Psalm: “I try to be good”

Here is an excerpt from the cover story, published in issue 18 of Vanity Fairon newsstands until May 3.

The guy who doesn’t speak English makes deliveries of Japanese soups. London, early 2000s.
Maurizio is just over twenty years old, he drives a moped and comes from Sardinia. He wears two pairs of
gloves, two vests and a lot of anger. One weekend, you stick a sign for a restaurant on your head
Italian, stands on the street and becomes a traveling advertisement. That’s when she understands
what will he do when he grows up. It is in that moment that Maurizio Pisciottu becomes a Psalm. “I felt like
a dot, no, like a fart when the train passes by. There I realized that I had hit rock bottom. There I understood what music I had to make ». Thirty-seven years old, rapper, producer, now also an actor in the new series Block 181. He says everything he thinks and doesn’t think about what he says. “Of course, I was born pissed. It is as if you absorb the problems ».

Is he angry even now?
“No. In fact, I’m fine. I closed all the projects: the Flop record, the live shows, the soundtrack of the series.
I’m calm, come on ».

P.erò a few weeks ago he took it out on a fan during a concert …
“And I believe it, he threw a piece of ice at me on the stage while I was singing. They wrote
that it was snow, but instead it was ice ».

Do you always respond to violence with violence?
“I try to be good, but I can’t.”

So he responds to violence with violence.
“Then let’s put it this way. You are good, you prepare yourself, you fine-tune your music. Then you get on stage and a kid comes along and throws you a piece of ice. What are you doing? What do you do if they tease you all day on social media and then throw things at you on stage? ».

Do you try not to react?
“After answering the ice guy badly, I got a sense of guilt. However, if it has happened to someone like Will Smith, it can also happen to me that I am also Sardinian and touchy, right? ».

Sounds like a nice excuse to me. And a bad justification for Will Smith too.
“It’s true you’re right. But sometimes the crime really triggers me. I would like there to be a festive atmosphere, that we were only there for the music. Instead…”.

Instead, perhaps, an artist also has the responsibility of his character, of his fame. No?
“But look, I don’t make songs to save the world. And then enough with the artists’ tale
who do all things beautiful and right. Artists are not ordinary people, they don’t always give the
good example. The artists are all deranged. And maybe every now and then it would be worthwhile to distinguish
the art of an artist from his private life. Even if today with social media everything is a big mess. Indeed
do you know how it will end? ».

Such as?
«That the characters will win over the music. That in the future there will be more influencers and youtubers than musicians. And please, influencers and youtubers don’t take it badly that I don’t have it with you. But in the future I see more entertainers, more video games than music ».

And who will just want to make music?
“It will take a back seat.”

But there are characters who are able to make music, commitment, politics. Take Fedez: he has even managed to sensitize an entire nation on a delicate and difficult issue like illness. It is not cheap.
“Of course it’s not cheap. Indeed, it is a lot. But I know what you are about to ask me: why don’t you do it too? ».

Exactly why?
«I already told you: because I don’t want to change the world with my music. Honestly, that would be a bitch to me. Take this war, it’s such a dramatic, so complicated business. And I’m the one who shoots a lot of bitches. I don’t want to say things I don’t know. I cannot. And be clear, I inquire. And sometimes the more you inform yourself the less you understand. And then the conspiracies come out and you discover that some news is false. I don’t feel like talking about it. “

(…continues…)

(photo Bogdan “Chilldays” Plakov, report by Nick Cerioni)