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Transcultural flows and marginality: reggae and hip hop in Sardinia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2020

Susanna Scarparo Open the ORCID record for Susanna Scarparo [Opens in a new window]  and
Mathias Sutherland Stevenson
Susanna Scarparo*
Affiliation:
University of Sydney, Australia
Mathias Sutherland Stevenson
Affiliation:
Arts Faculty, Monash University, Australia
*
*Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Hip hop, reggae/raggamuffin, and fusions between these genres, emerged in the Italian island of Sardinia in the 1980s and 1990s. In this article, we examine the ways in which these transnational music forms have found fertile terrain in post-colonial Sardinia across generations and cultures through the music of the historic hip hop crew, Sa Razza, the next generation ‘rappamuffin’ artist, Randagiu Sardu, and the Senegalese-Sardinian Afro-reggae musician, Momar Gaye. Through the analysis of selected tracks and video clips we explore how overlapping cultural, social, and political discourses of decolonisation are framed and narrated through language, music, and images as a means of expressing cultural and political agency, critiquing the impacts of exploitation and colonisation, and consciously and self-reflexively reinterpreting and celebrating marginality.

L'intersezione tra i generi musicali hip hop e reggae/ragamuffin nasce in Sardegna tra la fine degli anni e l'inizio dei novanta. In questo articolo si esamina il modo in cui questo genere di musica segue modalità transnazionali e si sviluppa in contesto sardo post-coloniale a cavallo fra generazioni e culture mediante la produzione musicale del gruppo storico Sa Razza, che influenza la produzione di genere a sui generis del musicista Randagiu Sardu che ri-inventa hip hop e reggae tramite il suo ‘rappamuffin’ per finire con la produzione afro-reggae di Momar Gaye, musicista sardo di origine senegalese. L'analisi si conduce mediante lo studio di video-clips che accompagnano i testi musicali facendo particolare riferimento a contesti culturali, sociali e politici che mettono in evidenza i danni e le conseguenze della continua strumentalizzazine della sardegna da parte di interessi nazionali e internazionali.

Keywords

hip hoprapreggaeragamuffinSardiniaSenegallanguagemarginalitytransculturationcolonisationdecolonisation
Type
Special Issue
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 25 , Special Issue 2: Transcultural Exchanges and Encounters in Italy , May 2020 , pp. 199 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Association for the Study of Modern Italy

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References

References

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Randagiu Sardu. 2010. ‘Danza Noa’. Nootempo. MP3.Google Scholar
Randagiu Sardu. 2011. Rappamuffin de Sardigna. Nootempo. CD.Google Scholar
Randagiu Sardu. 2011. ‘Fibai e Tessi’. Rappamuffin de Sardigna. Nootempo. CD.Google Scholar
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Randagiu Sardu. 2015. ‘Country Man’. Nootempo. MP3.Google Scholar
Randagiu Sardu. 2016. ‘Xelu’. Nootempo. MP3.Google Scholar
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Sa Razza. 1992. ‘In Sa Ia/Castia In Fundu’. Century Vox Records. 12in.Google Scholar
Sa Razza. 1996. Wessisla. Undafunk Torino. CD.Google Scholar
Sa Razza. 2002. E.Y.A.A. Cinevox/Cinenova. CD.Google Scholar
Sa Razza. 2003. Grandu Festa. Nootempo Records. EP.Google Scholar
Sa Razza. 2011. Grandu Festa. Web Release YouTube, March 29. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXoYguYqUGk. Accessed 27 November 2018.Google Scholar
Camillo, L. 2018. Balentes. Balentes.Google Scholar
De Seta, V. 1961. Banditi a Orgosolo. Titanus.Google Scholar
Pili, R. n.d. Ca4Arts. La storia della cultura hip hop di Cagliari e Provincia. Nootempo and Fisheye Sardinia Media.Google Scholar
Appadurai, A. 1990. ‘Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy’. Public Culture 2 (2): 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beeley, V. 2016. ‘NATO's Military Enslavement and Toxic Invasion of Sardinia’. https://thewallwillfall.org/2016/07/14/natos-military-enslavement-and-toxic-invasion-of-sardinia/. Accessed 27 August 2017.Google Scholar
Bennett, A. 2000. Popular Music and Youth Culture: Music, Identity and Place. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Bomboi, A. 2014. L'indipendentismo sardo: le ragioni, la storia, i protagonisti. Cagliari: Condaghes.Google Scholar
Broughton, S., Ellingham, M. and Trillo, R., eds. 1999. World Music: The Rough Guide: Volume 1. London: Rough Guides.Google Scholar
Chang, K.O.B. and Chen, W.. 1998. Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Dyson, S. L. and Rowland, R.J. Jr. 2007. Archaeology and History in Sardinia from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages: Shepherds, Sailors, and Conquerors. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Gramsci, A. 1997. Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci, edited and translated by Hoare, Q. and Nowell Smith, G.. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Helbig, A. N. 2014. Hip Hop Ukraine: Music, Race, and African Migration. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Lutzu, M. 2012. ‘Su RAAP: Sardinian Hip Hop Between Mass Culture and Local Specificities’. Journal of Mediterranean Studies 91 (2): 349–366.Google Scholar
Malone, C. and Martinez, G., eds. 2015. The Organic Organizer: Hip Hop, Political Development, and Movement Culture. New York and London: Bloomsbury.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, W. and Radano, R.. 2013. ‘Musical Antinomies of Race and Empire’. In The Cambridge History of World Music, edited by Bohlman, P. V., 726–743. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, T. 2001. ‘Introduction: Another Root-Hip-Hop Outside the USA’. In Global Noise: Rap and Hip Hop Outside the USA, edited by Mitchell, T., 1–38. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
Ortiz, F. 1995. Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar, translated by De Onis, H.. Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Pennycook, Al. 2006. ‘Language, Localization, and the Real: Hip-Hop and the Global Spread of Authenticity’. Journal of Language, Identity and Education 6 (2): 101–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pugliese, J. 2008. ‘Whiteness and the Blackening of Italy: La Guerra Cafona, Extracommunitari and Provisional Street Justice’. Portal: Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies 5 (2): 1–35. http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/portal/article/view/702. Accessed 20 January 2017.Google Scholar
Quilo 2016. Personal interview 6 December.Google Scholar
Randagiu Sardu 2016. Personal interview 14 December.Google Scholar
Ruzza, C. 2000. ‘Language and Nationalism in Italy: Language as a Weak Marker of Identity’. In Language and Nationalism in Europe, edited by Barbour, S. and Carmichael, C., 168–182. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sardegna Uno. 2017. MIGRAZIONI, 21 March. https://youtu.be/v24iFcEJsnE Accessed 1 August 2018.Google Scholar
Scarparo, S. and Stevenson, M. S.. 2018. Reggae and Hip Hop in Southern Italy: Politics, Languages, and Multiple Marginalities. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scarpino, S. 2005. La guerra ‘cafona’. Milan: Boroli Editore.Google Scholar
Schneider, J. 1998. ‘Introduction: The Dynamics of Neo-Orientalism in Italy (1848–1995)’. In Italy's Southern Question: Orientalism in One Country, edited by Schneider, J., 1–23. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Stevenson, M. 2018. ‘Afro-Reggae Soundscapes: The Communicative Power of Music’. Global Studies & Cultural Literacy 11 (43), 21 August: https://www.21global.ucsb.edu/global-e/august-2018/afro-reggae-soundscapes-communicative-power-music. Accessed 6 June 2019.Google Scholar
Urban, M. B. 2013. Sardinia on Screen: The Construction of the Sardinian Character in Italian Cinema. Amsterdam: Rodopi. www.momargayemusic.com, Zaman Band. http://www.momargayemusic.com/zaman-band/ Accessed 1 August 2018. www.nootempo.net, Nootempo Mission. http://www.nootempo.net/mission/ Accessed 10 June 2019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zucchetti, M. 2006. ‘Environmental Pollution and Health Effects in the Quirra Area, Sardinia Island (Italy) and the Depleted Uranium Case’. Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 7 (1): 82–92.Google Scholar
Gaye, M. 2010. Santati. S'ard music. CD.Google Scholar
Gaye, M. 2010. Santati: Official Video (HD). Web Release YouTube, 26 October. https://youtu.be/w4179FpbcZw. Accessed 1 August, 2018.Google Scholar
Gaye, M. 2013. Exodus. One Drop Record. MP3.Google Scholar
Randagiu Sardu. 2008. Io Randagiu Sardu. Nootempo. CD.Google Scholar
Randagiu Sardu. 2008. ‘Polvere Rossa’. Io Randagiu Sardu. Nootempo. CD.Google Scholar
Randagiu Sardu. 2009. Sighimì. Nootempo. CD.Google Scholar
Randagiu Sardu. 2009. ‘Sa Battalla’. Sighimi. Nootempo. CD.Google Scholar
Randagiu Sardu. 2009. ‘S'arrespiru’. Sighimi. Nootempo. CD.Google Scholar
Randagiu Sardu. 2010. ‘Danza Noa’. Nootempo. MP3.Google Scholar
Randagiu Sardu. 2011. Rappamuffin de Sardigna. Nootempo. CD.Google Scholar
Randagiu Sardu. 2011. ‘Fibai e Tessi’. Rappamuffin de Sardigna. Nootempo. CD.Google Scholar
Randagiu Sardu. 2011. ‘Fibai e Tessi’. Nootempo NOOT006: Official Single Sardegna. Web Release YouTube, July 13. https://youtu.be/5I7dsumikt0. Accessed 10 March 2018.Google Scholar
Randagiu Sardu. 2015. ‘Country Man’. Nootempo. MP3.Google Scholar
Randagiu Sardu. 2016. ‘Xelu’. Nootempo. MP3.Google Scholar
Randagiu Sardu. 2016. Randagiu Sardu: 12 Original Hitz. Nootempo. CD.Google Scholar
Sa Razza. 1992. ‘In Sa Ia/Castia In Fundu’. Century Vox Records. 12in.Google Scholar
Sa Razza. 1996. Wessisla. Undafunk Torino. CD.Google Scholar
Sa Razza. 2002. E.Y.A.A. Cinevox/Cinenova. CD.Google Scholar
Sa Razza. 2003. Grandu Festa. Nootempo Records. EP.Google Scholar
Sa Razza. 2011. Grandu Festa. Web Release YouTube, March 29. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXoYguYqUGk. Accessed 27 November 2018.Google Scholar
Camillo, L. 2018. Balentes. Balentes.Google Scholar
De Seta, V. 1961. Banditi a Orgosolo. Titanus.Google Scholar
Pili, R. n.d. Ca4Arts. La storia della cultura hip hop di Cagliari e Provincia. Nootempo and Fisheye Sardinia Media.Google Scholar