Grudge: “I am a mad jester who insults kings”
Rancore returns to Earth after having explored the multiple dimensions of the “Xenoverse”, released in 2022, with the new album “Tarek da colori”. The story reaches a breaking point. In that cosmos made of visions, news from the future and characters suspended between reality and imagination, the rapper has pushed the story further and further away from the boundaries of reality. But too much time has passed between one dimension and another. He loses his orientation and is forced to interrupt his continuous passage between worlds. The choice is one, drastic and necessary to reinsert him into today: amnesia. Hence the question: are we still capable of mixing, of getting dirty with other people’s colors to wake each other up?
“Tarek coloring”: did you need to return to reality?
The Xenoverse took me out of this world, brought me to use complex language. In this album I have amnesia, a “u” turn, a “u” of the universe precisely. With this amnesia I returned to consciousness, I returned to planet Earth where I had to relearn how to speak, which is why the first track is “Fanfole”, which seems to be the result of an imaginary language. To do this I entered the psyche where I understood that a terrible war is underway, which is also terribly real. And so I can’t help but scream.
Do you still recognize yourself in your stage name?
Never like today. “Popular resentment” is used by those in power to control the masses. Carrying it on you is symbolic, it’s a way to exorcise it because I transform it into music. “Tarek to color” has three meanings: the first concerns coming out of the darkness, the second is a request for help to others like a “pray for me”, the third concerns finding oneself. The various versions of me that will be drawn and colored will help me understand who I am.
“Xenoverso” was a very good album, but too intricate?
What I know is that at this moment in my journey I needed a more punk and less theatrical album. The live performance for this album will have fewer sheets for stage readings, it will be less acted and more direct.
What are the “Fanfole”, to which you dedicate a song?
They are a work by Fosco Maraini, who uses invented words. I took this game of his and inserted it into rap, studying Maraini himself, archaic words, the works of Carlo Emilio Gadda and much more. A research to build a surrealist and at the same time real system useful for putting my head in order and telling what we are experiencing.
Why do you also sing in Arabic, the “language of the enemy” for many of the Western oligarchies?
First of all because, as my name Tarek says, which means “morning star”, I have Arab origins. I decided to put an unpublished part of myself into my music in a moment of war and non-peace. I wanted to play this bullet right now: singing in Arabic expresses who I am and wants to unite worlds, not divide them.
What weight do “the others” have in this album?
I’m talking about not relating to others. “New Single” addresses the theme of loneliness. The figure of the single is almost a symbol of the modern man who is no longer able to relate to the feminine, the one outside and inside himself.
Do you try to be a different example?
No. I am not an example to follow because I don’t know how to live. I’m good at saying what shouldn’t be done, not what should be done. Today everyone is selling dreams, I see a sea of Jesus Christs, of false messiahs, who even say right things. But I’m afraid they only play one role.
What is yours?
Mine is that of the jester, the only figure who can insult the king, unlike the people. The jester is mad, but he often tells the truth and reminds the king that he is not mad, which is why the king does not kill him. I can insult the king without being killed. For now, as we are seeing more and more kings acting crazy.
What photograph does “Flowers of Evil” provide?
Esoteric, including associations, secret bodies and freemasonry. We start from a question: can dreams of freedom become power itself? When just causes are taken up by powerful circles, do those causes become just for some? Today we are surrounded by good causes carried out by questionable people in power.
“Italy is a country that” talks about blasphemies.
Blasphemies like wine and food are different depending on the region. The album begins with “Fanfole” and ends with an ironic piece on the meaning of blasphemy, which is another theme linked to language. The beginning and end of the album essentially put the “broken word” at the center.
Is blasphemy, in this song, a symbol of discomfort and challenge, as Céline conceived it?
Yes, and it is also a symbol of the few remaining connections with the High. Insult sometimes, for some, seems like the only connection one has with the divine. Language gets dirty because something else is missing, real dialogue is missing, the depth of a relationship is missing. Exactly like when you insult a person you love, just because they no longer respond to you or because they leave you, but in reality you don’t want to.
Is “Neminem” an Eminem track?
There is a particular irony in the record. A three-dimensional irony, Eminem’s is even heavier. For me, irony is a necessary skill that life forces you to use to accept contradictions.
Must art be separated from the hourglass?
For me yes, it must be untied by time. The key is there. It’s why I only make music when I have something to say. Art has the power to emerge from time, and in fact we look at a work that is perhaps thousands of years old and we still get emotional. The art made on the time, instantaneous, maybe it makes good money immediately, but then it doesn’t stay. I aspire to make liberating art, which can break the order of time.
