Caparezza

Caparezza is an Italian non-conformist rapper known for his curly hair and heavy irony within his cleverly crafted lyrics. Perhaps it’s best to describe Caparezza’s style as hipster rap: this is an artist who is incredibly intelligent, eloquent, well-read and pissed at the status quo. His music rejects many of the common elements of hip-hop and instead has an anarchical rock and roll feel to it, which is pretty damn awesome.

You have to be quick to catch everything that is going on within a Caparezza song. Not only are his lyrics delivered with such speed and precision that you have to be sure you’re actively listening, but his songs contain so many pop culture references and are laden with so much irony that it can be hard to keep up. To be honest, Caparezza’s raps are so well written and metaphor-dense that they could be set as examination texts for Italian language qualifications.

A Caparezza show is whimsicality at it’s best. Whether he’s emerging from a set of Russian dolls or leering out at the audience from behind a set of prison-like bars, Caparezza is certainly a showman first and foremost. His fans adore the performances he gives and are clearly aware of the time and effort he puts into crafting his shows. At his show last month, Caparezza perfectly bookended his set by opening with the anthemic “Avrai ragione tu (ritratto)” and ending with the incredibly popular “Non me lo posso permettere.” There was not a single person at that gig who wasn’t going wild and having the time of their life. A Caparezza is a real night of entertainment; I highly recommend you check him out.