Jad or Don Joe.

And then there's Grido.

With his impeccable metrics and musicality, with his rhymes that are both simple and sophisticated, with which he shares his ideas and stories. Stories of revelry until dawn (the amusing "Torniamo a casa lessi", "Non ce la fai più") and of a wild life (the pompous "Superblunt"), stories he sees around him when walking through the streets of his Cologno Monzese ("Cologno Beach"), but also more autobiographical and intimate ones (the beautiful "Per l'ennesima volta", and the melancholic yet energetic "Sei come me") or angry ones ("Io Grido"), touching upon current or more or less ideological topics: from the musical situation in the Bel Paese ("Una musica sola"), to the ideal woman that has been created in this society ("F.U.F.F.A.", an acronym with which he labels the typical superficial girls), passing through light drugs (the interesting "Come farla su") until reaching the demon hiding inside each of us (the brilliant "Doctor Weed", in my opinion the gem of the album in terms of rhymes, base, and subject). 

Love, the main topic of Gemelli, is addressed here only in "Fumo e malinconia", but if you listen to it, you'll immediately understand that it's a very personal, elaborate, and not at all banal text. 

Just as the entire album is anything but banal, with bases that are never predictable, permeated by the ironic lyrics of Grido, who in my opinion, with this work, confirms himself as one of the best rappers that the Italian scene can offer.

Peace.