Revered debut album by Sandro "DJ Gruff" Orrù, a rapper and producer born in Terralba, Sardinia, then living in Bologna. The album is a union of many different talents. The music is a mix of beats made entirely by DJ Gruff, Dada and Che (except for "L'imprevisto", an additional track on the vinyl edition, produced by NextOne), scratches provided by DJ Gruff, DJ Skyzo, Kaos One, Scratch Wizard, Carry D and Don THC, and live instrumentation provided by several musicians, including Dada on sax, Che on guitar, Raphael on djembe, Touché on congas, and Casino Royal members Alessio "Manna" Argenteri on bass, Ferdinando Masi on drums, Nicola Frisia on sax and Michele "Pardo" Pauli on guitar. The rap is performed by numerous guests: in addition to DJ Gruff himself, the other members of Sangue Misto Neffa and Deda, Carry D, Kaos One, Eagle Man, Papa Ricky, Esa & La Pina degli Otierre and TopCat, the edition's main guest, take part in the project. Giuliano Palma of Casino Royale and Elwanda Contreras sing in the final track of the album.
In these 66 minutes compressed into 25 often short tracks, DJ Gruff shows all his talent, even if it's not the most accessible tape for non-Italian speakers: the title is a word invented by the author himself, to which he gives the meaning of "positive energy", and a good part of the lyrics written by him and his friends are performed with a vernacular slang of Sangue Misto, which is why a good part of the lyrics are not immediately assimilable and are difficult to translate. Unlike the lyricism, which mixes braggadocio, socio-political and socio-conscious stanzas in a rather random way, the production is excellent: Gruff chooses excellent samples and practically perfect drums, dry, hard, tight, and the live instrumentation of Casino Royale, in particular Dada's sax, offers a soundscape that is perpetually smooth and lush.
The album is a continuous succession of instrumental tracks and rap tracks, the performers all go quite well on these excellent rhythms: "Don Kaos" and "Ho visto un prete" are probably the heaviest cuts, but also interesting are the solo by rapper Carry D "La musica" and Esa who goes to graffiti the walls in "E di certe...", in addition to the tracks by TopCat. Deda flows worthily, while Neffa has one of the poorest vocabularies in Italian rap, it seems like he wrote each of his songs with the same 100-120 words. The final ballad is a great conclusion to a record that is considered a classic.
Distributed by the historic Century Vox, DJ Gruff's project is very influential, it's considered one of the best of the time and one of the most important in Italian hip-hop: it has many merits, including that of having inaugurated the era of the golden age of Italian hip-hop and that of having been among the first records to have included live instrumentation in hip-hop production.
Rating: 7/10.
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