Briga: “I didn’t let myself be pushed and today I produce myself”

“I can’t bear the idea that this is all I’ve collected,” Briga reflects aloud at a certain point in the interview. The theme was supposed to be the new single by the Roman singer-songwriter and rapper who became a hit with “Amici” in 2015.Come with me”, just released, the first released on his independent label Ninho De Rua. But as the tenth anniversary of the album “Never again” approaches, the one that catapulted him from the club stages of the Roman Capitoline rap circuit of the 2010s straight to the top of the charts thanks to the talent show and hits like “Six in the morning” (over 20 million streams on Spotify: not bad for a song released ten years ago) and “L’amore è qui”, inevitably we end up draw a balance of what the Roman singer-songwriter’s journey has been so far. “But I’m not closing a circle: if anything, I have to reopen it,” he says breaks a three-year recording silenceas many as have passed since the last album “Lunga vita”.

Isn’t doing it more difficult as an independent?

“It is.

But it’s also more rewarding. However, I have always been independent. After ‘Amici’ I signed first with Universal and then with Sony only distribution agreements for records such as ‘Never again’, ‘Talento’ and ‘What we did’, but I recorded for Honiro (reference label of the rap scene Capitoline, ed.). Now, after fifteen years, I have decided to self-produce. Ninho De Rua has already existed for years, but so far I have only used it for edition management. What will be released in the next few months and which was anticipated by the single ‘Come with me’, is the first album made alone. I wanted to test myself, try to walk on my own two feet.”

Will you also produce new talents?

“We see. I don’t rule it out. In the meantime I have to close the album and work on it. Eighteen-year-olds who approach music excite me and I don’t see them as a danger. I feel like I can give him something. When I joined ‘Amici’ I was 24 years old. I was structured. I had done enough of my apprenticeship.”

How did the purists of the rap scene react?

“Some supported me, others less so.

After all, rap in that program had not yet been completely cleared through customs. Within the program I tried to maintain contact with the scene. Cantai Gemello, pays homage to Elio Toffana, legend of Spanish rap. I refused to sing songs that had been assigned to me because they had nothing to do with me and my path. But I was already a white fly at the time: I made love songs that resulted more in pop than rap. Which is why rappers don’t come looking for me for duets. Patience. I exist regardless. Talent gives you a lot but takes a lot away from you. The moment you expose yourself that way, you have to be ready to bear the weight of prejudice.”

Are you surprised to hear stories like Sangiovanni’s?

“Unfortunately not. Society, between pressures and expectations, leads children to doubt themselves, to be afraid of the world with which they relate.”

Is the record industry squeezing?

“If they understand they can do it, they squeeze you. I didn’t let myself be squeezed. I’ve always done what I wanted to do. And I paid for it.”

When?

“There have been no shortage of missteps in my career. Like when in 2018 I released ‘Cosa ci ci fatti’, a record with a Brit pop flavour, recorded in a villa with real instruments. I had to be smarter: limit myself to doing a couple of songs that way and then fill the album with more ‘palatable’ songs”.

What is Brig’s objective today?

“Having a concert at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome, my city. In the past, numbers in hand, I had the opportunity to take that step, but then I chose to do three dates in one week at the Atlantic: it was more newsworthy.”

What will you talk about on the new album?

“I’ve always written love songs (laughs). I’m famous for that. You do it.”

Has “Six in the Morning” become a cult?

“I realize it’s a generational song. I think I collected little compared to what I could have collected. I think I still have to achieve goals that are rightfully mine for what I have done in music in recent years. But I have learned to enjoy those small, big successes that I bring to my career. Like ‘Six in the Morning’, in fact, which has passed through the generations”.

Is it more of a cross or more of a delight?

“Delight. Not everyone has such an important piece. Now I have to be good at not being remembered just for that.”