The extra step that took Ghali to the top of the rankings

In 2017 the debut album of Ghali, “Album” (read the review here), attracted general attention and brought him to second place in the rankings. Three years later, the second step of his career, “DNA”he took that extra step so he could look down on everyone. “DNA” came out on February 21, 2020, what you can read below is our review of the album.

Ghali’s fake fall from the stairs of the Ariston stage, a stunt that caused a lot of talk about his performance as a guest at the Sanremo Festival, was the metaphor of a real fall, which however caused less of a stir. In the three years following the release of “Album”, the debut album by the rapper of Tunisian origins who in 2017 opened the doors of the Italian

Fearing that I have nothing else to add to what has already been told in “Ninna nanna” and in the other songs (from the non-relationship with his father – who ended up in prison when he was just a child – to the very strong bond with his mother, through adolescence among the popular buildings of his Baggio, the suburban neighborhood of Milan where he grew up), the rapper locked himself in a long silence, falling into a dark vortex.

It was precisely by putting into verse the crisis he was experiencing that Ghali managed to get out of it. The songs of “DNA” were born like this: the new album is the story of that silent fall and the artistic rebirth of the rapper, who returns three years after his debut to demonstrate that he still has something to say.

The success that becomes a drug, the anxiety, the false friendships, the words of those who told him “you will never do anything and you will remain forever in the dark in a corner” which, echoing in Ghali’s head in that dark vortex, make even more noise , the parties and red carpets that take the place of the gray courtyards of Baggio’s buildings: “DNA” is the diary that the rapper has written in the last three years, seeking a balance – psychological first of all – between past and present. Ghali recounts his experiences without falling into the pathetic, with the same lightness and the same irony that at the time of “Happy days” and “Cara Italia” – “only” three years have passed, but from 2017 to today so many things have happened which seems like an era has passed – it had made him an idol of the very young, and which makes him likeable even to those who don’t like the genre (an attitude that has pushed many to describe him as one of Jovanotti’s potential heirs).

The sound is completely new: after the divorce from Charlie Charles, who had given the tracks of “Album” a very recognizable flavour, mixing pop, electro house à la Stromae and Arabesque atmospheres (a mixture that the Milanese producer then also applied to “Soldi” by Mahmood and “Calipso”, the summer hit with Mahmood himself, Sfera Ebbasta, Fabri Fibra and Dardust, effectively making it a successful formula), Ghali decided to follow other paths. We’ll leave it to gossip lovers to discover what happened between the two (“For now we’ve taken different paths”, the rapper limited himself to saying on social media): here we limit ourselves to recording that in the fifteen tracks of “DNA” there is no It’s a Charlie Charles track. Instead, there are representatives of the Italian urban scene such as Mamakass in “22:22”, Zef in “Boogieman” (with Salmo), Merk & Kremont in “Good times” (it is the third Ghali song to have been chosen for an advert , after “Cara Italia” and “Lascia stare”), Sick Luke in “Fast food” and “Scooby”, Mace and Venerus (present in more than one piece), which orient Ghali more towards club sounds than large arenas.

Without forgetting the ThaSupreme phenomenon in “Marymango” and Michele Canova, former right-hand man of pop stars such as Tiziano Ferro, Marco Mengoni and Jovanotti himself, who puts his hand to the four most brazenly pop pieces – and best achieved, in terms of melodies, construction and developments – of the album, from the title track to “Fallito”, passing through “Barcelona” (it would be crazy not to choose it as a single) and “Cuore a right”. In short, many different worlds that coexist in a single album and that tell the many facets of Ghali.

We don’t have a crystal ball and we don’t know what the future holds for the rapper and his songs. If they continue to be liked so much by advertisements, if they become international hits (he is aiming for that dimension: witness the recent collaborations with Ed Sheeran and the British rap star Stormzy and the one, contained in the new album, with the Nigerian Mr Eazi on ” Combo”), whether they will be sung by packed sports halls or by club crowds. But we are curious to find out. We were like that at the time of “Album” and we continue to be like that even after this “DNA”.