nayt at the Forum: rap that doesn’t need to scream to shake

The first Assago Forum of naytwhich arrived after a sold out club tour and several summer dates, it’s like David beating Goliath. Away from social media, from gossip, from shitstorms, from opinion-making, from planned feats, from the list of Milanese events to which must be, from TV, from the factory of summer hits, from much of what a large part of the music market feeds on today, the Roman artist gets to tread a sports hall, after the one in Rome, which is worth double. Why? Simple: because he achieved it without shortcuts, but with coherence and truthwith their own music and with their own ideas. He also recognized it at the beginning of the concert: “I arrived here with my music. Someone is afraid that I might betray myself, but I don’t do anything that doesn’t put music at the centre“. There are gods black sheets which cover two unsold segments, but the glance and the density of those present are intact.

Accompanied by a high-level band, Walter Babbini (guitars), Danilo Menna (drums), Valerio Smordoni (musical direction, piano and keyboards) e Stefano Rossi (bass), nayt offers an elegant and powerful show, in which every sound, scenographic and lighting detail is taken care of. The mix of the sound, between rap-jazz, rock and blues, is one of the best listened to in a space that is not as simple as that of a sports hall. In several situations, as already happened on the club tour, his image is elusive: surrounded by lightning and shadows, hidden by a cage onto which the visuals are then projected, with the pyrotechnic fountains being the only scenographic aspect avoidable because they are not very effective, the artist remembers that it is more important to “be” than “appear” and shows himself without an egotic attitude, but rather questioning his figure as an artist and man. “I’m neither Battisti nor Battiato either, and I say things I’ve already heard and not even that well,” he raps in “Certain lies”.

Nayt’s is a rap that doesn’t impose, but questions. It is a language that chooses depth over noise, that breaks down stereotypes without the need to shout. His strength does not lie in aggression, but in the clarity with which he delves into himself and into the world, transforming vulnerability into critical thinking. In a panorama often dominated by poses and attitudes, nayt returns rap to its function: that of question and conscience. Which have always also been the springs of singer-songwriterof which William Mezzanotte, this is his real name, is the son of both rap and photographer the acoustic set on stage Bat the center of the Forum. Here the arrangements and propositions of pieces such as “Se ne va” and “Sorpresa” are beautiful, effective, shinyand naturally convey the author’s emotional intention.

Rap is often reduced to a monolithic and stereotyped phenomenon, when in fact it is as varied as a prism. It is told by various media through the sole lens of news, as in the recent case of Faneto, but the reality is much more complex than slogan phrases like “rap has a problem with women”. If this were not the case, nayt would not have published and presented pieces like “18 women”, almost acted, and “A man”the latter a song that goes beyond music to become a mirror of society: a counterpoint to machismo and patriarchal structures, an invitation to reflect on the responsibilities and contradictions that surround usstarting from the question “how is it possible to be a man?”. There is no easy rhetoric, there is no muscular claim. Indeed: “I ask where the boundary is between me and another individual. Between the things I write and the things I observe.” A wonderful piece, with production handled by Zef. The Forum stage becomes not only a place of entertainment, nayt has bangers in his quiver that make fans jump and enjoy like “Oh god”, dropped twicebut also an opportunity to observe the density of an artist who, in a scene obsessed with images, chooses words carefully. His “revolution” involves not being measured by followers or streamsfrom not asking for applause a priori, but conquering a place in the memory of those who listen and participate in its ritual. Two guests: Herniawhich enters very straight and with vigor, and Madman.

The definitive consecration of nayt is a matter of ears that know how to listenrather than the Sanremo Festival or otherwise, an event that the rapper seems to be looking towards according to the rumors. Let’s ask ourselves who we push, who we listen to, who, in our case of professionals, we review, and how we do it. Rather than waiting for the system to celebrate it, we should understand how to create critical mass to clear it even further. And it is here that, as a consequence, another central theme of nayt opens up: “choice”, in life, at work, in all areas, as he recalls in “Being able to choose”. Once upon a time, an alternative artist could stay in his own way within the mainstream, carving out a slice for himself. Today, excluding very rare cases in Italy such as Marracash and Salmo, this mechanism seems impossible and it is in that crack of dissatisfaction that the desire to reach a wider audience sometimes slithers like a snake by participating, for example, in the event on the Riviera dei Fiori. In Italy, at a certain point, it seems that we must by force go from there. But whether he does or not, we will only discover this by living, in the end perhaps it doesn’t matter, nayt is already beyond.

Ladder:
Music everywhere
The great escape
Everything normal
My dicks
War inside
Some lies
Everything else is us
Denmark
Everything OK
Romantic ending
Necklaces
What really matters
18 women
Just questions
If you run with Hernia
No more drama
Domino effect
DJ Moment:
Rains
Oh God
The eyes of the tiger
Hungry with Madman
A man
Monalisa
Acoustic moment:
Fairy tales
Bad vibes
He leaves
From scratch
Surprise
Final part:
Balon d’or
My boredom
Being able to choose
Doom
It’s not luck