OUR READERS' MEMORIES

Each reader of AELLE Magazine has one or more memories directly or indirectly linked to the magazine. Some remember having to travel an hour to find their copy, others met friends who became lifelong friends thanks to the “primitive” way of getting in touch through the magazine. Send us your story by email and it will be published below. If you would like to contact us, you can email us at this address: aelle@brignole.ch
Please do not contact us via DM, as we cannot guarantee a response.

moder_gloryhole
I still go back and leaf through those pages, the jam reports. I was a child and I dreamed of being at those evenings.

Ugo Sartor
I lived in Milan, but it was still difficult to find Aelle at newsstands, so I decided to subscribe. Everything was wonderful, except that the magazine often arrived after the events (live shows, meetings, etc.) had already taken place. Aelle was my internet. Nostalgia? Sure, but, speaking as someone over 50, things are better today! Sorry Sid, not in terms of quality, but the world has changed since then. Thanks for everything, man!

antonio_gerri
My goodness, what wonderful memories! I proudly keep most of the issues.

marco_tanca
For those who, like me, got into hip hop in the 90s, Aelle was a really important window into this culture. The anecdote I remember most fondly is when you published one of my drawings in the letters page (no. 41)! ✨

tino_vese
Fixed annual subscription!!! And the agonizing wait to find the new issue in your mailbox!!! ❤️

Damiano Stingone
Catania 1998. Going to the newsstand in Piazza Stesicoro (one of the few, if not the only one in town, to have Aelle). Do you have the new issue? YES... I still remember my heart beating as I leafed through the pages of graffiti. Kaf, Wany, Blef, Cento, Dafne, Dolce e Paradiso, Joyce, Sir 2, Seno e Utero... the illustrations by @korvo_art, the Broke advertisement with @collederfomento.official, the cover of 107 Elementi. I literally wore out the magazines by looking at them over and over again. I took some of them apart and stuck them up in my bedroom. I've lost almost all of them... but as someone says, “It's all in the head, that's all, anyway, it all stays there, that's all.” Only love!!! Thank you.

livio_andrieri
When crossing the Swiss Alps, it was essential to visit the newsstand and politely request the Aelle magazine. It was one of the few sources of information about the Italian scene. I still have all the issues in my possession.

Andrea Rosin
I saw an Aelle magazine for the first time in middle school, bought by a boy at school, and it was issue no. 14. I managed to make photocopies, which I still have, and was amazed by Eron's articles. I immediately ran to the newsstand in my town (Mariano Comense) and luckily they were already selling the magazine. From issue 15 onwards, I bought them all. What a sight! It was always exciting to leaf through those pages.

oh my goodness
My first Aelle magazine was the one with the cover by the master Phase 2! It was an incredible flash of inspiration, containing everything I wanted and couldn't even imagine existed. I was already listening to rap before I bought Aelle, but since I started buying Aelle, I listened, saw, learned, and understood that there was a huge world outside the usual mainstream. The reviews, the announcements of artists selling demos and mixtapes, the photos of trains, and the interviews. Aelle contributed greatly to my cultural education. Thank you and welcome back.

balo.one
It was 1996, I was 16 and had no idea that Aelle existed... during a trip to Genoa, a boy from my school showed me his work on the bus... well, from that day on, we became best friends, a friendship that continues to this day. Thank you, Aelle, for introducing me to artists such as Eron, Daim, Korvo, Blef, Flycat, and many, many others... now that I paint in my own small way, they are my inspiration. Ah, I sent in a drawing, which was never published, but just getting to the point of making a drawing that I thought was worthy of that magazine made me proud. Until a few years ago, I had all the issues, including the one from the trip to Genoa with Articoli 31 on the cover, but in a cleaning frenzy, my mom decided they had to be thrown away, and I still haven't forgiven her. Thank you, Aelle.

Giovanni Pavone
What a fantastic journey, Aelle. I was blown away by a friend of mine who had issue 14 in his hands. It was 1995. I ran to the newsstand to buy my first copy (initially, only two copies arrived at the newsstand). From then on, I read, bought mixtapes, demos, wrote letters, and much more. In short, I lived the 90s to the fullest. It was fantastic, and every now and then I leaf through my collection.

Giuseppe Gatti
For those like me who study hip-hop history from an academic and literary perspective, Aelle is one of the few sources that attests to the presence of hip-hop culture in Italy and the propensity of its community towards the study of the four disciplines. Discredited by some and forced to close due to financial difficulties, this fanzine is now a valuable document for anyone who wants to reconstruct the history of the ideas behind this culture, which, I would like to remind you, is not just rap but also many other forms of expression. Hats off!

Marco Giani
Aelle was the bible for those who lived in the provinces, bought at Footlocker in 1994/95. It seemed like they were talking about Mars, and slowly discovering that it was a world that became more accessible year after year. The reviews, the records, the jams, the tracks, the four arts that lived together.

Gabriele Bottone
In the 1990s, I lived in Minori, on the Amalfi Coast, a town with a population of 3,500. I went to Peppeniell ò giurnalaio, my trusted newsagent, and asked for Elle magazine, convinced that I was asking a rhetorical question and sure that I would receive a no. Instead, Peppino surprised me and said, “Yes, I have it.”He handed me a copy of Elle magazine, a bridal fashion magazine, so I sent him packing, saying, “Do you really think a 14-year-old would be interested in a bridal fashion magazine?” Fortunately, the Savo newsstand in Amalfi, the town where I went to high school, was more helpful and got me a copy!The thing is, Elle was a bimonthly magazine, and I read it during the first hour of class... So, after about a week, I would go back to the newsstand to look for the new issue... I still remember when I read the last issue... it was a tragedy ???? Elle wasn't perfect, but then again, who or what is? But aelle was there! And that was more than enough in the pre-internet era. Thank you so much, SID.

Dave Rebo
The only way in Bolzano to learn about a culture that didn't exist in these areas. Eagerly awaiting each issue to devour it in a few hours. Planning your next trip to go to a jam with the latest issue of Aelle so you could have the address and rhyme book handy, you looked around for graffiti on other trains. The closer you got to the jam, the more you started to see people with buggies. You looked at them suspiciously, then exchanged a few words, and often bonds were formed that left a mark on your soul.

Andrea Fabellini
Receiving the first copy of Aelle in my possession in 1992, sent directly to me by Claudio Brignole. The feeling of excitement when you published photos of our pieces (katerkillerz ????). The feeling of accomplishment when you published my interview with Mark Bode at the turn of the millennium. Thank you, bro.

Simona Trapani
Years later, I met an artist with really cool drawings and a unique style... ”I know this guy,” I thought. It was Korvo, and recognizing his work after 20 years thrilled me immensely.

Claudio Contini
I had a passion for hip-hop and writing, so it came naturally to me to write reviews of rap albums. At a certain point, I decided to print everything out and send the package to AL, without thinking twice. I was contacted by Paola Zukar and ended up collaborating on a few issues, reporting on concerts in Rome. It was immensely satisfying to see my name in the only Italian magazine dedicated to hip-hop. History.

Giuseppe Prisco
Some of my peers in those years collected Panini stickers. My friends and I bought Aelle. Legitimate differences in mentality.

Pasquale Chionchio
Well, it's simple: Aelle changed my life.

Max DjZac Ravanelli
My wife and I met at work. We were just colleagues, and I brought her a copy of Aelle with the Mode2 woman on the cover because she reminded me so much of her. We're talking about 1996/98?…

Nina K. Anin
Very few copies arrived in our small town, and only a handful of people requested them. My partner and I were among them, but we didn't know each other at the time. Sometimes I would find only one copy, and I would grab it right away. Meanwhile, I wondered, “Who else buys them?” Well, we talked about it many years later and discovered the mystery, and luckily for us, he still has all the copies that were never found (which he had bought, followed by various expletives). The joy of leafing through them took me back in time. Love is also Aelle.

federicasotrue
In a small town in Brianza full of metalhead friends (whom I will always be grateful to), in 1996, at the age of 16, I would escape to Milan just to go to Messaggerie Musicali to pick up Vibe and The Source and then to Timeout in De Amicis to pick up Aelle. I know, it's sacrilegious, but I confess that I cut out several articles and stuck them in my diaries as a girl with eyes shaped like Hip Hop. Thank you! ❤️

octave
Having practically all of them in my old bedroom, only to discover that my “usual” mom had thrown them away to free up space, is priceless. I'm happy to relive that historic era. ❤️????

lucabersaglia
I lived in Faenza, I was the only one who listened to rap (for my thirteenth birthday I asked my parents for the cassette of “De La Soul is Dead”) and I used to go to Bologna by train to buy “Aelle” because it wasn't always available in Romagna. Then I would make a note of the reviews of the records I wanted, save up, and go to Gospel in Via Irnerio to buy them (at extortionate import prices).

kino911ph
AELLE was always with me in my bedroom, and then they followed me through various moves when I moved out to live on my own. I met AELLE by chance in the schoolyard and then searched frantically for it at newsstands in Piacenza every time it came out.

sallybowles__
Isolated between suburban thugs and truly awful music, Aelle was my only window into hip-hop during all my middle school years! I still have them all, preserved like relics ❤️

nicola_mastap_casile
In 2000, I called the editorial office to send you my demo and ask a few other things about the next issue. You told me, ”There won't be a next issue.’ And I said, ”Then we in Calabria can stop doing hip hop!“ But we didn't stop. We just carried on with a little less. In any case, I have kept all the issues, from April 1996 to the last one.

nicotinoxide
My first music magazine! I still have all the copies, stored in my parents“ basement. I discovered it at a newsstand in Barona (Milan), drawn in by the subtitle ”Hip Hop magazine.“ It was 1996, and Articolo 31 was on the cover, promoting ”Così com'è.".

lazzarinadir
For those like me who lived in the provinces, AELLE was the only way to stay informed, keep up to date, and understand more about that fantastic yet distant culture.... I remember pestering my friend's father, who ran a newsstand, so much that in the end, out of exhaustion, he would send me the issue. I remember as if it were yesterday how voraciously I read every issue. Good times!!!!

ERMA
When, amid the usual music, you are struck by Public Enemy, De La Soul, Run DMC... then you start desperately searching for anything related to hip hop. And it's really hard in a village of 2,000 souls where no one knows what double H is. One day, in the only newsagent in the village, I found issue 13 of Aelle... after a few more issues, I was already subscribed, right up to the last issue. And they're all still there, in my display cabinet, precious to me.

Luca Mich
“Oh, did you know that they say hip hop is even played on the radio in America?” “I heard that there's a guy in Val di Fassa who wears baggy clothes and listens to rap. I'll call him tomorrow.” “But is this stuff even music? Because to me, it just sounds like someone talking over a song that's all the same.” “I heard that they sell baggy pants in Trento. I mean baggy but your size, you don't even have to wear a belt!” “I got a tape recorder, we have to rap into this little hole that's supposed to be the microphone, so at least we can listen to our stuff later, right?” “You guys go into the club, I'll stay here and listen to some beats, see you later when you go home.’ ”Oh, did you see on Aelle that there's a jam in Bolzano on Saturday? I'll call the organizer's number and ask him to save us a spot, okay?“ These are a few phrases, mantras really, from bboys who in 1996 listened to strange music and moved in a culture that would later influence languages, styles, and fashions, officially becoming today's pop culture. Back then, it was unthinkable. Back then, we all read Aelle Magazine.