“Codacons formally warns Rai and Carlo Conti to introduce a sort of banishment at Sanremo 2025 for artists who have distinguished themselves with violent or sexist lyrics, and invites female singers not to participate in the Festival if rappers or trappers who have written offensive songs towards the female world”, this is the statement published a few weeks ago by the association that fights for consumer rights.

Sanremo as a system of values

At first glance it might seem like an extreme and bigoted position, yet if you analyze the issue in depth it is undeniable that it makes sense. In recent years, the Sanremo Festival has in fact increasingly tried to sell itself not only as a musical competition, but also as a tool for promoting values ​​and society. Burden or honor that necessarily also passes through the choice of competing singers. Nobody here wants to censor rap, let’s be clear. In fact, we are talking about a very respectable musical genre, and even one with great educational potential, if enjoyed with the right socio-cultural framework. Yet there is context and context, and Sanremo is not the context of rappers, never has been and probably never will be, despite the forced attempts of recent years, with even some sporadic public success (see Geolier and Lazza).

Economic interests

The great thing is that even the rappers themselves know this perfectly, as they have always “disgusted” the world of TV and in particular the Italian Music Festival. “If you have talent and a market, don’t go to Sanremo”, sang Salmo in one of his famous pieces. And in fact the first rappers who had the courage to “get off the street” to adapt to Ariston’s “family friendly” lyrics were soon isolated from the rest of the rap scene (think, for example, of Moreno or Rocco Hunt). It’s easy to understand why: rap was born as anti-system music, which by definition must be uncomfortable, politically incorrect, crude and destabilizing: everything that Sanremo “does not” represent. Indeed, Sanremo represents precisely what rappers are fighting against, namely the rich and composed society. Lately however, also thanks to the modernization given by Amadeus, the most popular rappers with the most “credibility” have begun to understand that the Festival could represent a great springboard for them in economic terms.

The deal

So they tried to clean up their image, censoring their lyrics and showing up on the Ariston stage in good clothes. This created the paradox whereby the trapper, who had become popular thanks to his macho and sexist songs, performed immediately after the monologue against violence against women. Or the rapper, who in his videos insults the “guards” (policemen) and talks about drug dealing, who witnesses behind the scenes the public’s standing ovation towards the State Police and the drug-sniffing dogs. A hypocrisy that is truly difficult to justify, even for rap enthusiasts, but which the organizers of the festival, and the rappers themselves, pretend not to see, aiming for everything to go unnoticed and no one to raise the issue. Even the Italian singers, who Codacons would like to boycott Sanremo, not only will not do so, but will also continue to collaborate with these rappers, professing themselves to be feminists and progressives at the same time. A shabby little theatre, useful only for the wallet.