Night Skinny: “The numbers are ruining the performance of many albums”

A skull on the cover that releases anger. It is from this propulsive feeling, often artistically underestimated, that “Containers” was born. Night Skinny, with his latest producer album, is once again managing to create culture, therefore to shake up the rap movement, and at the same time to move the market. But numbers are not his guiding star. The goal, this time around, was much deeper and more delicate: to find himself. The project follows the path traced by “Pezzi” of 2017 and “Mattoni” of 2019. “Botox” of 2022, in fact, was a deliberately extreme and open experiment which, however, as the producer himself also says, created a crack. “Containers” is the amphibian with which Night Skinny returns to leave an imprint, crushing fears and doubts.

Is “Containers” the most solid record you could have made at this point in your career?
It seems so. I’m coming from an album (“Botox”, ed.) that wasn’t 100% understood even though I still think that there are some important moments inside. However, I decided to take a step back to take three steps forward, doing what I do best: I got to work on a totally rap record. And so a container was created.

Have you taken up all the space in this large container?
Not all the songs I worked on were released. Some were blocked, others were taken for other records, still others died because the pairings didn’t work. I didn’t want to fill the disc with episodes that didn’t convince me 100%. For this reason, this time around, I made a very heavy selection at the entrance. I left out pieces with very big names, but I didn’t want repetition within the project.

How complicated has it become over the years, with the arrival of rap in the mainstream, making records like this?
It is certainly much more complex. Many artists have started to say: “but why should I give away one of my pieces or make an unreleased pairing for a producer’s record? I do it on my record.” It must also be said that the market has changed. Today “Containers”, for many, seems like salvation because we come from a summer period of more open and pop singles and pieces. And so, when a project comes along that gives you something different to eat, in this case rap, you are impressed. But it’s not really true that we are “saving the market”, simply many artists enter a project like “Containers” because they feel freer, outside the laws of the market and numbers.

Freer to express yourself…
Yes, the numbers, and their achievement and pursuit, are ruining the performance of many products, of many albums. It seems like a cliche, but it’s reality.

“Botox” was a deliberately extreme project, from communication to final rendering. It was a more open record. Does “Containers” come as a sort of reaction?
When I announced “Containers” there was a happy segment of the public and another more critical one who wrote to me “let’s hope it’s not like ‘Botox’”. Little by little I revealed its aesthetics, starting from the cover with the skull, and I also played some spoilers to help understand the musical direction of the project. I aimed for drier, harsher communication. Because yes, I was angry. I wasn’t able to defend “Botox”, I wanted to return to the market with something that represented me and was profoundly different. And then let’s say it: we are in a historical period in which there are constant wars, rapes, people don’t have a penny… it’s certainly not a good time. I wanted to get back on track.

Isn’t listening to “popular sentiment” a double-edged sword that risks leading to repetition and not experimentation?
The public is nostalgic. I think that if “Botox”, which is a more experimental record, had been signed by someone else, it would have gone differently. From me, in that historical moment, after Covid, after the many collaborations between rap and pop that we saw end up in the charts, people didn’t expect a record like that. They didn’t want me to fuck with some dynamics. But as said, I still think it was a fun chapter: putting an autotune on Elisa “a la Kanye West”, as happens on that album, is a high point in my career (smiles, ed.).

You have entrusted the keys of “Containers” to the new generations, who are the great driving force behind this work. Do previous generations also benefit?
I’ll tell you this: you’ll see that between now and the next few weeks many important artists, many cult artists, will want to collaborate with names like Nerissima Serpe and Papa V. This is the market. It doesn’t bother me at all to show off the characteristics of some young people who then become interesting to many. On the contrary. With Artie 5ive, Kid Yugi and Tony Boy, we have been meeting and working for two years. I have a privileged relationship with Tony that goes from meeting in the studio in the morning at 10.30, after a coffee at 9-9.30, and arriving at lunch with two songs already done. Maybe these pieces will never come out, but it’s exercise, study, training. Same thing with Kid Yugi, who was already supposed to be in “Botox”. Then together we made the EP “Quarto di bue”. This is to say how much these kids work on their identity.

“Containers” has given you strength again, you can feel it in how you talk about the various aspects of it. Was there a moment when you questioned yourself?
I’m very jealous of my sound, my beats. This album gave me back my self-esteem, it’s true. There are phases in life where things don’t go as we think. And this must be accepted. I’ve gone through some more confusing moments in the past, but I’m not just talking about the “Botox” period and the music, but also on a personal level. This is an environment that leads you to always perform, to tell “white lies” to keep everything going. It’s not simple. Rkomi sent me a nice message before the release of “Containers”, I replied that I was anxious because I was playing a lot with this comeback. And he, in turn, wrote to me again: “anxiety is the beautiful thing, without it… it would all be too easy”.

In “Containers” some artists get involved on multiple fronts: Tedua is both in a banger with Lazza, “Trema”, and in a deeper piece like “Dm”. In these cases, do you already know from the start that you will work in multiple directions?
First of all, the push must come from the artist. Tedua is an intelligent person who made a blockbuster like “The Divine Comedy” and sold tens of thousands of tickets with his tours, yet when he arrived in the studio he told me very humbly that he would have liked to record more, participating in more songs from “Containers”. When someone decides to give you a song like “Dm”, therefore alone, as Madame, Luché and Artie 5ive also did on the album, it means that he wants to communicate something strong. Among other things, with Tedua, at first, we didn’t work on “Dm”, but on another track, left out, beautiful. Maybe it will come out later. “Trema” on the other hand comes from the obsession with Travis Scott, who last year played in Milan and Rome, we were all thrilled: Tedua and I were in Milan at the end of August and we worked on it. Then some time later Lazza came by and told me: “I want to be in this piece”.

Your projects have opened the gates: “Mattoni” has shown that it can go beyond the circle of enthusiasts. This resulted in a season of continuous album production in Italy.
The season you are talking about has arrived because the multinationals and the industry have said to themselves: we can make money. And so they started asking everyone: why don’t you make a producer album? I’ve been making them since 2010. And I’ve always collected them. I got all the “New York Reality Check 101,” “South Bombing 1” is the Bible of this whole world. I started making mixtapes with the American bases on which my friends from Molise and Abruzzo rapped. Then I went to Bologna and in the end I said to myself: I want to create my own music. Of course, now listening to the first things I did…but there’s something magical inside. I was weaned by Esa: when I met him in the late 90s, I saw him making beats with any type of device. He is the boss.

What did all this make you understand?
That it’s not enough to take an emerging artist and put him on the same track with two more famous ones, to make a piece that attracts and works. Or believe that by involving someone super famous it is obvious to make many streams. It’s not like that, but then…that’s not what matters. “Tessera salute”, one of the strongest songs on “Containers”, should not have been on the album. And in fact it isn’t there in the physical because we closed it at the last minute. While we were doing it I felt a crazy energy, there was something magical in the room, so I went to Universal and insisted on putting it in. When you make a song and experience certain emotions, it is important that those who listen to the song at home also experience those emotions. Only if you capture that strength, you do something unique. There lies the profound meaning of doing projects like this.