Everyone loves Guè
Finding it like this, on the cover above The Friday of the Republic for the release of the new album Tropic of Capricorninterviewed by Paolo Sorrentino (who in an extremely beautiful article spends words of love for him: “He doesn’t care about political correctness, in his songs and in life. He is free and says whatever he wants”), is strange. Like seeing him in a few weeks in Sanremo without that itchy feeling that accompanies every rapper at the Ariston, Tony Effe included. Does he say dirty things? Peace. There are those who would play the umbrella term “aura”, to liquidate. The truth is that Guè, formerly Guè Pequeno, member of Club Dogo and public enemy number one, symbol of the “zanza” of Milan, he who enjoys the good life and in his songs mostly celebrates himself with a style, yes, unique, but he never fails to seem at least arrogant, well, he has become everyone’s. Never a promising young man, always posing as the usual asshole, here he is in the end (43 years old, okay) venerated master. What happened? The frame has moved. What’s more: it was moved by Guè, who in the meantime hasn’t changed a bit and has never even tried to take a real “professor” approach.
A saint-rap
AND Tropic of Capricorn – his ninth solo studio album, just released – certifies this status. Sorrentino adds that “many love him, many hate him”, due to the atavistic antipathy that binds the general public to hip hop (culture? Way of posing?) and partly due to the fateful question, again, of “political correctness ”. I don’t know: seen from here, considering that for years he was a carbonaro cult artist, half punk in style, of outcasts when rap, at the beginning of the 2000s, was stuff for the few and without prospects, it seems today that he is loved and Enough. If he says something, let’s say, over the top, we move on: it’s Guè, he’s part of a character that he himself has nurtured and that the country has digested, he even has a good dose of self-irony (at the same time Tropic of Capricorn there is, of course), so amen. On the track, however, he is unassailable: each of his albums is a lesson in how hip hop should be done, not necessarily in terms of content – as for example established by Marracash, his great friend and companion on the road traveled – but in that of style, in saying he’s the coolest with rhymes, metrics and references right.
And so, after a majestic record like Mother of pearl (2023) and the flash reunion with Club Dogo (2024) ten years after the last time, the process is complete: now Guè reaps what was sown in lean periods, he is recognized as a master of the genre and above all a forerunner, someone who continues to do it out of a sort of sacred fire, who masters it, but who at the same time has never even been afraid to open up to the more pop and urban side – precisely with Club Dogo, at the time in the general hatred, he was among the first to not have problems with being “commercial” by experimenting with urban and Latin sounds, as well as exalting an extra-luxury lifestyle, imported from America, when hip hop was still more popular here. moderate. By dint of insistence, also and above all thanks to people like him, rap has become truly pop, and now everything returns with this sort of widespread affection. The frame has moved, and he is still in the center: we recognize his constancy, vision, simply touch.
He does what he wants
The result then is a record in which he simply does what he wants, from duetting with the big names of the scene who practically queue up to be one of his (Geolier, Ghali, Tony Effe) to updating himself, as usual, with the new leve (an excellent Ele A, perhaps their most successful collaboration), playing with the lights and shadows of his imagery as a romantic and melancholic gangster, as a dissatisfied and perpetually bored star. The work is enormous, especially on the productions, signed ChefP, Sixpm and Bassi Maestro, in a tasty collection of beats and references that draw from reggae as well as from the Italian music of the eighties – Wonderfulamong others, is a great sample Soap and water of the Stadium. At times, perhaps, the work on the melodic lines is too brazen and in general, while maintaining a certain coherence, Guè gives the impression of looking for a somewhat easy hit, of wanting to conquer as many people as possible with pop. Which, of course, he has always succeeded in, but he would not be the venerated master he is if he had always and only done it to this extent. However, this does not – and will not – make much noise: a status of this kind also corresponds, as we know, to a positive prejudice.