Jovanotti

The sound of Jovanotti cannot be explained without that blend between the rap of his early years and the funk that ultimately shaped him. In the late eighties, when hip hop had not yet taken strong root in Italy, he was already mixing electronic beats with rhymes in Italian, but he didn’t stop there: little by little, he moved away from the repetitive rhythm of his initial hits to explore more organic sounds, where funk and world music gave his songs a distinct color. What’s curious is that, while other artists of his generation clung to formulas, he was shifting the foundations of his music toward territories where lyrics gained weight, as if every word had to justify the rhythm that carried it.

The leap that took him out of the DJ circuit and made him a reference came thanks to Claudio Cecchetto, who signed him for Deejay Television and later for Radio Deejay. But the real turning point arrived with Una tribù che balla (1991), an album that marked a before and after: the rhythms became more fluid, the themes stopped being just parties, and lyrics with social edges began to sneak in, as in Cuore, a song dedicated to Giovanni Falcone in 1992. That same year, he released Lorenzo 1992, his first album without his stage name, as a clear gesture that he wanted to leave behind the image of the wild kid from Gimme Five. The surprise was that, without warning, it became one of his most solid works, with songs like Non m'annoio that resonated far beyond commercial success.