Jake La Furia, the interview: X Factor, the anxieties and the children he never talked about

Although he is decidedly expansive and always has a joke ready, Jake The Fury he is an extremely private person, considering that he has never spoken about either his wife or his children in all these years. «I don’t like the social dimension just as I don’t like the public dimension. I want to be loved and appreciated for my music or what I do X Factor: my children are my private identity and I must not be of interest to the public», explains Jake, stage name of Francesco Vigorelli – «Francesco only calls me my mother» -, fresh from a year marked by two important events. The Club Dogo reunion and the beginning of his adventure a X Factor, the Sky Original program broadcast every Thursday in prime time on Sky and streaming on NOW which sees him in the role of judge.

On the one hand the return home with Club Dogo and on the other a leap into the void with X Factor: how did these two drives coexist in you?
«They balanced themselves with the positivity that these two events brought. The Dogo reunion was very well received by everyone considering it definitely patched things up between the three of us, while X Factor he came in and inserted himself into this process as an unexpected surprise. At the beginning I thought it would be difficult, but I’m having a lot of fun, and I think it shows.”

It wasn’t his first experience on television, though.
«I frequent the medium and I’m not afraid of it, fortunately. From X Factor I’ve seen almost all the editions and I’ve always appreciated the fact that it talks about music, allowing you to think about it. I’m very happy that they called me.”

If they called you it must have been for the results of your career: are you satisfied?
«Very satisfied because I have always done good things. Today I am here, in the age of the dinosaurs, but I still count for something in my genre. X Factorin this sense, is a great opportunity for me: if all goes well, it would be a good goal.”

Does Jake the Fury really feel like he’s from the age of dinosaurs?
«There are very few of my rap generation left. It’s a fact.”

Do certain careers have an expiration date?
«Rap a little yes. In my opinion, personal data counts when you do certain genres, even if it all boils down to how credible you still are to do what you do. If people still come after me it shows that I still am and that’s fine. I’ve always said that when I no longer feel credible I will take a nice holiday.”

What relationship does it have with the passing of time?
«It’s not so bad, in the sense that I prepared myself to get here and I am aware that one cannot be twenty years old forever and always be a young man with a hat. At this age I’m having fun, I’m getting some great satisfaction, so I’m quite relaxed about the time that passes.”

A satisfaction that he took away?
«Doing a huge tour, performing at San Siro, but also doing ten Forums consecutively, something that I would never have been able to tackle as a soloist».

What was he like as a child?
«Blonde and with blue eyes».

A little angel?
«Seriously, I was more shy. I hated performing but, at a certain point, a trigger was triggered that led me to change.”

What did you want to be when you grew up?
«I have always been a great fan of Japanese cartoons and robots: I would have liked to design one. Now I’m a big collector of action figures.”

When does rap come into contact with such a nerdy soul?
«I grew up with music, considering that it was always listened to in my house. It came to me through cassettes and, above all, when my uncle gave me the Notorious B.I.G. album. When I listened to it I told myself I wanted to do that stuff.”

What is music for you?
«Something that manages to completely remove me from the world. I could easily spend a day in the car driving around the ring road listening to music all day and I would be happy.”

At 14 he started writing: but about what?
«Very self-referential phrases, like “I’m number one”. Then, as time passed, I found my way and, without arrogance, I believe I helped transform rap in Italy with my work. When I and the In my group we understood that we had to put a stop to that type of story and talk about the things that others needed, everything changed.”

Did he really believe he was number one at the time?
«It was probably just the result of a creative urgency».

Have you ever been a “rebel”?
«Yes, but to the extent that all teenagers are. I have never been someone who had the urge to change the world: I simply wanted to make it mine.”

Did this creative urgency satisfy you more for yourself or for others?
«I have always been someone who wanted to create and know for himself. Having never had a great relationship with school, I decided to take an interest in what really aroused something inside me.”

Have you ever felt wrong about your lack of interest in school?
«No, I have never felt crushed by anything or left behind. I don’t come from a life of great suffering or anything like that.”

Did he dream of being seen?
«Yes, although, like all teenagers, I had my internal battles, my upheavals and my panic attacks. As I grew up I balanced myself, a bit like those Japanese motorbikes that come off the assembly line all crooked but then you don’t understand how but they put themselves back together.”

What role did music have in this balance?
«I think 95%, because that’s what I’ve dedicated my whole life to. Having managed to transform this passion into a profession has occupied all my energies, potentially saving me from a lot of other problems, starting from depression up to drugs. It was lucky.”

Have you ever been afraid of losing contact with reality because of success?
«Yes, I think it’s a fear shared by everyone. At the turn of 2010, when we became a point of reference for rap in Italy, it was very easy to lose control but, fortunately, I always had my head on my shoulders. After a bad gastritis caused by champagne which almost gave me an ulcer, I told myself to put my feet back on the ground and work hard to continue to stay there.”

Was there anyone who helped you understand this?
«I have always had a very supportive family situation, and this allowed me to have roots to lean on. A bell simply rang and I said to myself: “let’s get in line”.

Jake La Furia, the X Factor interview, the anxieties and the children he never talked about
Virginia Bettoja

After that gastritis, where did he leave from?
«From the split with Club Dogo, which led me to work hard on my solo career. That led me to start again in a different way and live life with less frenzy. As you grow up, you come to understand many things and give the right importance to what surrounds you.”

Money and power: what mattered more?
«Luckily I didn’t get sick from either of them. There’s a quote from J-Ax that I really like and that I always quote: I’m never interested in being number one for two years, but in being number ten for my whole life. I believe in it a lot, also because chasing money at all costs becomes a much more dangerous drug than substances. In the end I worked a lot and I earned what I need to be happy: I don’t need to be the richest in the cemetery, because it will be of no use to me anyway.”

Do you think you gave up something to pursue your career?
«Definitely some important friendships because, when you are successful, you are not always forgiven. In those years, however, everything was amplified: friends, casual sex, fun, disco. And this leads you to lose people you may have loved.”

It’s a romantic answer, this.
«But I’m a pussy, as long as you don’t put it in the title because otherwise I’ll report it. Jokes aside, I’m still an artist: I don’t think anyone is capable of writing certain things if he doesn’t have a certain sensitivity within him.”

Sensitivity is, however, a double-edged sword.
«As a boy, in fact, it hurt because I had my anxieties but, as I grew up, I adjusted and channeled my sensitivity where it was needed».

How much did the desire to start a family impact your desire for balance?
“A lot of. I had children not to continue doing what I did before and leave them to the nanny, but because I really wanted to build a family. I wanted to enjoy my children and really live with them, and this definitely changed my life. Also because I would simply no longer be able to do 7 in the morning. I think the kids fixed me. Accompanying them and picking them up from school puts me at peace.”

Jake La Furia, the X Factor interview, the anxieties and the children he never talked about

Very little is known about his private life: did he always want to protect her?
«Yes, because I have always wanted to keep my family away from the spotlight unless they want it. Since that desire isn’t there for the moment, it’s right that certain moments remain ours and are not public. I think this is the basis of happiness.”

Happiness is defending your loved ones?
“It’s having something that is only yours and not others’.”

Do you think fatherhood has changed you as a man?
«It definitely softened and reassured me. Anyway, my name is Jake the Fury, not Nice Tatone, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be a father and enjoy a quiet life.”

Isn’t he a Fury anymore?
«I don’t have any more, not even a X Factor, the anger of the past. I’ve worked my ass off to get to where I am, and I’ve always thought that it’s not right to experience music in a too visceral way because, in the end, it would become a job. And if you turn music into a job it’s over.”

What are you afraid of?
«Of the future, of the war, of the geopolitical situation in which we are. I didn’t think I would witness this historic moment, I feel a strong sense of anguish, not to mention that I don’t feel represented in the slightest by these gentlemen who make decisions for us.”

As a well-known figure, do you think you can do something to change things?
«I am for intellectual honesty: in my opinion it is right to take a position on things you know and about which you are sure you have something to say. Otherwise it’s better to leave it alone. That said, a musician has to make music and I don’t think he should be forced to say something about politics just because he’s famous. You need to speak when you are competent in the matter, otherwise it is useless. Not to mention that social media has given fertile ground to all the people who need to let off steam.”

How do you vent?
«Eating. Even though I have developed a good armor and am quite waterproof, I try to use social media only for what I need. I’m not going to hurt myself by reading comments or anything like that.”

What makes that armor shake?
“The arrogance, the incompetence, and all those very Italian things that piss me off.”

Source: Vanity Fair

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