History Music / Caparezza

** Since "otto" means "eight" in Italian, the song ''Giotto Beat'' may be another great example: as a reference to Giotto the artist (the lyrics talk about "perspective"), as a play on words to "8-bit", and a reference to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G8_%28forum%29 G8 summit]] ('''G-otto'''), especially the one that took place in Italy in 2001 where several protesters were brutally '''beat''' by police officers.

** And again for his song "Legalize the Premier". Despite ''explicitly'' stating in the lyrics that it's not advocating the legalization of marijuana (the song is about politicians making stuff legal for themselves thanks to their position), several listeners assume that, since he has a left-wing point of view, he ''must'' refer to free weed for everyone.

** The video for "Avrai ragione tu" contains several references to Russian and Communist-style iconography. The funniest one is a segment that replicates exactly the famous video of Eduard Khil (AKA [[MemeticMutation Trololo Guy]]).

He began his musical career in 1997 under the name '''Mikimix''', writing melodic rap/hip hop songs with little success; since 2000 he underwent a total change of appearance and style, rejecting his past and openly mocking it.

** Once again, he did it for the first single of his upcoming 2014 album: titled "Cover", it is a long list of references to notorious album covers, which mirror his personal growth as a man and an artist.

** His song "Vieni a ballare in Puglia" ("Come dance in Apulia", the region where Capa was born) suffered the same fate. It is actually about work and work-related deaths (the metaphors at the beginning make clear that "dance" really means "die"), but many people mistook it for Caparezza professing his love to Apulia. The fact that the catchy refrain is an EarWorm doesn't help matters.

* LyricalDissonance: "Vieni a ballare in Puglia" is a cheerful, lively song...about work-related deaths, devastating fires, deathly industrial pollution and the exploitation of migrant workers, problems that plague Capa's native Apulia. As noted earlier, the ironically uplifting music made several people misunderstand the song's painful message.

* ConceptAlbum: Quite a few of his albums. For example, ''Le dimensioni del mio caos'' is a RockOpera involving time-traveling hippies, aliens, and pre-evolution Bonobos. ''Habemus Capa'' is a concept abum about the idea that [[DeadArtistsAreBetter dead artists sell better]], and ''Il sogno eretico'' has to do with the nature of dreams. His 2014 album ''Museica'' can be seen as an equivalent to Emerson, Lake & Palmer's ''Pictures At An Exhibition'': every track was inspired by a work of art (not only paintings, but graffiti and statues as well) and the album is structured as it was a visit in an art museum.

* ConceptAlbum: Quite a few of his albums. For example, ''Le dimensioni del mio caos'' is a RockOpera involving time-traveling hippies, aliens, and pre-evolution Bonobos. ''Habemus Capa'' is a concept abum about the idea that [[DeadArtistsAreBetter dead artists sell better]], and ''Il sogno eretico'' has to do with the nature of dreams. His 2014 album "Museica" can be seen as an equivalent to Emerson, Lake & Palmer's ''Pictures At An Exhibition'': every track was inspired by a work of art (not only paintings, but graffiti and statues as well) and the album is structured as it was a visit in an art museum.

* PunBasedTitle: Absolutely everywhere. Caparezza is very fond of puns and wordplay, and almost every title of his songs reflect this. Case in point: his album ''Il sogno eretico'' ("Heretic Dream"), a pun on "Erotic dream".

** One of his latest (2011) songs, which mocks catastrophism and conspiracies, has been mis-interpreted as well. If Youtube comments are an indication, many people praise Caparezza for "telling the truth", taking seriously his statements about Reptilians and chem trails.
* ConceptAlbum: Quite a few of his albums. For example, ''Le dimensioni del mio caos'' is a RockOpera involving time-traveling hippies, aliens, and pre-evolution Bonobos. ''Habemus Capa'' is a concept abum about the idea that [[DeadArtistsAreBetter dead artists sell better]], and ''Il sogno eretico'' has to do with the nature of dreams.

* DarkerAndEdgier: His latest album to date (2011), a concept album about heresy whose lyrics are more pessimistic and disilluded, and that contains a very political protest track sung in his "real" voice, to signify that he's dead serious about what's singing.

* OneOfUs: See Reference Overdosed below. Let's face it, how many rappers can reference ''Silent Hill'' and Mouseton in the same verse? He often references toys from his youth, comic books, anime, videogames and so on, and is almost always seen with a FunTShirt in videos and concerts.
** He himself sings in one track: "I'm not from the street, I'm too much of a nerd"!
* PunBasedTitle: Absolutely everywhere. Caparezza is very fond of puns and wordplay, and almost every title of his songs reflect this. Case in point: his latest album, ''Il sogno eretico'' ("Heretic Dream"), a pun on "Erotic dream".

* ViralMarketing: The spoken part at the end of one song from his latest album mentions a site, [[http://www.staperarrivarelafinedelmondo.com/ staperarrivarelafinedelmondo.com]] ("the end of the world is near.com"). It's a (fake) blog of a conspiracy theorist that talks about catastrophes, reptilians and [[SubliminalSeduction backmasked messages]] in Capa's songs... the latter one, however, really was inserted into one song!
** HarsherInHindsight: The first entry of the blog is about catastrophes such as earthquakes and eruptions that will destroy Earth one day. A couple weeks after the album was released, a massive quake hit Japan causing thousands of deaths and a nuclear meltdown.

'''Caparezza''' (born Michele Salvemini on October 9, 1973) is an Italian rapper known for his often political lyrics, serious statements expressed with unusual and ironic metaphors, nasal voice [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and his]] FunnyAfro. He says to be inspired by Music/FrankZappa.

* AlternativeHipHop / RapRock

** Once, during a concert, he tried to give a speech, but was constantly interrupted by [[ItMakesSenseInContext the doorbell]]. The video feed (in daylight - "What kind of time zone do they have?") showed him with an annoyed expression, keeping ringing.
-->'''CapaRezza''': ''[beat, then whispering] Pretend I'm not here, I know him, he never shuts up...''

** One of his latest songs, which mocks catastrophism and conspiracies, has been mis-interpreted as well. If Youtube comments are an indication, many people praise Caparezza for "telling the truth", taking seriously his statements about Reptilians and chem trails.
* ConsciousRap: Even more in his latest albums.

* {{Sampling}}: Caparezza seldom uses samples, but one notable exception is his early track "La fitta sassaiola dell'ingiuria", based on a few lyrics of a song by Italian folksinger Angelo Branduardi. Funny thing is, the sampled lyrics at one point refer to the singer's hairdo - both Capa and Branduardi have, or used to have, a ''huge'' afro.

* AnimatedMusicVideo: For the songs ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH7JyGiIwfw&feature=player_embedded Jodellavitanonhocapitouncazzo]]'' (AllCGICartoon), ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjKLIeDJBFc&feature=player_embedded The Auditels Family]]'' ([[MontyPythonsFlyingCircus Python]]-esque animated cutouts) and ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC88mrTl7lM&feature=related Cacca nello spazio]]'' (an interesting use of stop-motion).

* DarkerAndEdgier: His latest album to date (2011), a concept album about heresy whose lyrics are more pessimistic and disilluded, and that contains a very political protest track sung in his "real" voice, to signify that he's dead serious about what's singing.

* ReferenceOverdosed: He applies a metaphor to his lyrics and takes it UpToEleven, for example the songs ''Abiura di me'' (about his will to improve as an artist) and ''La marchetta di Popolino'' (about narrow-minded people) are disguised as huge amounts of videogame and WaltDisney references.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome: [[SpandauBallet Tony Hadley]] driving a truck at the end of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lmVZstFqlU ''Goodbye Malinconia'''s video]].

** Once, during a concert, he tried to give a speech, but was constantly interrupted by [[ItMakesSenseByTheContest the doorbell]]. The video feed (in daylight - "What kind of time zone do they have?") showed him with an annoyed expression, keeping ringing.

* AlternativeHipHop

'''Caparezza''' (born Michele Salvemini on October 9, 1973) is an Italian rapper known for his often political lyrics, serious statements expressed with unusual and ironic metaphors, nasal voice [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and his]] FunnyAfro. He says to be inspired by FrankZappa.

* IWantSong: His early track "Tutto ciò che c'è" is this plus a ton of name-dropping. The lyrics are about him wanting various musicians and celebrities to do absurd and out-of-character things, and contain the line "MichaelJackson dice: Capa sei un genio!" (''Michael Jackson says: Capa, you're a genius!'').

'''Caparezza''' (born Michele Salvemini on October 9, 1973) is an Italian rapper known for his often political lyrics, serious statements expressed with unusual and ironic metaphors, nasal singing voice [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and his]] FunnyAfro. He says to be inspired by FrankZappa.

* {{Homage}}: His [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od--00x73E8&feature=player_embedded music video]] for "Abiura di me" (a song apparently about videogames) is a [[IncrediblyLamePun glowing]] homage to TRON, a couple years before ''TronLegacy'' hit the theaters.

** Maybe it's too early to say it, but this seems to be the case for one of his latest songs, which mocks catastrophism and conspiracies. If Youtube comments are an indication, many people praise Caparezza for "telling the truth", taking his statements about Reptilians and chem trails to face value.