Revolutions are almost never kind or, in any case, they are cyclically followed by a sort of ebb, by those who don’t accept them or really don’t understand them. Let’s talk about those murmurs and stomach aches that, for example, have accompanied the rise of Geolier for two years: and yes, because that of the 25-year-old Neapolitan rapper is in all respects a revolution, as the new album says Everything is possiblefourth for him but second – counting the two “acts” of the previous one as one God knows – ever since, due to Sanremo and talent, he stopped being the golden boy of rap in our country – a dragon in streaming, but mostly known by very young people and fans of the genre – to become one of the absolute points of reference for Italian music, without labels.

Judging by the championship numbers collected from 2024 onwards, it is a safe bet that this record, for which he avoided making an encore at the Ariston by playing early, will also be a constant for at least the next twelve months, everywhere.

A rightful place among the giants

But beyond the numbers – which happens to be Sleepwalkeramong the key pieces of the new work, he compares to “a noose”, telling how “Emanuele”, his real name, “died” some time ago, crushed by Geolier, the public image – it is precisely the essence of what he does that makes Geolier’s music a revolution for Italy.

If Marracash, on the one hand, brought a certain songwriting to rap, making it take a step forward and at the same time to the side, however decisive, on the other Geolier remained in rap, but despite this and despite being a new generation artist he has reached everyone, without age distinctions, a goal not reached even by giants like Guè (who even now, in interviews, has complained about this sort of perceptive limit towards him) and Sfera Ebbasta.

Furthermore, Geolier did it with the Neapolitan dialect, to quote it again by shedding blood on rhymes that “half of Italy doesn’t even understand” – but which, we add, loves in any case, as the live numbers demonstrate. Certain, the bond with his city is well known and represents a lotbut in any case we are talking about a national phenomenon, which will be in stadiums next summer. It is an exception and at the time a phenomenon never seen before, a true point of no return for the hip hop of our country to come. Exactly, a revolution.

The comparison – here too, beyond eras, genres and objective depth of the artistic proposal – is the most clear one with Pino Daniele, the last Neapolitan artist (and we are forty years ago) capable of speaking to the whole of Italy and not only by using dialect and inventing, in fact, a genre that here had little in common with the traditional music of our country. The same goes for Geolier’s rap, very little Italian or trap, very American and with inserts of neomelodic music here and there.

This is demonstrated first and foremost by the “posthumous” collaboration in this album with Daniele himself – his voice is used in the track that gives the title to everything, well beyond the logic of simple genre sampling, with the singer-songwriter’s heirs who certainly do not seek fame and reflected light, if anything they carry on a legacy – and the one with a giant of American rap like 50 Cent, much more than a pin to pin on the chest, a real duet (Phantom) with what Geolier himself has always defined as his myth.

A record to listen to without prejudice

Of course, there are still flaws in form and substance, while other duets are sometimes a bit gratuitous with the Italian scene – better Anna di Sfera Ebbasta, both in the single 2 days in a rowa bit of an obligatory tax – to the very subdued one with the superstar of Puerto Rico, symbol of Latin trap, Anuel AA, which suggests a possible launch on the international market which would make it even more of an exception, but for which it is evidently not ready. Yet, beneath these defects, there is an album of depth, for technique and flow but above all for the story it tells.

Of course, after the latest successes he could have proceeded on autopilot, or continued with the love songs (here in a clear minority) as in God knowscurrently a bit of a transition album. Because yes, Geolier’s life has changed radically, now he is an idol and the strength of Everything is possibledespite the title, is not so much the realization of the dream, but rather the price it has, the difficulty of being a model and a reference (P’Forzon depersonalization and the relationship with the public), up to open-hearted confessions about one’s past and the relationship with one’s roots (It doesn’t rain in Naples), other ritual contradictions (the same Everything is possible) and money as condemnation and privilege, told clearly and without rhetoric by those who come from the periphery (A rich man and a poor man). Let’s not stop at prejudices or language.

If a singer-songwriter had written a record like this, we would be crying out for a miracle – and it’s not certain that today’s singer-songwriters know how to do it equally well.