If Fabrizio De André was twenty today, would he be a rapper?

Premise: they do not exist comparisons of any kind. Only reasoning, analysis and food for thought. Type that Genoamother of the songwriter starting from the sixties thanks to the so-called historical schooltoday it is the theater of a rap scene in extreme ferment, forge of talents and inexhaustible source of inspiration. Yes, because it is right between the noble palaces and public houses, coming out of the labyrinthine alleys and reaching the sea, which winds a red thread which unites two worlds, only apparently distant.

A red thread as thin as it is sturdy, examined with extreme lucidity by The new Genoese schoolthe docufilm on the meeting between songwriting and rap in the Ligurian capital, directed by Yuri Dellacasa And Paolo Fossatiat the cinema from 2 to 4 May with Zenit Distribution. “We have described Genoa with different lenses, from the center to the suburbs”, the directors reveal to us. «The message is that the roots are importantcities sculpt creativity and imagination of an artist », adds Claudio Cabona, author and creator.

«The documentary does not give answers, but raises questions“. Some deliberately provocative, like the one that opens the social page dedicated to the film: “If Fabrizio De André was twenty today, would he be a rapper?“. Start the debate, but without tension: The new Genoese school it is indeed a confrontation without prejudice, through insights and dialogues between artists. “If De André were alive, he would be an eighty-year-old man capable of making albums more and more evolved“, he claims Gian Piero Alloisiocollaborator of Gaber and Guccini.

“But if he were twenty today, yes, I think would be a rapper, because he would make his own the language of the generation to which he belongs ». «Listening to the music of the songwriters the conscience is shaken“, he claims Teduaamong the greatest exponents of the current rap scene, while talking with Gino Paoli. «You have brought me closer to the values ​​of Christian culture a song like The testament of Titus that the hours of religion spent at school “. Looking for analogies and parallelstherefore, but without hiding too the obvious differences.

Conversations between Izi And Dori Ghezzi, between Bresh And Cristiano De André, with the contributions of Vittorio De Scalzi, Gian Franco Reverberi, Vaz Tè, Demo, Nader and many others. In addition to two special guests: Marracash And Ivano Fossati. «In Italy, sampling has never been understood, while I find it offers many possibilities to rediscover the repertoire of Italian music “, says the Milanese rapper, revealing that he has always been fascinated by the figure of the late Luigi Tenco and some of his songs in particular.

“Rediscover that music and re-quote it, bring it back into the contemporary world serves to provide that red thread that unites the past with the present and create a culture“. “There is a noticeable difference between our approach to music and that of rap musicians“, Is the comment instead of Fossati, from Genoa, class of ’51. «They get used to from the beginning a collaborate, even at great distances. It is not important that you have already become a star. If they can, they do. We, on the other hand, tended to be gods islandsto work more or less alone “.

«The rappers are songwriters and also something more», Concludes the artist. «They have to be looked at carefully, they have been won over a freedom to which we did not have the courage to access ». Because maybe, the magic word that binds these two universes, it is precisely freedom.

Other stories of Vanity Fair that may interest you

Fabrizio De André, the “free prince” who never gets old
Twenty years without Fabrizio De André, twenty sentences to remember him
Tedua, creativity is a process of order and disorder
Luché, mission at high altitude: “My ambition, beyond the numbers”

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