Two Fingerz
Downtown

The Two Fingerz are Daniele Lazzarin, aka Danti/Verbal Kint/Taze (vocals, lyricist and some beats) and Riccardo Garifo, aka Roofio (DJ, composer and producer), a hip hop duo from Nova Milanese (MB). "Downtown" is their first album, released in 2006 and self-produced.

We are witnessing a very interesting debut for a group that will show increasing potential in the future. The quality of the beats and lyrics is already very high, the only shortcoming is the sound, but for a first self-production, one can hardly expect better.

The main influences in the Italian hip hop scene come from what was gradually evolving in Milan from the early 2000s, which is the emergence of new rap talents, especially the crew of Club Dogo, the Dogo Gang. The Two Fingerz are indeed mentioned by Club Dogo themselves in the album "Mi Fist" from 2003, at the end of the song "Rap Soprano".

The Two Fingerz, however, stand out from the start by expanding the offerings of the early Club Dogo: firstly with more varied beats, perhaps of lower quality than those of Don Joe, but with more range, and then with fairly different themes in the lyrics.

The lyrics of "Downtown" are rapid snapshots of the life of an ordinary 25-year-old guy who likes to play with words, spend evenings drinking coke and rum, smoke marijuana, hang out with friends, and observe the reality passing before his eyes every day. So in this album, as well as in the subsequent ones by Two Fingerz, you won't find street stories in terms of dealing, crime, prostitution but rather in terms of the everyday path one takes to go to work, to grocery shop, to record an album, to perform a concert.

***TRACKLIST***

1.   Max velocità (4:02)
2.   Gente da club (3:47)
3.   So che si può (4:29)
4.   Ognuno per sé (4:33)
5.   Hi Jack Atw (4:51)
6.   Sei già ieri (3:50)
7.   Dove inizia la follia (4:41)
8.   Pensieri a metà (4:18)
9.   Psyko (4:36)
10.   Finché sarò qui (4:27)
11.   Down Town Kint Mix (3:56)
12.   Mix I Jack Before (3:48)
13.   World Trip Bnc Premix 001 (3:20)

The album opens with "Max velocità", providing the right boost: life is seen as a race lived alone in the cockpit, but there are no other competitors besides us, and one even risks overlapping. It continues with "Gente da club", a jazzy beat built entirely on the wordplay that famous people's surnames can create. "So che si può" is another high-speed track, with beautiful rhymes and an excellent beat, while "Ognuno per sé" showcases Danti's skill on slow and meaningful pieces. In "Hi Jack Atw" we find a soft beat with fairly vague lyrics, leaving us in the middle part of the album, which is the most interesting. "Sei già ieri" talks about the impossibility of stopping time and thus living day by day letting go of what is already yesterday; "Dove inizia la follia" instead is a vivid portrait of how madness can only emerge within us if we start seriously observing all the contradictions inherent in ourselves and the society we live and represent. For "Pensieri a metà", Roofio deserves exceptional praise as he crafts high-level beats from the first album, then flows into "Psyko" along the lines of "Dove inizia la follia" and "Finché sarò qui", a manifesto of the Downtown-thought. The album closes with "Down Town Kint Mix", "Mix I Jack Before" (an upgraded remix of "Hi Jack Atw"), and "World Trip Bnx Premix 001", which retains the chorus of "Hi Jack Atw" mashed with that of "Max velocità", and lyrics that travel around the world. The Two Fingerz present themselves with this first album to the attention of the Italian rap public and record labels. The following year (2007), following the success of Fabri Fibra and Mondo Marcio, Sony decided to sign them to produce "Figli del caos". "Downtown" is not a fundamental album in the hip hop scene but represents an excellent debut for a group that has all the credentials to make its mark in this genre in Italy.