Rap also arrives at the Open Festival. During the Friday night panel dedicated to music, rappers Dargen D'Amico and Willie Peyote took to the stage. With them Paola Zukar, producer – among others – of Fabri Fibra and Marracash, and journalist Claudio Cabona. The topics discussed, however, had little to do with entertainment. Starting from censorship, the theme of the first issue of the magazine “Testi expliciti”, edited by Zukar and Cabona. A monograph with a long series of contributions and interviews with the most disparate personalities: from Baby Gang to Gué Pequeno in rap, passing through journalists such as Cecilia Sala and Milena Gabanelli. But also Don Claudio Burgio, who in his community of Kayros often uses rap as an outlet for those who are in the process of reintegrating into society. “Don Claudio – explained Paola Zukar – used rap as a shield, so that children could feel free in a process of re-education.”
The risk of censorship and self-censorship
“Rap is an extremely free, controversial, provocative genre,” continues the “lady of rap.” “Sometimes even boring and abrasive. It contains many elements that can disturb, that create a debate around it. And the censors want to intervene immediately, as soon as something is wrong. But art is never censorable.” The journalist Cabona immediately follows his description: “We consider censorship as an act imposed from above, 'I'm stopping you from speaking' and that still exists. Added to this aspect is a form of censorship linked to the evolution of rap. The horizontal, which comes from the artist himself. There are those who self-censor to try to reach the top, preferring to avoid exposing themselves on certain issues or subjects. For a form of acceptance, of economic interest.”
But censorship sometimes works the other way around. Turin-based singer-songwriter and rapper Willie Peyote says: “I don't feel safe from self-censorship. Not in the sense that I limit myself to saying something that might please more, but I limit myself to preventing a certain part of the population from getting angry.” And then he makes a joke about supposed political correctness: “We are in the middle of a cultural revolution. Some words can no longer be said, they should no longer be said. Others must be weighed more carefully. So the problem is this: can I provoke on certain issues? Not on everyone. I don't write about everything that comes to mind, I try to avoid it. shit storm especially when the fire is friendly. But if today I have to pay the bill for something I said in the past, I accept it because we are moving towards a truly inclusive language. Of course, someone gets caught in the middle, but that's how revolutions work.”
Dargen: “San Remo? I wouldn't do it again”
Then it was the turn of Dargen D'Amico, a Milanese with a long career behind him who became a hit with his latest success of “Onda Alta” in Sanremo in 2024, but even before that with “Come si balla” in 2022. Occasions, especially that of the last edition, in which the show was discussed for its scope of denunciation regarding the conflict in the Middle East. However, he confesses to the deputy director Serena Danna: “I don't know if I would return to Sanremo, because I am no longer the same person. But the times we live in have changed: at the time I perhaps felt an imbalance in the story of what is happening in the world, and it did not do justice to the weakest. But now I see that even if the story of the weakest has appeared in the media, adults do not care and the general anesthesia also remains.”
Politics and rap, two threads that have often intertwined. And now that rap is considered an elevated genre? Especially after the Pulitzer Prize to the American singer Kendrick Lamar and the Tenco Prize in Marracash. In reality, Zukar points out, “rap was born as a festive, carefree and light genre. It was not born exactly political, it has always been more popular and social. And that is indeed the case: on average, it starts with people who may have very little education but are still as intelligent as words.” While now, now, it is general public. “It's very simple to start, all you need is a friend to teach you the basics and a microphone to record with. It's open 360 degrees, and that's a more than positive thing. But it's also fashionable, and that's not a good thing. Because almost everyone is trying to compete with it for fashion, to become famous. And that's a side effect.”
Rap between violence and real history
Rap lyrics also have a bad reputation for being crude and inciting young people to violence. Guns, sexism, a representation far removed from today's values. Willie Peyote disagrees: “Scarf Is that why people join organized groups? There is certainly the danger of imitation, but if a film, a book, a song tells a story … it cannot be more dangerous than reality itself. Rap was born in black neighborhoods as a genre to demonstrate that it can be done, as a way to get out of a dramatic situation.” And he declares: “The problem is reality, not the song that tells it.”
And it is the other rapper on stage, Dargen, who completes the whole thing. “We should investigate because some young people have the only solution to strengthen their lyrics, by censoring certain feelings because they are not drinkable. Because there is no hatred, there is no violence. We must not encourage them to censor the hatred they talk about, but to sing the love they do not talk about.” “Politics often uses these issues as a weapon of mass distraction – adds Claudio Cabona. “They target the lyrics but do not tackle the real problems.” To quote Don Burgio: Reality is not zero because there is Baby Gang, but there is Baby Gang because reality is zero. And for Paola Zukar, the role of parents is central: “Children who come into contact with the hard themes of rap hope to have an adult near them who is able to contextualize the content to which they are subjected. Why is that? roll social networks are a bit like Russian roulette.”
Many new rappers, like the now-famous Baby Gang, are second-generation immigrants. But they sing about exclusion. “The real issue is citizenship,” says Willie Peyote. “What Baby Gang really brings out is a social incoherence that makes his lyrics much more political than they seem. And the fact that his words aren’t fully understandable makes it all the more disturbing.” “Asking politely doesn’t get you listened to,” Dargen concludes.
The discord between Fedez and Tony Effe? “They are rare”
And then it is time, to conclude, to talk about the disagreements between Fedez and Tony Effe. But the clients prefer to go further. “They are rare,” Cabona quickly judges. Instead, for Paola Zukar, not hearing it “would have been better. But nothing should be censorable in art. However, so many mechanisms, so many stylistic traits of beef However, they are not known. It is believed that there are unwritten rules. You can't involve children in the mix… but why?” And Dargen's acerbic phrase comes at the right time: “Look at Israel.” Applause in the square. And then the rapper continues: “I have done a lot of dissent towards myself, in the sense that I have taken back what I thought and said. It is important to enter with certainty and leave with doubt.”
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