Interview with Lazza, the efforts and dreams of rapper of the year

In our interview with Lazza, the protagonist of the cover of the new September/October issue dedicated to new classics and rapper of the year, the rapper tells us that his roots lie in classical music, but in which the sonic reality is its aesthetics and sound. horizon Contemporary. This is a special number for us. We meet him one September morning on neutral ground, like his press headquarters, so he can breathe without being attacked by fans. He wears wraparound sunglasses and often runs his hand through the curls of his bangs, which have been blonde for some time. He was noticeably tired: the day before he had been at the Venice Film Festival, and in the evening he went clubbing in Milan. He has not yet performed at the Hippodrome (the epic concert we told you about).

Lazza features rapper of the year on the cover

In an interview with Lazza, he says: “I needed to see everything with my own eyes again. I no longer remembered what my city was like,” and thus he justifies himself in a short time. He travels around Italy OVER-TOUR Summer lasts several months, with the exception of a short break of a few days of relaxation in Ibiza. But he will never, not for a second, complain of fatigue. “For me it’s like a vacation: when I go on stage, I feel good. The only thing that bothers me is the journey and that very moment when the concert is about to start and everyone is talking to each other to figure everything out. At this point I just want to get started.”

Lazza numbers

Why is Lazza the rapper of the year? Here’s the answer: 70 platinum albums, 37 gold albums, 21 weeks (non-consecutive) at number one best-selling album with Sirius, his third album released in 2022. That’s why he also wanted to apologize to Vasco Rossi for breaking his record for being at the top of the charts (set in 2011). Tour of Italian gyms. The LAZZA OUVER-TOUR sold out between April and May, followed by the LAZZA OUVERTOUR SUMMER, which visited the main summer festivals (Italian and others) from June, with a total of 21 concerts. Not to mention a very unlikely second place at the Sanremo festival.

Interview with Lazza

From our interview with Lazza: In the September-October issue dedicated to new classics, some may find it strange to see a rapper on the cover. But you started by studying the piano, you always said that you loved classical music, you published Sirio Concerts

(album in acoustic version, only piano, voice and strings). Then seeing you in a tank top in front of the piano can always make someone’s nose turn up.
I did this on purpose. Come on, I couldn’t wear a shirt. This would be a little obvious. Anyway, I was going crazy deciding what to wear and finally I said to myself: but you know what? I’m wearing a T-shirt! So I’m really comfortable and at home.

Why did you decide to learn piano as a child?
I couldn’t explain it, I was fascinated by the idea that I could become virtuous. You know? I was thrilled at the thought of everyone looking at me for a little healthy exhibitionism.

Didn’t your parents force you to learn the piano?
No, that was me when I was 9/10 years old. I wanted to stand out. I didn’t want to end up playing football like everyone else.

How much did this help you?
Classical training always helps me. First of all, I developed an incredible memory. When I had to take exams at the conservatory, if I left the scores for the commission, I was seen with an advantage. That’s why I wanted to do it.

Do you remember everything and everyone?
What interests me is obvious. If I’m not careful, then no. Then classical music really helped me a lot in the sense that it can change my mood. If I listen to Mozart, I calm my anxiety.

Did you leave the conservatory with a little disagreement?
A little’. But I kept in touch with many people. The guy who plays percussion at the racetrack was my classmate! I also invited another amazing violinist, who, however, now plays in an orchestra in Marseille and was not able to come there. Then my teacher, Alex, will come, of course. Instead, my teacher was at the Forum! She hasn’t changed at all: small, but with beautiful, heavy hands! Then it was a compliment to me, but: well done! And he went for it, patting him on the back. She told me that if she had to be blindfolded and there were 1000 pianists in front of her, she would recognize me immediately! He really loves me!

Who do you like now?
Stefano Bollani. From what I’ve seen, he’s a genius.

Example: Debussy helps you too?
For me, this is too far ahead as a historical period. I like it, but it’s not my cup of tea, or at least not everyone’s. After romance it becomes even more difficult for me. However, I like everything Chopin.

Speaking of Chopin (of whom you have a beautiful tattoo on your calf), you said that you love him because he is able to describe real suffering.
I’m sure he wasn’t a sad person, but he was definitely emotional. You can hear it right away. In my opinion, it was under him that the piano as we know it today was born, before it was the harpsichord and the pianoforte. You could press the keys in different ways, but the sound was always the same. Then you feel the incredible richness of Chopin’s phrasing. And also my piano teacher Alex, who is like an uncle to me, Polish, and he was the one who made me fall in love with him.
Listen, I was at his father’s funeral and then he played Night Chopin: This gives me goosebumps, also because it was one of the pieces he made me learn the most, and it was the one that came out the best. He told me: at my funeral you will play it for me. I don’t know if I can do this, it would be too much of an emotional burden. They asked me about a man I didn’t know and I didn’t like it.

Lazza talks about his relationship with money, his feelings of suffering, his aspirations

Is it trite to say that ultimately art arises only from suffering?
Real. For the same reason, artists are not born in the Milan Cathedral. I always thought that if you were born without money, maybe money will solve your problems. But if you were born with money, what will solve your problems? It’s likely that if you’re in a bad mood, you also have a need – perhaps – to feel the approval of others, no matter what kind of art you do. I do what I do because I had a need to communicate. Dialogue would be too immediate for me. I needed to think more to be able to express this to others.

I have 4 or 5 friends in the business. In the end everyone laughed at me. But I will never stop thanking Amis Killa.

Do you still think like this: what does money solve?
You know, for me money is a means to do what I like and to bring pleasure to others. They don’t interest me in themselves. Therefore, I answer: I don’t know what problems they solved for me.

When you achieve such sensational results, do you ever think with some feeling of emptiness: what now? What else can I expect?
The results of this album scared me a little. I tend not to set expectations because if I don’t respect them, I feel bad. But after these numbers, sometimes I think with some fear: what should I do now? I had an obsession with reaching out to everyone and telling people what I thought. I was glad that others liked what I had to say. But I didn’t want to become famous.

Do you still have any obsessions right now? Because we can all say that you arrived after San Remo.
I’d like to really collaborate with artists I like overseas. By “really” I mean no involvement from the label, which pays 100 thousand euros per verse.

Can Italian rap objectively break through abroad?
There are artists who respect you, others who see you as an ATM, others who can’t stand you because they invented rap. But I happened to go to dinner with some famous rappers (sorry, I can’t say their names) and their managers, and they told me they had never heard anything like what I did. For them, a record (not a single) that would stay on the charts for 21 weeks and reach 7th platinum simply does not exist. Only Drake, Post Malone, The Weeknd, Beyonce, Rihanna achieve such results.

Is this environment really as stressful as many say? You have friends?
I certainly have 4/5 close friends in this industry, but if I have to think about it, they’ve all done it to me at least once. However, last night I was with Amis Killa who I truly consider a friend and I would like to thank him because if he had not posted Keta Music I would never make money! This album made me hungry. In Emiliano I truly saw an artist different from everyone else. When I competed in freestyle skiing, he was already a respected god. And then everyone was wearing baggy rapper pants, and he wore a pearl necklace and straight bangs and looked like the guy from P:Gold.
He then walked over and silenced them all. I also felt a little different because I was accused of having studied at a conservatory. Even today the idiot on duty comes and says: “You are not on the street because you studied at the conservatory.” But what does this have to do with it? I was just smarter. I saw this road as a child and continue to see it today.

Read the full interview with Lazza, Rapper of the Year.

The September-October issue, in addition to an interview with Lazza: rapper of the year, is dedicated to new classics.

The September/October issue of our magazine is truly a special issue of our magazine, in which we dive for the first time into the world of “new classics”, which have their roots in classical music, but which also have a reality as the aesthetic and sonic horizon of modern sound.

Lazza, rapper of the year, in this case is the true spearhead of the connection between success and the academic path. But Dardast is also another example of courage and vision, and in our episode he told us in great detail about his training and his way of connecting the past and present in an attempt to construct a hypothetical future.

In this episode we pay tribute to the great Ezio Bosso. The character is at once poetic, charismatic and approachable, capable of combining academics, entertainment, classicism and modernity.

You will read many interviews with new heroes of the new classic. Francesco Tristano, Davide Locatelli, Federico Albanese. And then Alessandro Martire, Cesare Picco, the young and promising Effe Effe, conductor Giuseppe Califano, the Stellare trio.

The story of a visit to the Ricordi Archives, an almost secret place inside the Pinacoteca of Brera, but don’t call it that, because its function is to be an always open door to understanding the history (including the entrepreneurial one) of Italian music. Retrospective of Ludovico Einaudi. And many many others.