Caparezza
Encyclopedia
Caparezza pseudonym
of Michele Salvemini, born 9 October 1973) is an Italian rapper
. Born in Molfetta
, Apulia
, Caparezza debuted in 1997 at the Sanremo Festival under the name "MikiMix".
on October 9, 1973.
His music genre is mainly Hip Hop
, but highly influenced by Avant-garde music
, Progressive
and Experimental
music, similar in style to Frank Zappa
, who Caparezza considers his "teacher". This has earned him the title of "Beppe Grillo
of music" among his fans; like Grillo, Caparezza criticizes society and politics with sharp irony in contexts which are often fantastic and unreal. At first Caparezza appears nonsensical due to his use of unusual metaphors, and above all because he has disowned the mainstream of hip-hop; thus he appears to be a nonconformist rejected by the Italian mainstream.
He released five albums which are filled with ideas, music genres, notions, poetry, criticism and concepts, but, notably, all of his songs are packed with quotes, both hidden and evident, to movies, comics, commercials, TV broadcasting, classic writers, other musicians and many more, many of which are very difficult to spot, or to link to the fact they refer to.
He studied accountancy, although he dreamed of writing comics. After completing High School, Michele began to work in advertising, and won a scholarship for the Academy of Media and Journalism in Milan. However, he soon decided to leave the advertising world to fully devote himself to music.
Michele started his career under the name Mikimix, but composed melodic songs with poor artistic value and thus did not obtain widespread success. He also anchored the broadcast Segnali di Fumo together with Paola Maugeri on Video Music Italian channel. After some performing in Milan’s pubs, Mikimix made his debut in Castrocaro Festival and subsequently participated to two Sanremo Festivals in the New Generation section, in 1995 and in 1997, and succeeded in publishing his first album, La mia buona stella, which however was a success only in France.
, in which he disowns and nearly rejects his 'Mikimix' past, because he considered himself at the time inconsistent and poor compared to his present self. His second album, Verità Supposte
, Supposed truths (note that in Italian supposte is used both for supposed and suppository), led him to success in 2003-2004. His third album, Habemus Capa
(is a pun on the habemus papam statement which is used after pope elections to announce to the people that a new pope has been chosen), is a criticism against society's contradictions; Salvemini imagines his death and his descent to the Hell, which is eventually our world, describing a dreadful aspect of modern society in every song. It was published in 2006.
In 2008 he released his fourth album, Le dimensioni del mio caos
(My chaos dimensions, which in Italian sounds pretty close to my guts sizes). This takes the form of a science-fiction story starring Caparezza as the main character. During a tribute concert to Jimi Hendrix
, Caparezza destroys a guitar on an amplifer, and creates a time-space warp from which a girl from the 1960s named Ilaria shows up, and Caparezza falls in love with her. Caparezza realizes that the present time has changed because the past had been altered. The only way, is to bring back Ilaria to the time where she belongs. But Ilaria is already heavily influenced by modern society and doesn't want to go back to 1968. In this alternative 2008, the Church rules and Caparezza is arrested because he has pockets which are forbidden (There's jail for those who wear pockets, because in pockets there's no control. Since then, only those who were artists, or junkies, or both, like Basquiat, wore pockets). After he is released from prison, he discovers that Ilaria has married Carneade, who is the leader of the "Somebody people Front", a political movement reserved for VIPs. Caparezza cannot manage to take Ilaria back to 1968 and meanwhile the "Somebody people Front" is planning to build a spaceport in Apulia
to gain support and popularity for the imminent elections. Caparezza visits the construction site and meets Luigi delle Bicocche, a mason who is also the protagonist of the song "Eroe-storia di Luigi delle Bicocche", a song about the conditions of the working class and the society in Italy. Caparezza, demoralized, gives his Stratocaster and his amplifier to Luigi. Suddenly we find out that Luigi's (gigi, for short, in Italian) real nature is being a guitar player (Gigi Hendrix); while playing in a gig, he destroys the Stratocaster on the amplifer and creates a time-space warp which brings humanity back to his origins. Humans has been turned into bonobo
s, a specie of great apes, whose society is based upon sharing resources and every dispute between individuals is sorted through sex.
After the publishing of Habemus Capa and before releasing Le dimensioni del mio Caos, Caparezza also published a book in 2008, Saghe Mentali, a funny description of his discography, including the soon to be released Le dimensioni del mio Caos, using a different literary style for each album.
On 28 January 2011, he published the first single from the fifth album Il sogno eretico
, entitled "Goodbye Malinconia", featuring Tony Hadley
of Spandau Ballet
.
Il sogno eretico (The heretic dream) is a concept album, and the core message is a urge to the people to reject tenets and dogmas, and to use critical thinking while looking at the world around us. The songs includes historical heretic characters like Galileo Galilei
, Joan of Arc
, Giordano Bruno
and Girolamo Savonarola
whose stories are linked to topical interests, for the purpose of explaining widely known facts from a different angle. In the song La fine di Gaia Caparezza talks about end of the world prophecies (saying it won't happen) and various conspiracy theories, while in other songs he talks about religion, politics, people's misbehaviour and attitude towards power and money.
Michele sings together with Diego Perrone
, who replaced Stefano Ciannamea which is the creator, and now administrator of Caparezza’s official web site. Diego Perrone
is also the lead singer in the band Medusa. Caparezza is also a member of Sunny Cola Connection, a group who sings in the Apulian dialect. He also worked with many other musicians, like the Italian rappers Puni, Piotta
and Mondo Marcio and with pop musician Roy Paci & Aretuska, and with Medusa.
Caparezza’s band includes Rino Corrieri (drummer), Gaetano Camporeale (keyboarder), Giovanni Astorino (bassist), and Alfredo Ferrero (guitarist).
Caparezza had a summer hit with "Fuori dal tunnel"; however, the singer has always protested against the use of the song in discos and on television, because it is meant to be a denunciation of the de–individualization
of entertainment, but the agreement with his music company didn't allow him to avoid the song being put in commercials or being used in the very same TV broadcastings which the song actually criticized. Another song on Verità Supposte
is "Vengo dalla Luna", which tells about an alien (Caparezza) knocked down to Earth who is astonished by the intolerance of humanity for a different race and culture. It is a song opposing prejudices toward immigrants. In Habemus Capa
songs include "La mia parte intollerante" which again expresses the marginalization of Caparezza. In the fourth album, "Eroe" is a story of a mason who is regarded as a hero because he manages to support a family without surrendering to the temptations of loan shark
s and draw poker
. "Vieni a ballare in Puglia" talks about the situation in Puglia
today; the "Caduti del lavoro", the forest fires in Gargano
and the air pollution in Taranto
. This song, like "Fuori dal tunnel", was misunderstood by the public who considered it a simple praise towards Apulia.
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of Michele Salvemini, born 9 October 1973) is an Italian rapper
Italian hip hop
The rap was born in Italy between the years 80 and 90, first of all just evolved as a form of expression, based loosely on the copy of rappers Americans.The first real Italian rapper was Kaos One and his Radical Stuff, but rap in English....
. Born in Molfetta
Molfetta
Molfetta is a city and comune of the province of Bari in the southern Italian region of Apulia, on the Adriatic coast, at sea-level. It is 25 km WNW of Bari.It has a well restored old city, and its own dialect.- History :...
, Apulia
Apulia
Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...
, Caparezza debuted in 1997 at the Sanremo Festival under the name "MikiMix".
Biography and music
Caparezza was born in MolfettaMolfetta
Molfetta is a city and comune of the province of Bari in the southern Italian region of Apulia, on the Adriatic coast, at sea-level. It is 25 km WNW of Bari.It has a well restored old city, and its own dialect.- History :...
on October 9, 1973.
His music genre is mainly Hip Hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
, but highly influenced by Avant-garde music
Avant-garde music
Avant-garde music is a term used to characterize music which is thought to be ahead of its time, i.e. containing innovative elements or fusing different genres....
, Progressive
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
and Experimental
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
music, similar in style to Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
, who Caparezza considers his "teacher". This has earned him the title of "Beppe Grillo
Beppe Grillo
Giuseppe Piero Grillo, better known as Beppe Grillo , is an Italian activist, blogger, comedian, actor and politician, who also works in theatres and television.-Biography:Grillo was born in Genoa, Liguria....
of music" among his fans; like Grillo, Caparezza criticizes society and politics with sharp irony in contexts which are often fantastic and unreal. At first Caparezza appears nonsensical due to his use of unusual metaphors, and above all because he has disowned the mainstream of hip-hop; thus he appears to be a nonconformist rejected by the Italian mainstream.
He released five albums which are filled with ideas, music genres, notions, poetry, criticism and concepts, but, notably, all of his songs are packed with quotes, both hidden and evident, to movies, comics, commercials, TV broadcasting, classic writers, other musicians and many more, many of which are very difficult to spot, or to link to the fact they refer to.
Early career
Caparezza’s mother was a teacher and his father was a worker who used to play in a band, so Michele started playing music as a child.He studied accountancy, although he dreamed of writing comics. After completing High School, Michele began to work in advertising, and won a scholarship for the Academy of Media and Journalism in Milan. However, he soon decided to leave the advertising world to fully devote himself to music.
Michele started his career under the name Mikimix, but composed melodic songs with poor artistic value and thus did not obtain widespread success. He also anchored the broadcast Segnali di Fumo together with Paola Maugeri on Video Music Italian channel. After some performing in Milan’s pubs, Mikimix made his debut in Castrocaro Festival and subsequently participated to two Sanremo Festivals in the New Generation section, in 1995 and in 1997, and succeeded in publishing his first album, La mia buona stella, which however was a success only in France.
From Mikimix to Caparezza
Michele went back to Molfetta thinking of quitting music, but shortly after he decided to make a new fresh start, and started composing music in his garage while he stopped cutting his hair and beard. Salvemini changed his pseudonym from Mikimix to Caparezza ("Curly Head" in Apulian dialect) and in 2000 published his first album, ?!?! (Caparezza album)
?! is the first studio album by the Italian rapper Caparezza, released in 2000.- Track listing :...
, in which he disowns and nearly rejects his 'Mikimix' past, because he considered himself at the time inconsistent and poor compared to his present self. His second album, Verità Supposte
Verità Supposte
Verità supposte is the second studio album by the Italian rapper Caparezza, released on June 13, 2003.- Track listing :# "Il secondo secondo me" - 4:14# "Nessuna razza" - 4:09# "La legge dell'ortica" - 3:50...
, Supposed truths (note that in Italian supposte is used both for supposed and suppository), led him to success in 2003-2004. His third album, Habemus Capa
Habemus Capa
Habemus Capa is the third studio album by the Italian rapper Caparezza, released on May 24, 2006. The album title and the final track of the same name are a play on the traditional Latin phrase "Habemus Papa" used to announce the selection of a new Pope.- Track listing :# "Mors mea tacci tua" -...
(is a pun on the habemus papam statement which is used after pope elections to announce to the people that a new pope has been chosen), is a criticism against society's contradictions; Salvemini imagines his death and his descent to the Hell, which is eventually our world, describing a dreadful aspect of modern society in every song. It was published in 2006.
In 2008 he released his fourth album, Le dimensioni del mio caos
Le dimensioni del mio caos
Le dimensioni del mio caos is the fourth album by the Italian singer Caparezza, released on April 11, 2008.- Album characters :These players are as described in the CD booklet:...
(My chaos dimensions, which in Italian sounds pretty close to my guts sizes). This takes the form of a science-fiction story starring Caparezza as the main character. During a tribute concert to Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, Caparezza destroys a guitar on an amplifer, and creates a time-space warp from which a girl from the 1960s named Ilaria shows up, and Caparezza falls in love with her. Caparezza realizes that the present time has changed because the past had been altered. The only way, is to bring back Ilaria to the time where she belongs. But Ilaria is already heavily influenced by modern society and doesn't want to go back to 1968. In this alternative 2008, the Church rules and Caparezza is arrested because he has pockets which are forbidden (There's jail for those who wear pockets, because in pockets there's no control. Since then, only those who were artists, or junkies, or both, like Basquiat, wore pockets). After he is released from prison, he discovers that Ilaria has married Carneade, who is the leader of the "Somebody people Front", a political movement reserved for VIPs. Caparezza cannot manage to take Ilaria back to 1968 and meanwhile the "Somebody people Front" is planning to build a spaceport in Apulia
Apulia
Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...
to gain support and popularity for the imminent elections. Caparezza visits the construction site and meets Luigi delle Bicocche, a mason who is also the protagonist of the song "Eroe-storia di Luigi delle Bicocche", a song about the conditions of the working class and the society in Italy. Caparezza, demoralized, gives his Stratocaster and his amplifier to Luigi. Suddenly we find out that Luigi's (gigi, for short, in Italian) real nature is being a guitar player (Gigi Hendrix); while playing in a gig, he destroys the Stratocaster on the amplifer and creates a time-space warp which brings humanity back to his origins. Humans has been turned into bonobo
Bonobo
The bonobo , Pan paniscus, previously called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often, the dwarf or gracile chimpanzee, is a great ape and one of the two species making up the genus Pan. The other species in genus Pan is Pan troglodytes, or the common chimpanzee...
s, a specie of great apes, whose society is based upon sharing resources and every dispute between individuals is sorted through sex.
After the publishing of Habemus Capa and before releasing Le dimensioni del mio Caos, Caparezza also published a book in 2008, Saghe Mentali, a funny description of his discography, including the soon to be released Le dimensioni del mio Caos, using a different literary style for each album.
On 28 January 2011, he published the first single from the fifth album Il sogno eretico
Il sogno eretico
Il sogno eretico is the fifth studio album by the Italian rapper Caparezza, released on March 1, 2011.The album debuts at the second place of official Italian charts, FIMI.- Track listing :# "Nessun dorma"...
, entitled "Goodbye Malinconia", featuring Tony Hadley
Tony Hadley
Tony Hadley is an English pop singer-songwriter, occasional stage actor and radio presenter who gained celebrity as the lead vocalist for the 1980s band Spandau Ballet.-Early life:...
of Spandau Ballet
Spandau Ballet
Spandau Ballet are a British band formed in London in the late 1970s. Initially inspired by, and an integral part of, the New Romantic fashion, their music has featured a mixture of funk, jazz, soul and synthpop. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s, achieving ten Top Ten singles...
.
Il sogno eretico (The heretic dream) is a concept album, and the core message is a urge to the people to reject tenets and dogmas, and to use critical thinking while looking at the world around us. The songs includes historical heretic characters like Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...
, Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
, Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno , born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. His cosmological theories went beyond the Copernican model in proposing that the Sun was essentially a star, and moreover, that the universe contained an infinite number of inhabited...
and Girolamo Savonarola
Girolamo Savonarola
Girolamo Savonarola was an Italian Dominican friar, Scholastic, and an influential contributor to the politics of Florence from 1494 until his execution in 1498. He was known for his book burning, destruction of what he considered immoral art, and what he thought the Renaissance—which began in his...
whose stories are linked to topical interests, for the purpose of explaining widely known facts from a different angle. In the song La fine di Gaia Caparezza talks about end of the world prophecies (saying it won't happen) and various conspiracy theories, while in other songs he talks about religion, politics, people's misbehaviour and attitude towards power and money.
Michele sings together with Diego Perrone
Diego Perrone
Diego Perrone full name Diego Rafael Perrone Vienes is a Uruguayan footballer. He plays for Danubio.-External links:**...
, who replaced Stefano Ciannamea which is the creator, and now administrator of Caparezza’s official web site. Diego Perrone
Diego Perrone
Diego Perrone full name Diego Rafael Perrone Vienes is a Uruguayan footballer. He plays for Danubio.-External links:**...
is also the lead singer in the band Medusa. Caparezza is also a member of Sunny Cola Connection, a group who sings in the Apulian dialect. He also worked with many other musicians, like the Italian rappers Puni, Piotta
Piotta
Piotta is a stage name of Tommaso Zanello , an Italian rapper. Piotta, which in Roman slang means "100 liras", became famous with his song "Supercafone" which describes the Coatto .Piotta's single "La Mossa del giaguaro" hit #15 on the Italian charts in 2000.Now considered a "veteran" of Italian hip...
and Mondo Marcio and with pop musician Roy Paci & Aretuska, and with Medusa.
Caparezza’s band includes Rino Corrieri (drummer), Gaetano Camporeale (keyboarder), Giovanni Astorino (bassist), and Alfredo Ferrero (guitarist).
Caparezza had a summer hit with "Fuori dal tunnel"; however, the singer has always protested against the use of the song in discos and on television, because it is meant to be a denunciation of the de–individualization
Individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own...
of entertainment, but the agreement with his music company didn't allow him to avoid the song being put in commercials or being used in the very same TV broadcastings which the song actually criticized. Another song on Verità Supposte
Verità Supposte
Verità supposte is the second studio album by the Italian rapper Caparezza, released on June 13, 2003.- Track listing :# "Il secondo secondo me" - 4:14# "Nessuna razza" - 4:09# "La legge dell'ortica" - 3:50...
is "Vengo dalla Luna", which tells about an alien (Caparezza) knocked down to Earth who is astonished by the intolerance of humanity for a different race and culture. It is a song opposing prejudices toward immigrants. In Habemus Capa
Habemus Capa
Habemus Capa is the third studio album by the Italian rapper Caparezza, released on May 24, 2006. The album title and the final track of the same name are a play on the traditional Latin phrase "Habemus Papa" used to announce the selection of a new Pope.- Track listing :# "Mors mea tacci tua" -...
songs include "La mia parte intollerante" which again expresses the marginalization of Caparezza. In the fourth album, "Eroe" is a story of a mason who is regarded as a hero because he manages to support a family without surrendering to the temptations of loan shark
Loan shark
A loan shark is a person or body that offers unsecured loans at illegally high interest rates to individuals, often enforcing repayment by blackmail or threats of violence....
s and draw poker
Draw poker
Draw poker is any poker variant in which each player is dealt a complete hand before the first betting round, and then develops the hand for later rounds by replacing, or "drawing", cards....
. "Vieni a ballare in Puglia" talks about the situation in Puglia
Apulia
Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...
today; the "Caduti del lavoro", the forest fires in Gargano
Gargano
Gargano is a historical and geographical Italian sub-region situated in Apulia, consisting of a wide isolated mountain massif made of highland and several peaks and forming the backbone of the Gargano Promontory projecting into the Adriatic Sea. The high point is Monte Calvo at . Most of the upland...
and the air pollution in Taranto
Taranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
. This song, like "Fuori dal tunnel", was misunderstood by the public who considered it a simple praise towards Apulia.
As Caparezza
- "Ricomincio da Capa" (1999)
- "Con Caparezza... nella monnezza" (1999)
- "Zappa" (1999)
- ?!?! (Caparezza album)?! is the first studio album by the Italian rapper Caparezza, released in 2000.- Track listing :...
(2000) - Verità supposteVerità SupposteVerità supposte is the second studio album by the Italian rapper Caparezza, released on June 13, 2003.- Track listing :# "Il secondo secondo me" - 4:14# "Nessuna razza" - 4:09# "La legge dell'ortica" - 3:50...
(2003) - Habemus CapaHabemus CapaHabemus Capa is the third studio album by the Italian rapper Caparezza, released on May 24, 2006. The album title and the final track of the same name are a play on the traditional Latin phrase "Habemus Papa" used to announce the selection of a new Pope.- Track listing :# "Mors mea tacci tua" -...
(2006) - Le dimensioni del mio caosLe dimensioni del mio caosLe dimensioni del mio caos is the fourth album by the Italian singer Caparezza, released on April 11, 2008.- Album characters :These players are as described in the CD booklet:...
(2008) - Il sogno ereticoIl sogno ereticoIl sogno eretico is the fifth studio album by the Italian rapper Caparezza, released on March 1, 2011.The album debuts at the second place of official Italian charts, FIMI.- Track listing :# "Nessun dorma"...
(2011)
Singles
- 2000 - Tutto ciò che c'è
- 2000 - La fitta sassaiola dell'ingiuria
- 2000 - Chi c*zzo me lo fa fare
- 2001 - La gente originale
- 2003 - Follie preferenziali
- 2003 - Il secondo secondo me
- 2003 - Fuori dal tunnel
- 2004 - Vengo dalla Luna
- 2004 - Giuda me
- 2004 - Jodellavitanonhocapitouncazzo
- 2006 - La mia parte intollerante
- 2006 - Torna Catalessi
- 2006 - Dalla parte del toro
- 2006 - The Auditels Family
- 2008 - Eroe (storia di Luigi delle Bicocche)
- 2008 - Vieni a ballare in Puglia
- 2008 - Abiura di me
- 2009 - Io diventerò qualcuno
- 2009 - Cacca nello spazio
- 2011 - Goodbye Malinconia (ft. Tony HadleyTony HadleyTony Hadley is an English pop singer-songwriter, occasional stage actor and radio presenter who gained celebrity as the lead vocalist for the 1980s band Spandau Ballet.-Early life:...
) - 2011 - Chi se ne frega della musica
- 2011 - Legalize the Premier (ft. AlborosieAlborosieAlberto D'Ascola , better known by his stage name Alborosie, is an Italian reggae artist. Born and raised in Marsala, Sicily, Italy, but now residing in Kingston, Jamaica. He is a multi-instrumentalist, being proficient in guitar, bass, drums and keyboard...
) - 2011 - La fine di Gaia