Noyz Narcos: “Real violence? Selling false dreams of wealth”
Noyz Narcos, twenty years after his debut “Don’t sleep”, releases his new album “Funny games”. A rap project, produced again by Sine, in which violence, both sonic and linguistic, becomes a tool to awaken from collective torpor and a social mirror. It is no longer just a distinctive and creative element, which has always been central to his career and narrative, but also a propulsive one. The direct reference is to “Funny games”, the 1997 film written and directed by Michael Haneke. Noyz becomes a “monster-narrator”, accompanied by various guests, in the midst of a world in ruins where the brutality is not only the physical one of the streets, but also and above all the systemic one, generated by false dreams of wealth, by ideologies and expectations that are cages for mice.
What struck you about the film “Funny games”?
The title and album cover are the last thing I choose, because first I have to listen to all the music I’ve made. And this, obviously, doesn’t make my team very happy (smiles, ed.). It’s not in the top ten of my favorite films, but it’s a film that tells the story of the executioners and the victims in an interesting way because it immediately makes you understand how completely random one can be one or the other.
And violence can be gratuitous…
Yes, the protagonists of the film are two young monsters who want to unleash their anger on a defenseless family. We can all be victims of exasperation and madness. Obviously the title is not only aimed at arousing crudeness, but also to suggest “the game”, because for me music is also a game, and that element remains fundamental.
Can the click of madness be triggered at any time?
A scene from “A Day of Ordinary Madness” with Michael Douglas comes to mind: at a certain point he takes the car, everyone rings the bell, he opens the door and leaves it in the middle of traffic. From there his crazy day starts, precisely. For me the microphone is that switch you talk about, it’s the only thing with which I can vent and say what I think.
In the album you tell the government to fuck off, you talk about trapped existences and the return of swastikas. Why did you feel the need to take a stand?
Because almost no one does it. I’m sick of listening to songs about how much a car costs, about bottles, about pussy and about money. I like money too, but let’s face it: in this historical period we really can’t continue to talk about just this stuff. Years ago they annoyed me when they told me I couldn’t talk about certain things because they were too violent. But today it is much more violent and dangerous to make a kid believe that he will be happy with the Lamborghini. They are false dreams of wealth. I hear stories of guys who shoot themselves for a pair of shoes…
Has rap given up on telling some aspects of reality?
It’s not just this, in today’s rap there are also paradoxes. Why do I have to go and listen to someone talk to me about his Lamborghini when maybe the next morning I go to work on a construction site? There is also the flip side of the coin: there are kids in white shirts who get excited in the disco seeing a second generation rapper who talks about when he went to steal from houses, without realizing that the houses he stole from belonged to people like them.
This is your tenth “solo”. What was it like working on the album?
It wasn’t an easy feat. With Sine we worked from November to November, a year: for me it’s the bare minimum to make a quality album in these times.
Where did you work?
90% in my space, in my house, which is also my office and tattoo shop. This is what you see in the video for “Ultimo bench”. We weren’t interested in going to an ultra-modern, aseptic studio. I prefer to be surrounded by my things, by what I love and inspire me. We worked a bit on the old one, we wanted to recall the beginnings when we started from a basement.
With Shiva, one of the feats, when and how did you meet?
We met late, he had a period of detention as we know. There has always been great respect between us. He is “among the new artists”, but in reality he has been rapping for a long time. It’s stylish, it has credibility, it’s real. And together we weren’t satisfied, we wanted to make a real song. We first made one that didn’t convince us, so we worked even harder and found the perfect fusion between different generations in which we talk about motivations and paths taken.
Is the attitude the same, despite the generation gap?
The approach to rap is similar, direct and incisive. We had already collaborated on a posse track, but those aren’t really collaborations, you don’t really know each other well in those contexts. For me we have now created an instant classic.
Achille Lauro, another feat, have you found it changed?
He’s a friend, he’s from our area, Monte Sacro and surrounding areas, in Rome. For me, witnessing his rise, seeing him become a giant, is a victory, not only for him, but for all of us. He has had a mutation, he has faced different genres because he is curious and daring. If it wasn’t for its chorus, the song would never have been released because it’s not too much for me. Lauro today is a singer-songwriter, he is a Vasco Rossi, someone like him was missing in our scene.
An unexpected guest is Madame.
Madame, I brought it up, it’s my choice, even to the amazement of my team. Among the girls who make music in this genre, she is one of the few, if not the only one, who does it very well. He has beautiful writing, insightful, says interesting things. I liked the idea of inserting a female chorus into a rap piece, capable of making it stand out. I hate when female voices are inserted into rap songs simply for radio reasons. Well, this is not our case.
Why are Papa V and Nerissima Serpe among the most requested names for feats and collaborations today?
They were noticed so much because, undeniably, they brought something new, original and stylish. If an important rapper gets to notice two new recruits, it’s because those two deserved it. When I was a kid, I didn’t go to rappers older than me to ask for feats: I just made albums. If you’re really good, you get noticed.
Underground rap?
Today the underground exists, but it is very difficult to discover. Also because so many artists arrive who immediately seem good, with cool videos, with incredible production, who make a splash with Platini in the mainstream. And those who go underground often stay underground, even a little by choice, to avoid disappointment. For me, however, there must be no forced support from above. Rappers have to just do the pieces, think about themselves, not about feats. The fact that a big rapper necessarily has to support a small rapper is a recording strategy, it shouldn’t be done by the artists. The feats should be sincere.
How do you stay faithful to the line even when the line isn’t there?
I’ve always approached rap music in the same way. I have my own writing method: I never start from a concept, I write instinctively. I let the music guide the words, as Neffa said. What has changed is the surroundings around me, it’s the listener. Today we always have to put in something new. I’m thinking for example of the blues-country piece with Gast: well, that’s certainly a new element. But I remain convinced that every rapper must find his own formula: he can also say the same things, but he must always say them in a cool way. The goal is to find one’s own style, a metric, a trend, which then becomes familiar to the listener.
On the record you claim to be doing what you dreamed of as a kid. The price to pay?
I did every infamous job before doing what I do today. My goal has always been to not have a boss, to have no masters above me. I wanted to shape my life and be my own business. I wish everyone to find a passion and turn it into a job. It must also be said that perhaps today it takes more balls to go to an office, to work, to do what you don’t like… Some “artists” are temporary and then disappear. I was a carpenter, a dishwasher, and I understood that if you want to become a champion in something you have to believe in it and dedicate yourself completely to that thing. To do whatever the fuck you want, you have to go to war.
Have they never tried to change you?
At a certain point, I won’t hide it from you, when the music market changed and was coming at me, I tried to listen to some recording advice: “Look, now we should have a song like this”, “now we need a song in this style”. I finally realized that what I can do is what people expect from me. Everything else, trying to do something else, is the opposite of who I am.
Is Kid Yugi the new generation rapper you feel closest to?
We have already heard the stories of Hollywood, of good Milan or of rich Rome, but listening to stories from Massafra is a different moment. Yugi deserves all the success he’s having. He wrote the verses for the piece together before my eyes, he didn’t go home to prepare them. It’s one of the best in my opinion.
Will you take a tour of the arenas?
Yes, I would like to do some dates in arenas. I’m very happy to bring these new tracks live. After a while I hate to always make the same songs. I’ve never understood those groups that go around, for their entire career, with the same three records as always.
