Geolier: “081” is his “King Kunta”

“081”, the new single from Geolier rocketed to the top of the Spotify and Apple Music charts, it is a piece conceived as a strong act of identity and belonging. The title is not random: “081” is the telephone prefix of Naples and its province, and is used as a symbol of roots, honesty and loyalty to its city of origin. The video, created by Davide Vicari, once again illuminates Scampia and its people, the faces of a territory that in Emanuele Palumbofor some time now, they have seen much more than a simple local hero, but a real one icon. And this is one of the great superpowers of rap: represent.

The bass line of “081” seems to deliberately recall that of Kendrick Lamar’s “King Kunta”taken from the masterpiece album “To Pimp a Butterfly” from 2015 in which the Compton rapper, with a West Coast G-funk, focuses on the story of a rebellious slave and tells the importance of remaining free and true. The song is a hymn to blackness, to African-American culture, to the right to assert one’s greatness and truth despite a past marked by difficulties. A concept which, with all the necessary proportions and register changes, also returns in the Neapolitan song of the pen of “I’ p’ me, tu p’ te”, which contains a contagious mantra: “I am true, like the interview lines outside the prison. True, like the women who act as both father and mother. True, like the marks the handcuffs leave on you”.

It’s not just the street story: Geolier also returns to the three Maradona stadiums planned for 2026 and sold out in record time, to the new house purchased in Naplesa panoramic penthouse from which you can see Capri and, as he likes to joke, “from which Capri can see me”, in perfect egotrip style, but ironic, not gratuitous. There is no shortage of references to the controversies over the use of private jets and, obviously, in the mosaic of this narrative journey, Sanremo 2024 also finds space, inevitable stage of his growth and national exposure: “I went to Sanremo winning despite having lost by 29 and 30. I have a lot of friends who are waiting for the sentence: the years are 29 and 30”. A narrow “defeat” for Geolier it immediately puts in counterbalance, with greater seriousness, facts of the road and lives in the balance. All to remember that, despite success, he does not forget the real problems of life and its roots.

This is why “081” is an important piece in the trajectory towards the new albumcoming out a year after “God Knows”. With this song, also produced by Sottomarino, or Vincenzo Marinowith which an increasingly interesting synergy is emerging, Geolier returns to hard, raw rap, more direct compared to the softer and more melodic sound of singles like “Fotografia”, a piece that, recently, dominated the charts on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. Meanwhile, in recent weeks, a rumor has circulated that has driven fans crazy: the Neapolitan rapper was seen together with the American rapper 50 Cent during a trip to Miami. Among the photos published by Geolier himself on Instagram the phrase “What you want to happen, will happen” appears, a detail that has fueled the hypothesis of a possible international collaboration.