Califano is to Italian rappers what James Brown is to Americans

The latest tribute, in chronological order, came from Big Fishamong the producers who have given shape and sound to Italian hip hop and urban music in the most important way over the last twenty years. In his new single “Dishonest love”, just released and created together with Jake The Fury And Carl BraveBig Fish has decided to continue what seems to be a trend on the scene for some time now: to recover, and in a certain sense “rehabilitate”, Franco Califano. He did it by drawing hands down from an absolute classic by the Roman singer-songwriter who passed away in 2013, sampling his “I don’t cry”, among Califo’s most popular and recognizable songs, dated 1977. «With “Amore disonesto” I wanted to tell a piece of Italian music history using both the voice and the music of “Io non piango” by maestro Franco Califano; a song that I didn’t know and which, upon first listening, struck me with its rawness and its poetry – explained Big Fish – I therefore wanted to take back some important parts and make them more current, with a language that belongs to me. From there I called Jake La Furia, my historical friend and partner in a thousand battles, who gave a strong and authentic narrative touch to the story. I then shared this story together with a Roman exponent of Italian song like Carl Brave. From here was born this perfect combination that led to the creation of “Dishonest Love”».

Califano has long been a sort of transversal reference for Italian rappers and exponents of the urban scene more generally. The reason is very simple: it is one of the few Italian singer-songwriters who has always spoken the language that rap today considers sacred, that of the street. And so if James Brown, over the years, has become a sort of ancestor of American rappers, an infinite mine of drum breaks, grooves and melodies, Califano has become an unofficial patron saint of the Italian ones. More than many other celebrated and institutionalized songwriters, the Caliph truly was a frontier artistsort of ante-litteram rapper not only for the way in which he managed to intertwine legal events and art, but also for having idolized the street as a source of inspiration and as a teacher of life decades before Sfera Ebbasta and his companions. It was 1988 and in “Ior on the neighborhood streets” he sang: «Me, who went through the neighborhood streets / Me, with a criminal all to be cleaned up / Me, who didn’t give up even when I was dead / Me, who always took my passport away». Verses that today could easily end up in a rap verse.

In the 2019 another central producer in the Italian rap scene, Don Joerecovered an unpublished passage from the Caliph, “What is love”, completing it together with Franco126 and Ketama. In the single, taken from what was defined as a sort of «artistic testament» by Califano, composed together with his trusted author Alberto Laurenti (with him he co-signed “Un tempo piccolo”), some verses of the unreleased song acted as an ideal epigraph to the verses of Franco126 and Ketama, with Califano’s voice almost seeming to watch over two of the many new Italian authors, aware of having an artistic debt towards the master: «Now they sing about love / now they write about love / there is no topic but love / there is nothing else to sing / but few know its value». Staying in Rome, last year Tony Effe he decided to sing again at Sanremo Festivalon the cover evening, “Everything else is boring“. A due tribute, considering that his song in the competition, “Give me a hand“, explicitly quoted the Caliph. Too bad that the performance of the duet with Noemi was not up to the beauty of the song: the important thing is to have tried. However, the cover of “A small time” always proposed at the Festival by WIllie Peyote with Ditonellapiaga and Federico Zampaglione of Tiromancinodeus ex machina, the latter, of Califano’s last (moving) participation in Sanremo, that of 2005 with “Non escludo il return”.

Small curiosity. Califano was very attentive to musical innovations and intrigued by rap, which at the time was not yet a mainstream genre, in 1999 he agreed to record a piece with The Groupthe Roman hip hop group – now considered cult – formed by Riccardo Sinigallia, Francesco Zampaglione of Tiromancino, Ice One (at the time in Colle der Fomento), David Nerattini and Dj Stile. The song was titled “Underworld”, was part of the collective’s album “Good Medicine” and listening to it again today gives you chills: «Malavita mia is a road that goes away, bitter life that is cure and illness».