A chat with J-Ax (preview) while waiting for the new album Protomaranza by Articolo 31 – MOW

Salways here, in Willy L’Orbo’s studios, J-Ax, together with Pedar and Matteo Lenardon, records the episodes of the very popular podcast Don’t open that podcast, dedicated to crime. An independent podcast, supported by fans through the Patreon platform, another nerd thing, of course, as long as you can even allow yourself to define a rocking character like Amanda Palmer as a nerd, who has supported all of her art for years with Patreon. I arrive here when it’s spring outside, a normal fact in itself, it’s actually spring, but not too much, the climate changes, the rain that initially didn’t come for months, years, and then became so constant as to project us into a daytime version from Blade Runner. We say goodbye and I don’t even have time to sit in the main studio before Ax shows me what he’s working on, and no, it’s not a spoiler of the new album, omitted, don’t worry, a package of eighties video games inside an old television with a cathode ray tube, Pacman and other amenities. Then he also explains to me what it’s about, but since I’m not an electrical expert, I confess that I don’t understand much. In fact, I don’t really understand anything, but I dissemble well, I think. He explains to me, off the cuff, that he is working in a sort of international platform, where everyone brings their knowledge, but I probably meant Toma for Rome. The atmosphere has it anyway something that harks back to some dated science fiction, once again the past confronts the contemporary and projects itself towards the future. This is how it happens, when history has been made, and J-Ax, with Articolo 31, revived, and solo, has undoubtedly made the history of rap in Italy, a fact which was recognized in the running, of course, but which now it is established, as has happened with certain scientific discoveries previously considered almost implausible and now studied already in elementary school. It happens that one still imagines him as he once was, a lovable prick, always with the ready rhyme, the play on words, the jab and the effective gimmick, an idea of ​​fun that goes hand in hand with the strenuous desire to perculate certain hypocrisies and certain bigotry that are a key part of our nature, also wanting a bit of melancholy, yes, well kept at bay but constant, but above all insightful ironyirony against the hypocrisies and inconsistencies of those who want to teach us about life, the central chain of our DNA string, and instead you find yourself faced with a middle-aged man, still with the same nature, of course, those same passions, but also with so much more to say and give, exactly as happens to you.