Lor they call “the Italian 50 Cent”, but if on the one hand this comparison makes him proud, on the other it intimidates him. Emanuele Palumbowhich everyone knows by the nickname of Geolierand the new king of Naples. Because no one else, like this very young artist – he is only 23 years old – has managed to rehabilitate the image of his city, Naples, with the sound of rap rhymes.
Geolier, from Naples to the Sanremo Festival
One billion streams and 42 platinum records they convinced even the most skeptical of his talent. And his beginnings – the streets of Secondigliano, where he grew up – they also made him credible to young people who, like him, are thirsty for revenge and authenticity.
In the footsteps of Clementine and of Lazzathe young rapper was admitted for the first time – after a refusal last year, where he presented himself with the song Chiagne – in the Olympus of the greats, that Sanremo Festival that he watched as a child. And where she could never even remotely dream of reaching. Instead, Amadeus he really wanted it.
A past as a worker, a future in music
Music was the goal, but without saints in heaven, a young boy from Secondigliano must arm himself with a lot of patience. So he started doing it the worker, until keeping his talent hidden proved impossible. So was his barber – who indeed had another job, but he proved he has a bit of flair – in 2018 financed his first single, P Secondiglianowhich immediately blew up YouTube: in just two months the video for the song surpassed YouTube 5 million views.
«The truth is, my purpose has always been be able to make a living from music“, has explained. «I’ve seen a lot on the street, already at the age of nine I was in charge of arranging chandeliers. Music was my bubble, the possibility of creating a future for me and for people who didn’t have one».
Geolier at the May Day concert in Piazza San Giovanni in Rome (Photo by Roberto Panucci/Corbis via Getty Images)
Geolier, first artist ever to do the hat trick at Maradona in Naples
Today, the album dominates the charts The courage of childrenreleased a year ago and certified the best-selling album of 2023with 53 platinum and 24 gold recordsAnd The courage of children – Act II. After Sanremo, however, he will perform in three concert-events at the Maradona stadiumon 21, 22 and 23 June – first artist ever to achieve this goal.
The cover of the album “The courage of children” by Geolier.
«The emotion for the stadiums is not quantifiable. Now I don’t feel any particular sensations because it’s too big, everything is too absurd. We will also do pre-party and post-party, there are three dates but it will last a month. Like after the scudetto”, she said.
On his shoulders, 50 people
Emotion yes, but if you come from the street your feet are firmly planted on the ground. Even if they crowned you”the only Neapolitan to have achieved the record of best-selling album of the year“, since the annual FIMI surveys have existed, i.e. since 1999.
“I have been lucky», he says modestly, knowing however that he has a great responsibility on his shoulders. «Behind me there are many families. When I win we all win, when I fall we all fall. If I’m doing badly, they ask themselves: how do we eat now? We are a collective of 50 people. A family. I’m on stage, but everyone else will be with me, from Luchè to Vale Lambo.”
At the “La Prima Estate” festival in 2023 at the Bussoladomani Park in Lucca. (Getty Images)
The song I’m for me, you’re for you by Geolier
All names, those mentioned, loved by the very young – and the record companies know it well: they are the most difficult category to hire – who above all appreciate Geolier authenticity: «I feel like a journalist. I tell what’s on the street». Yes, “his” Secondigliano “, made sadly famous by many news events, but which he also pays homage to with his own name, Geôlier«a French word meaning “jailer” but also indicates the inhabitants of Secondigliano. «Mafia films talk about power and money, but no one realizes that in the end it is always death or prison. So I committed to the ending, which is what counts.”
And its ending he wants to write it, he doesn’t want anyone else to snatch that pen from his hands. Meanwhile, in his hands he will soon hold the microphone on the Ariston stage with a song in Neapolitan. I’m for me, you’re for youcreated especially for the Sanremo Festival.
«When Amadeus allowed me to sing in Neapolitan I ran to the studio to work on it», he said. It’s a love piece that talks about the «respect you feel for the other even when you break up, the title means “I go my way and you go yours”. He wants to represent what you owe your partner when there is no longer love and it must not continue out of inertia, out of habit, after the separation”, he says seriously. Although for him his feelings are now not a source of melancholy thanks to the presence of his girlfriend Valeriaa very young influencer (below, her Instagram profile).
The duet will also be in Neapolitan
Only one verse in Italian and all in Neapolitan, I’m for me, you’re for youproduced by Michelangelo, for Geolier it is already a victorious song because «brought the Neapolitan to that stage. I want to bring Naples on that stage. I’m going with the photo of Naples in my pocket, on my heart. I have already wonI did what I wanted to do,” he explained.
On the duet evening, however, on Friday 9 February, he will perform a medley with Gigi D’Alessiothe rapper Luché and another representative of hip hop but Milanese, Gué.
At the photocall of the film “Stolen” at the Venice Film Festival, in 2023. (Getty Images)
But in addition to his Naples, Geolier will also bring rap music in general to that theater, which has not always found great consideration in Sanremo. The dream, in fact, is that others can then follow in his footsteps, perhaps «a Guè and a Marracash», even if he admits that «Lazza opened the way for me». In the meantime, however, this year he will support «Ghali and Rose Villain».
On the one hand a neomelodic tradition, on the other three names have massively influenced his artistic career: «I got the feeling from Pino Danielethe frankness from Massimo Troisi and the melody gives Gigi D’Alessio. I learned from everyone. And then there are the Co’ Sang, I also wear them on my t-shirt. They are part of the history of Neapolitan music.”
The Neapolitan rap scene
And it is precisely on this terrain that not only his story, but that of one, is grafted new Neapolitan rap scene which is forcefully making its way among the “classic” melodies neomelodic. «We are finally leaving, we are arriving. Now in Naples there is Luca, there is Lele, there is MV Killa, but we are few. At the moment in Naples we are very strongbut we are poor in extras, in newcomers», he said.
Now “our mission is to create a future for the Neapolitan scene. If Napoli had a little more spotlight, they could do very well, much better, but they could do Italy very well, because we would do better in Europe, in the United States. Our rap is very, very similar to English and French. The secret to a successful city scene is to unite, not fight».
More generally in Italy, however, «we are experiencing what happened in the USA between 2005 and 2006, the beginning of the true mainstream for rap. So, for me rapping like this is easy, because I was born in the right time. I don’t do it with a pattern, I do it because it comes naturally to me. For me Club Dogo, Co’Sang, are Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep. Now we are in the era of 50 Cent, of Kanye. In ten years we too will have our Travis.”
At the Capannelle Hippodrome in June 2023 in Rome. (Getty Images)
Geolier and the admiration for Sfera
He, however, feels he must thank above all those who changed the game in Italy, that is «Ball, which shone the brightest. What Sfera did in Italy is a bit like what Nicola (Sicilian, ed) and I with P Secondigliano. I’m one of the few who tells you he’d be happy for him if he did a feature with Drake, I wouldn’t cherish it for a second, because it would help everyone. It would act as a bridge. As happened with M’Manc, which opened up the public even more for this city. There are bridges, which connect youfrom after M’Manc it’s almost obvious to see a Neapolitan rapper in mainstream rap records».
Below, Sfera Ebbasta’s Instagram profile
But doesn’t he dream of being number 1 himself? It doesn’t seem like he is: «I really don’t give a damn about being one. I wish there were ten number ones in Naples, that would rock. I want Neapolitan rap to tell the story of Naples. I can’t do this alone.”
«We are finally reaping the fruits»
His city «has always sown, now we are reaping the benefits. Even before she was full of art but it seems that someone never noticed. The series contributed, I love it Gomorrah And Sea Outsidebut if Naples is beautiful, for those who don’t know it it seems that reality is only what is seen in the series. We also have more beautiful things to tell,” explained Geolier. With some critical issues, because here «the drive is missing. In Milan there are rappers, there are producers, there are graphic designers, there are video makers.”
Here in Naples «we have to create everything. In Milan there are pioneers. There will be thirty or forty big, giant rappers, rappers who do the numbers. It’s like this in Rome too. In Naples there are those who make up the numbers, but then they are alone. Whoever makes the numbers in Naples would like three or four more like him, because What the fuck do you care about numbers if you’re alone?”.
And given that his city continually appears in his words, one cannot say Naples without saying “scudetto“: in that moment “we have achieved the happiness of the people. He did good for everyone, even the delicatessen, the factory, the singer. And in my opinion this thing here can also be seen in general outside.”
A Ferrari? It can wait
Best-selling album of 2023, the Sanremo stage, a summer tour with three concerts in a row at the Maradona stadium in Naples, and all this at just 23 years old: catapulted into the world of “experienced” artists, Geolier could now also afford to indulge in some fun. «Why don’t I buy a Ferrari? Why I’m not like that, I’m always one of the neighborhood. In the videos of the songs it fits, we rent it and give it back, but in life I want the kids to think that if I made it I did it they can do it too. I want them to see me as an example.”
Those kids for whom he is building a football field in Secondigliano, to take them off the streets and, perhaps, give them a different future. Just like music did to him.
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