LYRICALZ > STORIES OF SIMPLE PEOPLE

By Claudio “Sid” Brignole
AL 37 June 1999

L’’99 vintage will long be remembered as one of the best in Italian Hip Hop, with records that will retain their taste for a long time, becoming even more flavorful with the passage of time. “Brava Gente, Storie Di Fine Secolo” may be one of them.

Dafa and Faith defy the rules and go above and beyond with a record that few might expect at this time ... but they love a challenge, no certainties but always in the game with the knowledge that they have what it takes to be part of it. 

-In the record you talk about preferring a life with less certainty but lived fully. Do you think you can maintain this choice for your future as well?

Faith: “To be a mc as we do is to choose a life without certainty. Already in principle it is difficult for kids our age to make choices. It's no longer like years ago that you got out of school, went to work and that was it -- now you have to make it up. At key moments in our lives we chose the more uncertain, but definitely more fun path. Now I couldn't tell you yet whether I will want to do that all my life, because then maybe I will also want certainties in the future, but one of the things that scares me the most is boredom. The more I have challenges to undertake, things to do, questions to solve, the more I am stimulated to keep going. Someday maybe I'll get my financial footing, however, I still hope to always be looking for something.”

Dafa: “We are both driven by an instinct to do certain things, however you realize for yourself whether you are going against something difficult or not. It makes sense that doing this kind of work and life requires sacrifices, and we've made a lot of them. The sacks of shit someone threw at us, without addressing us, were really too many. I don't think anyone really knows us, but listening to this record will give you a sense of who the Lyricalz really are and what they do.’

-The title of the piece “Stories Of The End Of The Century” makes it clear that you narrate your daily reality, what are your stories and what is the way you tell them?

Faith: “Our way is to be at the same time chroniclers and protagonists, so you tell about things that you have experienced firsthand, or that you have lived there on the margins. The important stuff is this and that is that we tell in a direct way our own stories and the stories of the people we have lived with, a kind of assignment to let the world know what our reality was and is. We kind of feel like people who had the courage and the idea to tell these things and also, maybe, to capitalize on them, that is, to live by telling what you live.’

Dafa: “I think the key is to focus on the outside, what you have around you, photograph it and repurpose it. We do that in rhyme, writing lyrics, making music and trying to tell what's around us.”

-And what is around you?

Faith: “In my opinion, the answer is encapsulated in the title “Good People” -- basically there's that. Before we made the album we looked at each other's faces and said we would like to tell about ourselves and what was around us, and the title represents that characteristic that binds all the people around us. There are those who maybe are more inclined to do certain things, there are those who haven't felt like it or haven't succeeded and just work, there are those who are unemployed, there are those who are still looking for something they haven't found, there are those who agree with us, those who agree less, there are those who are interested in the things we do and those who are not. We often hang out with people who don't care about our artistic side, about us as Faith and Dafa from Lyricalz, they care more about Luca and Federico. Let's say that, essentially, we are surrounded by good people, which doesn't mean good people, but whose common characteristic is simplicity.”

-Do you think this is an essential endowment?

Faith: “Yes, and then simplicity is a concept that is paradoxically not simple, in the sense that it means neither ignorance, nor cowardice, nor necessarily humility. Maybe for us the simple things are the things that for others are hardcore as a concept. Simplicity is the ability to bring yourself out with as few filters as possible and not necessarily trying to be different at all costs, which is kind of what bothers me in general. I also like ’normal,‘ simple things, which, however, when you see them well, have a lot to say.’

-In the piece “On the Fingers Of A Hand,” you state that the things that are important to you can be counted on the fingers of one hand and they are family, women, money, music and friends.

Dafa: “That piece encapsulates what we have acquired over the years. It's not that necessarily every person has to deal with these elements, but it happened to us that way.”

Faith: “Let's say they are all complementary, and subjectively one thing may be more important than another, but in the totality they are complementary.”

Dafa: “And they are also one the consequence of the other.”

-What opinion do you have of yourself? I mean that when we relate to others sometimes we think about how others see us. How do you think of yourselves?

Faith: “Simplicity is a quality, and we are simple. Our characteristic is that we open up a lot with people we know and instead close up with people who don't know us. Maybe it comes from growing up where we did, having lived a lot cooped up in a certain group, always with the same people and less with others. I consider myself not an easy person to relate to, however, once you've managed to break down certain barriers with me, then I think I'm a pretty deep person. Let's say I have these two faces, until you get over the step with me, maybe I can be disliked, but once that ice has melted, then then you can get along even on less superficial things.”

Dafa: “I think that to most of the people who met me, and by met I don't mean just a handshake and a hello, I made a good impression. I have always acted simply, trying to be myself all the time, without being superior like many people do nowadays. We know we are two difficult people, but more so in intimacy, because in dealing with people we have always been approachable.”

-In our environment we go on a lot of prejudice. Has it ever happened to you to make judgments before you really know a person or the facts?

Faith: “It happened. Lately we've been trying to distinguish artists from people. It happened that we knew some people we got along with, but artistically we esteemed them much less. On the other hand, there are artists we esteem highly who we don't even know. We have been prejudiced in the past, but now we try as much as possible to know before we judge.’

Dafa: “I think any person can stumble on this, and I would be a liar to say that I have never judged a person without knowing them, however, I did and I realized I was wrong.”

Faith: “Now I, within the Italian Hip Hop scene, I listen to the records and judge the artists, if I then know the people I judge the people, also because we have done it and often others have done it with us and it has been quite a penalizing thing.”

-You say that among the things that are most important to you are the people you hang out with and the roots of your childhood and adolescence, even though you are always traveling around Italy and Europe. What kind of mental connection do you feel with your memories and affections?

Dafa: “I think I live with the 50% of thinking at home with my parents in Turin. Fede and I left three years ago from Turin, telling our folks that we were going to record the first record “De Luxe” in Milan, and to be closer we rented a house in Novara for a month. We said we were going to record the record and then come back, but we stayed there driven by this rush to rock, to do.”

Faith: “My state of mind is a bit of a mixture of what are the memories, the emotions of what we lived in the suburbs of Turin, mixed with these three years in which we basically just made music. This that we are currently living is the first period in which we are able to focus well on the fact that there was a period of transition from one kind of life to another, whereas with the first lp the transition had been there, but we didn't really realize it. Let's say that you feel our roots, Turin, our families, our neighborhoods, after spending 20 years there all this stays with you forever, especially when then in three years you started touring like you never did before. You learn so many things, however, you appreciate so much more the place you've been and the life you've made.’

-In the piece “Nobody Saw Them Anymore,” you imagine getting on a plane and leaving for an exotic country to rebuild your life. Would you really do that in reality?

Faith: “There are those moments when one says ‘that's enough, but what am I doing here?’ maybe something bad happened to you, or without anything in particular happening I felt that there was something that didn't give me happiness, but I didn't know what the cause of the sadness was. Add to that the fact that our life is stressful because it's true that it seems like we never work, but actually we work all the time, and often and often I think about just picking up and leaving... maybe I would, I would go away for a month but then I would come back... In the end it's just a need for vacation... we want to take vacations. Every once in a while you would just unplug, take the plane and go somewhere, alone or with company.”

Dafa: “I personally would not have the courage to quit ... however, a nice little trip would.”

-According to you, how come we often say that we live in a shitty place, that we don't like it, yet we still stay there?

Faith: “In my opinion, it is because there is too strong a bond. I'm not a nationalist or patriotic to excess -- only if the national team is playing. But then you go abroad, you see an Italian, you feel good, you talk about Italy, your country's problems, etc., and you feel better. In my opinion, the fact of being tied to the land, we Italians particularly have it and it's part of us a little bit, this contradiction of spitting in the dish where you eat and in which you will eat forever.’

-What do you think is the best and worst aspect of Italy?

Faith: “The best aspect is that concept of simplicity that I mentioned earlier. People tend to be quite spontaneous and warm the way I like it. The negative aspects are that often out of laziness we don't keep up with so many other things. In Italy we tend very much to achieve goals without struggling, me for one. Maybe for some things we are far ahead, while for others far less. So I would say that the best quality is simplicity, while the worst is laziness.”

Dafa: “I good or bad do not complain about Italy, for the simple fact that most countries in the world are no better off. Then look I am one who politically follows the fortunes of Italy, but lately I am not getting it. A 25-year-old guy should understand how it's going around him.”

-But in your opinion, politically speaking, is the balance positive compared to, for example, the 1960s, or not?

Faith: “I don't think everyone was interested in politics in the 1960s. It was fashion. In the end what kids like is the costume, even the most ’alternative‘ things still have to be fashion.’

Dafa: “Being a communist in the 1970s was fashionable.’

Faith: “However now it seems to me to be exaggerated on the opposite side. Little is being done anyway. I personally follow politics, however I deliberately don't talk about it in my lyrics, partly because I don't care to talk about it, partly because I think people don't care to hear about such things. We, in our own way, talking about our neighborhood and our problems, we do politics and maybe it can be a way to bring people closer together. I would like to do something about the war, but if I think I am not able to deal with the subject and can't do it in an interesting way, I don't talk about it. Ideally I would like to get people interested in certain things, however, if you don't know how to make it interesting, you can't do it because you are an artist anyway, not a journalist.’

-Don't you think it is a bad sign that a little bit in all circles they have been moving for the war in Kosovo, while in Hip Hop nobody has been talking about it? Is this not, in your opinion, a symptom of closure and lack of contact with external reality?

Faith: “I don't think people who do Hip Hop are not interested in it, but they probably talk about it with family and friends and don't pour these things into this part of their lives...maybe when you meet, you tend to talk little about the war and more, maybe, about a record. We already talk to each other very little, and if we do, then we prefer the artistic aspect. If we start talking more, then it would also be easier to do something together.”

-We remain too superficial in our parts. We worry more about clothing or freestyle, rather than the things around us....

Faith: “I think in recent times there has been little talk about things outside the scene, and just us in the first person have been focusing more on superficial things. Somewhat as a reaction to the political rap that had been there before, however it was a generalized mistake, both ours and others. You know I was small, however, if I did superficial things so far it was because I had not reached a complete state of maturity, now I feel more mature and more interested in things in the world.’

Dafa: “I think a lot of people don't talk about it out of fear and I for one.”

Faith: “In my opinion, one could point to the fact that there are kids like us who are experiencing this tragedy, rather than talking about NATO or who has their own interests in the matter. It is true that as an artist you have responsibilities, however, it is also true that you are an artist and therefore you have to entertain, you are not a politician or a journalist, your job is to entertain people.’

-In “Countdown” you try your hand at the theme of the last 24 hours.

Dafa: “It all stemmed from a dream that really stuck with me.”

-But what would you do if you really only had 24 hours left to live?

Faith: “I think I would enjoy to the fullest what I usually do, I would give another value to what I always do.”

Dafa: “At the end of the day, it's like this-if you're in love with your chick, you marry her, you smoke the last joint, and then you try to seize the last things that will make you go away happy and content.”

-Do you believe in destiny?

Faith: “Yes, if we mean something superior and independent of your will, I believe it, although I often find myself conflicted and try not to believe it. I'm a fairly realistic person about certain things, however, I always bring it up in the end, even though I'm not a fanatic. I believe there is something higher.”

Dafa: “It makes me wonder, however, I disagree that it cannot be influenced. If I am here it is not only fate, but also because I wanted to get here.”

-Have you ever felt a little bit on the edge between dream and reality? Even the fact that you are there right now, thinking about where you came from and how you got there....

Faith: “It often happens to me that I become estranged, especially in places like the train where, listening to the talk of others, only after a while do I realize that I am there myself. Like being there, but actually not being there.’

Dafa: “It is not easy to talk about these things. I ask myself a thousand questions every day and give myself answers, but I never know if the answer I give myself is the real one. Life is a why already, and so you can become dumb if you ask too many questions. It's kind of like being afraid to die. I've met a lot of people who are afraid to die, but in my opinion you start with the wrong concept, because you don't enjoy life and you risk leaving early.’

Faith: “Now there's a bit of a fashion for these big speeches, buth it must be the year 2000. But we need a little more reality and simplicity ... and we always go back there.’

-I was thinking about the diversity of your current approach to life compared to the first record. Initially you were talking about luxury, living well, while now you are in the phase of simplicity....

Faith: “It is a continuation of our discourse. I don't mean poverty or ignorance, in fact often it is more a simple person who wants material things than a more sophisticated one. This is the concept I want to reiterate. Especially hanging out in college circles, I really get sick of all these fake intellectuals, and these are things that I see again in Hip Hop, especially seeing really ignorant people being fake intellectuals. Like for example I get to listen to a piece by a rapper who quotes to me the only three books he's read in his life, books that I also read, maybe 7/8 years ago, but decided, by choice, not to quote. It all falls under our concept of simplicity, even our first ’De Luxe“ was a very strong provocation: the talk about wanting to live off what we were doing, wanting to make money and make it as much as we could; then many things didn't hold up either because we were young, or because we didn't reach the number of copies sold, or because we did it with that snootiness since we were nobody before... But it all falls under the concept of simplicity. These concepts belong to everyone but some people, because of problems with their conscience, or because of fashion or wanting to give themselves an image, do not mention or even go against these topics. These are my own things, which I have inside. This mania to do the pseudo-intellectual things, related to more spiritual things, this thing spread a little bit to everybody, to me it makes me laugh, because anyway it's people I know, I've seen, I've been around. It's people who like me after the concert is over, they don't read the Bible, but they drink the free beers, they look for the chick/they do what I do. I consider myself profound and for that very reason I don't presume to teach anybody anything. Of ”De Luxe’ we don't take anything back, it's simply all confirmed in a growth and evolution.’

-And speaking of concrete things instead-what is your favorite dish?

Faith: “I like pasta dishes-I joust between mushroom risotto and gnocchi with gorgonzola.”

Dafa: “I love horse shank and ... look I'm a meat lover and I'm of the opinion that people who don't eat meat don't like women. I like game very much and I was really raised on meat, I've always eaten a lot of it and without meat I don't live.”

-And can you cook?

Faith: “Without exaggeration, yes. However, there is Jasmin who cooks well.”

-When you are out and about instead, what do you eat?

Faith: “It counts that when you are on tour there is a total imbalance between the dinner they offer you in the clubs where you go wild and order even if you are not hungry and the Autogrill. By now we all know the Autogrill on the Italian highways and my favorite sandwich is the Rustichella, lately the raw sandwich ... simpler, lighter things, but I don't like to eat in Autogrill. I drink iced tea and a packet of Cipster, always.”

Dafa: “Instead, I'll have a juice with carrot, orange and lemon extracts and Rustichella too.”

Faith: “And then billions of newspapers. I also once found AL in an Autogrill.”

Dafa: “Ah last time I got some very good wild boar sausages.”

-But do you always have people bring you or do you also have your own cars?

Faith: “Not having a driver's license, that's it, that's the characteristic of the average b-boy who has his head in the clouds. We had very little time and for ‘this Hip Hop thing we dropped everything superfluous and among those things was the driver's license. Now I kind of feel the need to get it.’

Dafa: “I am lazy and then I am afraid of other cars and anyway it is a characteristic of many people no? It may be that at home in Turin I always walked around, but really always on foot.”

Faith: “Yes even when coming to Milan to parties, always by train.”

-Tell me a little bit about your days, maybe when you stay at home.

Faith: “Now I don't wake up that late, after community service I'm left with the time difference of normal people, and anyway I have so little time left between recording and being out and about that when I'm free I either write home, or I take the opportunity to do the basic errands that I can't do otherwise, so bank, shopping, laundry, etc., or I visit my parents. Dafa is more of a homebody, and I just wander around.”

Dafa: “Yes I really lock myself in the house, unfortunately I watch a lot of television, at most I see my girlfriend. On TV I watch 20 newscasts a day, especially sports news, if there is a game I watch it. I keep Inter and he keeps Juve, now we don't even fight anymore.”

-What do you think about the fact that soccer hardly fits into Hip Hop?

Faith: “Always about the fact that you have to be alternative at all costs. In my pieces I used to put names of football players or talk about them and then little by little we started to talk about it with people as well and you would find out that anyway everybody has their favorite team and, you know, it's true that soccer is much less important than the things that touch the world today, but until you make these things part of Hip Hop, nobody talks about it because maybe you are afraid of being considered a loser because you go to the stadium or because you are a member of something. I still go to the stadium if it happens to me. I was a Juve season ticket holder for a lot of years!”

Dafa: “However it all goes back to what you did as a kid. My father took me to soccer school when I was 7 years old, I played for six years and then I had to stop because of various problems, and look I was really sorry as hell not to play anymore. And then it always comes back to the simplicity factor. Why do you have to be cool and just talk about basketball or whatever. I like sports in general.”

-When you are on tour, what do you do?

Faith: “Well, great trips in the van, you always see the same faces, we take the opportunity to listen to the records we can't listen to at home, we compare. Then lately there were a lot of us, so the day was spent talking or sleeping. Then in the evening between sound check, dinner and the concert, you go back to the hotel and leave.”

Dafa: “I think the concert is an outlet for the things you have accumulated during the day.”

Faith: “You know, getting the tour is a fortune, especially for us who do it thanks to Sottotono and Area, you have the chance to make yourself known around, however, if you don't handle yourself well, you burst, both mentally and physically. You get little sleep and a lot of sitting, or you go from the deepest sleep to the stage with 1,000 people in front of you, so you have to be a little elastic. And it counts that we have a more marginal role, but Tormento is really to be admired. When you have to entertain and you have to have fun for work, it's hallucinating.’

-Do you still enjoy live performances?

Faith: “Yes, between studio and live we still prefer live.”

Dafa: “Then when I see the people below I think this is what I've always wanted to do, it's a feeling that makes you forget everything you've been through until then.”

-And how, on the other hand, do you see confrontation outside the Chronic Area, for example in jams?

Faith: “Comparison I've always found positive. And then at the end of the day the talk is always the same, people talk, talk, but few people put out products with projects behind them, so the challenge has to be taken to other levels. Personally, I always went to places where I would have fun. It's true that confrontation is important, however, if I have to be tense all the time, then no, if I have to go there, I just do it for work. So fun is the first stimulus, in recent years it happened to be lacking for various reasons, maybe unnecessary tension. There's no point in going to do a challenge at someone else's house knowing full well that you're falling into a trap. We have not attended many things to avoid bigger messes, and it is not a factor of cowardice, but simply not interested in physical and ignorant confrontation with others. It is true that at the end of the day, comparison with the outside world is important, and even though many people see us as a little bit outside like Lyricalz or Area Cronica, we feel that we are an integral part, we listen to all the Italian records that come out, the best ones we buy, we analyze them, and it's something that goes outside the jam as well.’

-Do you think it is a good time for Hip Hop?

Faith: “In my opinion, the situation is good if you can take advantage of it. However, it is true that not so many records are being sold, on the contrary. Now there is media interest, as opposed to a while ago when those who came out did it on their own strength, so it's up to us. Okay to lean on others, but no longer with frothing at the mouth, let's each try to show our maturity and show ourselves in a professional way to these people and tell them that we have real things anyway and that above all we have a lot of people who are interested in what we do.’

-Well, there are very few professional realities anyway.

Faith: “Yes, but in my opinion the mentality is important. Look at Sano Business, at the official level, national discography or press relations, nobody knows them. Maybe only Bassi is known, however, it's the professional mentality that matters, even in running a mixtape tour, even Double S is like that. They both have a professional approach. I don't say you have to necessarily soften up, those who are more hardcore and feel conflicted with the world okay, if that's what you want, stay there; however, do your own thing. Look I'm not talking about commercial or anything, I'm talking about even underground realities.”

Dafa: “And look, the underground level has risen a lot.”

Faith: “Yes, there are also radicals, but at a high level. You have to make your personality pay off and you have to make what you are. I never wrote a piece thinking it would sell. People may think of me as more commercial, maybe because I've had more opportunities than others, however, I smile about these things, I smile about people not being professional. Look at Bean, he made some good stuff, he made a good demo, instead of leaving with a CD that sucks, and that's the right approach.”

-Let's talk a little bit about the musical part. Your record is different from the things we are normally used to hearing in Italy.

Dafa: “I think you always have to come up with something new, above and beyond what you've already done to win back the trust of people who listen to your record.”

Faith: “This record is very innovative. We had to compare ourselves with Bosca, with Bassi, Fish... but they are people with whom you have so much feeling that you can afford to go further. I don't really like crossover stuff, however, experimentation within Hip Hop is necessary and I would be pleased if people, on first listen, were neither pleasantly impressed nor disappointed. I would prefer that it be talked about and  it was first and foremost recognized that we were good and that we approached the producers in the right way. We tried to do work that went beyond the moment. And then now there are a lot more people who appreciate our stuff than before.”

-What about these very ‘electronic’ sounds?

Dafa: “Fish experimented with new things, new attempts...”

Faith: “It's an experimentation that's different from what Fish had done with Sottotono anyway, it's not true that Fish's basics are ’electronic‘ and that's it, analyzing the album in that sense is a bit hasty. The album is new, but it is Hip Hop at 100%. There are no musicians coming from other genres, there is no trip hop, there is no drum'n'bass, there are no breakbeats and none of these genres, which, by the way, even people who consider themselves purists really like. We stay on a Hip Hop discourse, but experimental and also with some risk. It's all about loving the things you do and making them grow, as we have grown and this is the strength of good records and lately a lot of good things are coming out, from Sottotono to Left Side, ’Nineteen Fifty’ is a good record, but also things that may meet less my taste like Shit & Slime which is innovative though, Colle are innovative... all records of a certain depth, because inside there is the growth of these artists.’

-You are the First Dynasty of the Chronic Area, how are you seeing and experiencing this?

Faith: “As First Dynasty we mean a little bit of what we were at the beginning, the group of friends, and we talk about it right in the piece ’AC “96‘ in which we take stock of what was and is. There is the satisfaction of having seen a project born and grow, even though some of the contacts between us a little bit were lost for some time. We are still a little far from the detached mentality we should have, but for example to people like Fish and Tormento no one says anything anymore because the money they had they invested in Hip Hop and a lot of people know Hip Hop through Chronic Area. People may not agree with what we do, however, no one can deny that it is the only label that works the way labels should work i.e. it has a distributor, it has those who are in charge of promotion, production, it has people who are in the office from morning to night... So look at these pieces, these things against Area Cronica make me laugh, it's like when you work and others play, so that ”AC ’96’ is a tribute to those who were there in the beginning and it's also a vent against all the envy talk.’

Dafa: “It's kind of our shit, no malice.’

Faith: “And then the thing that bothers me the most is the ‘hearsay.’ That is, we get attacked by people who have heard that the Lyricalz are commercial and then when they come up to sing they say this thing, and I'm not talking about anyone in particular, or established artists, but those who come in the wake of this thing. These people then are not going anywhere. We resent all those people who, hearing about our personal things, talked and mounted on nonexistent things.”

Dafa: “Then we've never even seen a ranking, so what does that mean, for example, the COLs that are in the rankings are commercial?”

Faith: “But excuse me, we have never sold more than 5,000 copies, we signed a contract with our friends, with a label that does promotion with Fish and Tormento's money and not with a major; I have always worked for very little, even just for expenses. I've done so many of those interventions in mixtapes that only I know and people tell me I'm commercial? Then maybe a band comes out that by philosophy is more hardcore than us, but they sign with the majors and people don't say anything, then you see that it's just an image and fronting factor and this talk doesn't make sense anymore.”

-What is your method of venting this anger that nonetheless, I think, wears you down, as it does for many people?

Faith: “Mah you know, it's an approach with life. If you suffer a lot of things and yet you can't express them, it's a problem. We vent through music, live shows, writing and trying to channel negative energy into something positive.”

Lyricalz precisely, ‘simple’ people.

Unfortunately, the Lyricalz discography is not published on streaming platforms.