On the cover of “God knows”Geolier’s third album, there are hands clasped in prayer. They are those of a child, a woman, a man, family members of the Neapolitan rapper, all facing the sky, in a pyramid. It is an intergenerational invocation, because Geolier’s rap transcends ages and manages to achieve, even in Italy, what hip hop culture was born for over fifty years ago: represent a community in a profound way. And unite it, be it that of the American West or East coast, or of a Campania suburb where today there are more faces of Geolier depicted than of San Gennaroas he said almost embarrassed himself Emanuele PalumboThis is his real name.
There isn’t the typical fan
The first concert at the concert is a vivid snapshot of this aggregating force Maradona stadium in Naples (it will be repeated on 22 and 23 June, with three sold-outs and 145,000 tickets sold is the first singer to reach this milestone in the history of the facility) where there is no real target audience, but a heterogeneous tangle of humanity: girls and boys, adults, families, children, even some fearless elderly people. Is it a miracle in the shadow of Vesuvius? The numbers of Geolier concerts in other cities are not inevitably the same, but this does not affect the heart of the discussion. At Maradona, in fact, it is not possible to trace, as happens in many live trap, drill, boom bap, pop, rock etc., the precise identikit of the “typical fan”: walking through the stands and the pit of the stadium you have the feeling that you can really meet anyoneof any age and social class, exactly as happens in a football match (there are even the mascots in the likeness of the rapper with extras inside) or to listen to those names who have managed, with their art, to create a bridge.
Raw rap and love ballads
And Geolier, just 24 years old, spat out by Secondigliano, bitten and saved by rap like a superherolowered onto the stage of the stadium from a platform of almost ten meters in a sort of mystical descent on the notes of the gospel of “Forever”without halo but with a working class hero dungareeshe created that bridge between Neapolitan song and hip hop, between tradition and contemporaneity, between sacred and profane. For this reason, with music, he managed to crumple multiple temporal and generational planes as if it were in Nolan’s “Interstellar”.. In the setlist there are raw rap pieces, but also the more sentimental and melodic ballads à la “Chiagne”, often enclosed in medleys, there is the pop song with which he was a hit at the last Sanremo Festival, “I’m for me, you’re for you”but also the lockout “No more, no more, no more” in which he says that, if he returned to Ariston, he would bet on losing again. Alongside him are the producers Dat Boi Dee and Poison Beats, in addition to a well-established band, but also a refined string orchestra to raise the level of emotion. “Sorry teachers, but now let’s be rude”, says Geolier with a smile to the violinists before rapping “Capo” among geysers, fireworks and flames.
Between Tony and Gigi
There is the face of “El pibe de oro” on the large central LED wall when he leaves “Maradona”but also those of the children of Naples on “Ricchezza” and there is no shortage of articles on the Napoli scudetto during the machine gun of bars of “Campioni in Italia”. On “Moncler” the snapshots of the gray buildings are colored. Yes, there are colleagues from the urban world, from Tony Effe, complete with a tamarra Cadillac in tow, and Mv Villa up to Luché in “Già lo sai”, one of the true initiators of the renewal of Neapolitan song through rap, but also the singer Mavi Gagliardi, ex of Sud 58, on “Emirates”. And obviously space too “dad” Gigi D’Alessiowho with Geolier sings “Senza tuccà”, taken from the singer-songwriter’s new album “Fra”. On “Dio lo sa” this time the rapper ascendsthanks to the mobile platform, towards the skynot with a white tunic, but a Prada dress and Nikes. “P Secondigliano” is the prayer that everyone knows and sings at the top of their lungs. Here they are all the worlds of Geolier, united, contaminated, collected, in collision, ready to embrace and collide once again in a gigantic clash.
Hands off rap
The final result? Maybe just the word “Naples”, with its creative chaos, can encompass everything. After this popular coronation, appointment in 2025: on July 25th at the Agnano Racecourse, the only date scheduled in the Campania capital next year. With an awareness and a message, the most profound launched by Geolier: “We artists are not educators, we cannot be and we are not even the evil of society. Let us write our songs freely, let us tell our stories. Even the ugliest ones, the street ones. This is rap. This music saved our lives.”
Ladder:
Forever
Money
I know fly
President
Yes, it was you
Me vulev makes ruoss
Scumpar
Moncler
Wealth
Love episode
Clear ideas
Chiagne
Narcos
Maradona
Boss
Nu spoke, nu heard, nu old
2 seconds
The harm you do to me
You already know with Luché
I want to come to you
On the chain
Emirates with Mavi
The last poem
I’m for me, you’re for you
Neapolitan
M missing
X case
Champions in Italy
I love but who knows with Mv Killa
Cadillac with Mv Killa and Tony Effe
God knows
The gold pibe
P Secondigliano
One like you
Without tuccà with Gigi D’Alessio
Until you die
As you like
Give you my love
