“There is no such thing as female or male rap. Rap exists and those who know how to do it well will shine. I demonstrated what I had to demonstrate as a rapper, not as a female rapper.” Anna, with her 20 years and millions of streams achieved in the last four years, since in 2020 at just 16 years old she made her debut with Bando (which became a worldwide hit), she has clear ideas and self-confidence. After a series of successful songs (the latest is 30°C, already Gold Record, which aims to become the hit of summer 2024), she is ready to release her first album of unreleased songs: Vera Baddie, out now on June 28th for Emi Records Italy/Universal Music Italia.
“The album, whose title brings together the name of my grandmother that I should have had and the claim that represents me, is a collection of all the songs from the last period: between the end of adolescence and the beginning of youth – says the young Ligurian artist, born in 2003 and raised among her father’s DJ vinyls and a passion cultivated since childhood for American urban culture -. It is the result of my growth: I have matured a lot on an artistic level”. In a (recording) world in which records have lost importance in favor of singles, Anna still chooses to take the path of ‘tradition’. “My singles are going down well and so I thought that an album could also be liked”, she explains.
Anna already has 22 Platinum albums and 7 Gold albums under her belt and is currently the most listened to female artist in Italy on all digital platforms (after having also been so for 2023), an achievement that makes her proud. “I really came from nowhere, from my bedroom in a city in Liguria where you don’t have many connections. It was a somewhat particular path, but one which I am very proud of. There is a responsibility in what I have achieved and what I represent , as an artist and as a woman because I think I made it on my own. It doesn’t matter where you come from, but if you believe you can go wherever you want.” And not only did she find her place in the sun, but she did so by making space for herself in a male-oriented world. “Before me, female rap wasn’t so mainstream, I think I made it so. In a very male environment, people had to get used to it.”
Vera Baddie was written entirely by Anna. “An album all mine, which I feel is mine. I can define it as a ‘collage’ of many moments of my life: it was like opening a secret diary to show my most hidden sides, telling myself through music. Most of my songs is light, but also deals with themes related to fragility, toxic love, not feeling up to par. Things that I also experienced when I was younger and for this reason many girls see themselves in me.”
The album contains 18 tracks and several featuring: Guè in Bikini, Tony Boy and thasup in ABC, Artie 5ive in I love it, Lazza in BBE (song that debuted directly at no. 1 on Spotify), Sfera Ebbasta in Chica Italiana, Nicky Savage in TT LE GIRLZ, Capo Plaza in Show Me Love (who return to collaborate after Vetri Neri by AVA), Tony Effe in Mulan and Sillyelly in Hello Kitty.
“The collaborations were all born organically, starting from the friendship that binds me to all of them”, says Anna, a young woman who knows what she wants, determined, independent and who has paved her own path alone: ”self -made bitch” sings in 30°C. “And I think so: I made myself and I have matured. From Bando to today I have become much more sure of myself, I am more of a woman. And musically I have trained a lot, I have spent a lot of time in the studio with my producers. they helped find me musically and I’m proud to be the artist I am, working very authentically and aiming to be myself.”
In the meantime, she is enjoying the success of 30°C, the best debut ever on Spotify Italy for a solo female artist with a song not competing at the Sanremo Festival: “I don’t mind that it could become a hit, the idea that people have a song to associate with summer, with moments to remember even in the future”. Anna will perform with several summer dates and has announced her first real tour for the fall, which will stop in the main Italian clubs.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA
