History Music / Caparezza

** The titles "La Scelta" and "La Certa" in ''Exuvia'' were deliberately chosen for being similar. "La Scelta" being ''the choice'' the rapper has the power of making as to where take his life next, while "La Certa", ''the certain one'', is death i.e. the unchooseable. The original title for "El Sendero", "La Selva" (''the forest'', or the journey of the past until now), was supposed to make the third member in the triad of similar titles on which listeners would likely confuse one for the others, "getting lost".

** "Goodbye Malinconia" is a duet betwen Caparezza and Tony Hadley from the Music/SpandauBallet.

** The video for "La Scelta", where Caparezza experiences a time loop while wearing a yellow raincoat, likely throws a shout-out to ''{{Series/Dark}}''.

** ''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 if it was a visit in an art museum.

** The video for "La Ghigliottina" is set in a fictional museum where the painting shown relates to the current lyric, while the song is directed at Georges Jacques Danton. At one point, Caparezza tells Danton they can be like many popular duos from fiction and real life, including Music/JohnLennon and Music/YokoOno, while the {{painting|s}} shown is "Art/{{TheKiss|Hayez}}" by Francesco Hayez.

** The video for "La Ghigliottina" is set in a fictional museum where the painting shown relates to the current lyric, while the song is directed at Georges Jacques Danton. At one point, Caparezza tells Danton they can be like many popular duos from fiction and real life, including Music/JohnLennon and Music/YokoOno, while the painting shown is [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Francesco_Hayez_008.jpg "The Kiss" by Francesco Hayez]].

* ContinuityCavalcade: "Canthology" is this, with most of its lyrics calling back to many of Caparezze's previous songs.

* WholePlotReference: "Nel Paese dei balordi" ("In the Land of the boorish") is a DarkerAndEdgier take on ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfPinocchio'': Pinocchio is the son of an AbusiveDad and his mother fleed the house because of the mistreatments, [[SonOfAWhore working as a stripper]] with the name of "Blue Fairy"; Lampwick is a [[ArtisticStimulation drug-addicted artist]]; Mangiafuoco is a telemarketer and a tax evader; the Fox and the Cat are a pair of financial speculators who try to trick Pinocchio. The "marionette" represents social rejection and the PinocchioSyndrome is a metaphor for the simple desire to have a normal life.

* CamelCase: The album covers render his stage name as "[=CapaRezza=]", however this way of writing is used almost only on Wiki/ThatOtherWiki (the Italian version). Referenced in "L'Età dei Figuranti" and at the end of "Vieni a ballare in Puglia", when Caparezza gets called "Mr. Rezza Capa".

* AnthropomorphicPersonification: In "Larsen", the title character is a personification of tinnitus. In the video for the song, he is portrayed as a [[NonHumanHead human body with the head of a]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club-winged_manakin club-winged manakin]].

* MultipleReferencePun: In "''Prisoner 709''", 709 is derived from both the idea of 7 and 9 representing opposites that are explored through the album with the 0 being a representation of a music disc between said opposites (standing in for this album and Caparezza himself) which also uses the similar sounds of the English "0" and Italian "''o''" ("or") to give it a second interpretation as "seven OR nine"; AND the code 709, which identifies a type of envelope especifically for [=CDs=].

* FifteenMinutesOfFame: "L'Età dei Figuranti" ("The Age of Figurants") mocks how this concept has become pervasive in television, and how people are willing to do anything for fame and how watchers take TV drama too seriously.

* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: Ilaria in ''Le dimensioni del mio caos'', who changes from being a strong-willed, determined hippie who opposes complying with the powerful to being a conforming "simpleton" who does whatever is trendy at the moment, is shallow and has no strong convictions.

* CanisLatinicus: ''Habemus Capa'' is a pun between is name and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habemus_papam Habemus Papam]] ("We have a Pope"), that is the official announcement when a new pope is elected. To be ''very'' picky about Latin declension, it should have been "Habemus Capam"...

* HiddenTrack:
** In ''Prisoner 709'', a hidden track in the end comprised of noise can be converted into an [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS_1afRQDTwDeQs5Kh2UoQXAe_GB37JAz1tNQEgDCqqKt1NpuURPltGHiUN44IaaQCLtys&usqp=CAU image]] which reads a short text comprised of one snippet from each track in the album.
-->Translation: "Here I am on a bed. It may be due to my age, but I don't recognize myself anymore. Blanks in my memory, self-steem going down, who'd have thought? I'll write some lyrics, they'll make me feel good. No, it's not true, I already feel like puking. I dream of being able to walk away, I can't go back anymore. 709 forever."

* MeaningfulName: His stage name "Caparezza" means "curly hair" in Apulian dialect. Did we mention before he's famous for his afro?

* MundaneMadeAwesome: [[Music/SpandauBallet Tony Hadley]] driving a truck at the end of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lmVZstFqlU "Goodbye Malinconia"'s video]].
** "House Credibility" is all about minding the listener that staying at home is DEADLY through various over-the-top examples of household dangers.

* ReligionRantSong: Caparezza is critical of religion, as seen in songs such as "Non Mettere Le Mani in Tasca"[[note]]"Don't put your hands in your pockets"[[/note]] and "Il Dito Medio di Galileo"[[note]]"The middle finger of Galileo"[[/note]].

* Running Gag:

** ''Museica''[[note]]A pun on "musica" and "museo"[[/note]] (2014)

* EitherOrTitle: UpToEleven across ''Prisoner 709''. First, every song title has a subtitle in brackets. Second, every subtitle has two parts. Third, that second part is a pair of words of seven and nine letters respectively. For example, the full name of the title track is "Prisoner 709 (The Sentence - Compact or Streaming)".

** 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 Creator/WaltDisney references.

-->''During class I eat a banana that gives me 15 minutes of notoriety, [[Music/VelvetUnderground Underground, Velvet]].''

* ArcNumber: In ''Prisoner 709'', the titular 709. References to it are numerous:
** Each song has a pair of words associated with it in the form ("X or Y") which have 7 and 9 letters respectively while the "0" stands for an "''o''" ("or");
** The album contains 16 tracks (7 + 0 + 9);
** Tracks 7 and 9 in this album are thematically opposites (a message to the artist's child self and his elderly self, respectively);
** The video for the title track was uploaded on September 7, 2017 (or '''7/09'''/2017).

* AudienceParticipationSong: The chorus in "La Marchetta Di Popolino" features a line sung firstly by the men of the audience, then the women (in the studio version, it parodies typical children's music where the audience of children shouts a line). In live concerts, the audience is prompted to sing that line.

* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: Ilaria in ''Le dimensioni del mio caos'', who changes from being a strong-willed, determined hippie who opposes complying with the powerful to being a completely conforming "simpleton" who does whatever is trendy at the moment, is shallow and has no strong convictions.
** In "Canthology", this is what Caparezza's narrates happened to the characters from his past songs: Michael Jackson[[note]]"from "Tutto Ciò Che C'è"[[/note]] and Galileo[[note]]from "Il dito medio di Galileo"[[/note]] are hostile toward him, the bull who wins against the matador in "La Parte Del Toro" becomes complacent with its abuser, the friendly Ilaria[[note]]from ''Le dimensioni del mio caos''[[/note]] and Van Gogh[[note]]from "Mica Van Gogh"[[/note]] straight up want to kill him, and Filippo Argenti, instead of the violent tough guy he is portrayed as in "Argenti Vive", is very mild.
** Caparezza himself went from being Mikimix, a smooth-faced, buzzcut-wearing rapper who made safe commercial music amidst a conscious and subversive rap scene, to being the hairy Caparezza who often points out how the modern Italian rap scene is lacking in substance and meaning, while he makes it a point to be subversive.

* BiggerThanJesus: In "Il testo che avrei voluto scrivere" ("The lyrics I'd want to have written"), Caparezza briefly says he will be this...only to change it to Franchise/HelloKitty instead, predicting the backlash. The lyrics, however, still imply Hello Kitty is bigger than Jesus.
* BigOlEyebrows: Caparezza likens his eyebrows to those of Frida Kahlo in "Fai da tela".

** In the "Exuvia" video, one scene has the protagonist lying on his bed watching a digital clock right when it turns "7:09".

** "Vieni a ballare in Puglia" has an intro featuring famous easy-listening singer (and fellow Apulian) Albano Carrisi AKA Al Bano, who also appears in the video.

* ChekhovsGun: In the "Jodellavitanonhocapitouncazzo" video, one scene shows one of the guards in the mental asylum [[WipeTheFloorWithYou cleaning the floor with a mop whose brush looks like Caparezza's hairdo]]. Later, the guards find his dead body in his cell. Before it is buried, though, it's found out that the "body" is actually that mop wrapped on his clothes, which Caparezza has set up in order to escape.

* ColorContrast: [[https://t2.genius.com/unsafe/503x0/https%3A%2F%2Fimages.genius.com%2F9db962b1fc7c774a05b8e593bd595ba6.1000x1000x1.jpg The cover for ''Prisoner 709'']] is black and white, a choice made to convey the album's polar-opposite themes. The choice is also made more remarkable by the fact it comes right after [[https://t2.genius.com/unsafe/503x0/https%3A%2F%2Fimages.genius.com%2F623f9ab2707c1041cc98a16e3d640c15.1000x1000x1.jpg the most brightly colored cover art in Caparezza's discography.]]

* ConsciousHipHop: Even more in his latest albums.
* CrapsackWorld: The world (or at least Italy) after the timeline alteration in ''Le dimensioni del mio caos'', which is then under a repressive dictatorship by the Catholic Church and poorer people have no water and are riddled with all sorts of diseases while the wealthy travel to space.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: His first album, ''?!'', is for the most part very different from his following works, and does not feature many of the characteristics Caparezza came to be known for from his second album on, such as his voice and humorous lyrics, with a few exceptions.
* EarthSong: "La Fine di Gaia" ("The End of Gaia"), partially.

** The outro of the song "La marchetta di Popolino" features a skit where a [=You=]Tube comment urges other listeners to visit a website called "staperarrivarelafinedelmondo.com" ("the end of the world is about to come"), which [[https://staperarrivarelafinedelmondo.com/ actually exists]], being first set up by Caparezza's team.

* {{Fetish}}: An early version of "La Grande Opera" ("The great construction"), rather than focusing on corruption and crimes by the construction market, was an very sexual song mostly regarding the lyrical I engineer character's fetish on construction work.

* FreudianCouch: In "Forever Jung", a song about rapping being akin to psychological therapy, one line says "I take a chaise longue to the studio session".
* {{Foreshadowing}}: In ''Prisoner 709'', the eighth track is called "Ti Fa Stare Bene -- L'Ora d'Aria" ("Makes You Feel Good -- The Time Outside"). As the track is set between 7 and 9, and the "0" of "709" can be interpreted as a music disc/the album itself, it hints toward the ending of the album, more specifically track 14, "L'Infinto", where it is concluded that humanity's prison can be escaped from via the "act of pretending", i.e. creativity and art.

* GenreRoulette: Each song in a Caparezza album, albeit being rapped, tends to sound unique in comparison to the others. Each song of the first half of ''Museica'' for example, is predominantly or contains elements of: Soviet military music, Brostep-inspired rock, traditional Irish music, hard rock, ''what?'', 60's Music/TheBeatles-inspired beat, blues and ballad respectively.

** "Non siete Stato voi" in ''Il sogno eretico'' stand out for being the single solemn, completely serious track in the context of a meaningful but humorous, high-spirited album, that is then followed by the playful "La ghigliottina".

* OneWomanWail: "Fugadà" includes this, which represent the voice of nature.

* SavingTheWorldWithArt: Caparezza mocks this idea quite a few times in songs such as "Abiura di me" and "La ghigliottina", saying that, although songs of his bring light to some problems, he is an artist and can't actually fix the issues he talks about (and doesn't ''want'' to be considered someone who will). One example from "Sogno di potere":

* SdrawkcabName: The song "Azzera Pace": "è Caparezza" ("[he] is Caparezza"), when spelled backwards, reads "azzera pace" ("[he] ends peace"). Accordingly, in this song Caparezza talks about how his nonconformity and urge to do the opposite of what is usual makes it difficult for him to be at peace.
* SdrawkcabSpeech: In "Il dito medio di Galileo", a certain part of the chorus[[note]]namely, "Nessuno sarà più chiamato babbeo se lo infilerà nei pressi del perineo" ("Nobody will be called a moron anymore if you shove [Galileo's middle finger] into the proximities of the perineum")[[/note]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukVGCIdmskk when played backwards]], will sound vaguely like "How much of a slave religion makes you. I know, it is deep, but the darkness will create its light". This interpretation, despite being totally unintentional, was found and published by Caparezza himself, as he wanted to play with ''Il sogno eretico''[='=]s general blasphemous themes.

* ShamedByAMob: "Fai da Tela" pictures this, with Caparezza mentioning his head stuck to a pillory, among other things.

** The video for "La Scelta" likely throws a shout-out to ''{{Series/Dark}}'', the video showcasing a time loop featuring Caparezza in a yellow raincoat.
* SingerNameDrop: Many times, but notably in "Cose Che Non Capisco", one of the first times Caparezza mentions his real name (Michele) rather than the stage persona's.

** Due to the storytelling concept of ''Le dimensioni del mio caos'', songs in this album end with a skit guiding the storyline to the next song. Something similar happens in ''Il sogno eretico'', where almost every song is connected to the next one by means of a skit at the end of the current track.

** "Compro Horror" has an intro and outro where a man literally seeks to sell a corpse to a buyer.

** Two of the connective "skit" tracks in ''Exuvia'' ("Marco e Ludo" and "Ghost Memo") are spoken rather than sung.
** "Fugadà" begins with Caparezza reciting verses from the poem "La petite promenade du poète" by Dino Campana.

* BilingualBonus:
** "Avrai Ragione Tu (Ritratto)" has its outro: "''Caparezza, comunista, dasvidanija!''" ("до свидания ''do svidán'ja''" being Russian for "goodbye").
** The intro for "È tardi" is a speaker message mimicking those in museums, saying "Inform visitors that the museum will close in five minutes.", fittingly in both Italian and English.
** "La Matrigna" ends with a "''Vamos!''" (Spanish for "let's go").
** "Campione Dei Novanta" has a "приве́т ''privét''" (Russian for "hello") after Lenin is mentioned in the lyrics.
** A "quinquelingual" bonus, "Zeit!" features the words for "time" in Greek, English, Russian, Spanish and, of course, German.

* ChekhovsGun: In the "Jodellavitanonhocapitouncazzo" video, one scene shows one of the guards in the mental asylum [[WipeTheFloorWithYou cleaning the floor with a mop whose "head" looks like Caparezza's hairdo]]. Later, the guards find his dead body in his cell. Before it is buried, though, it's found out that the "body" is actually that mop wrapped on his clothes, which Caparezza has set up in order to escape.

** ''Il sogno eretico'' is set inside a dream where each song leads to the next via short sketches.

** "La Mia Parte Intollerante" uses punching sounds and "oof"s for percussion.

** "Teste Di Modì" briefly features a riff made from hummingbird noises.

* FatherTime: In "Zeit!", Caparezza [[CallingTheOldManOut calls out]] Chronos/Time for losing the influence he had in the past. Considering the song is actually inspired by Creator/FranzKafka's ''Letter to His Father'', this is likely a reference to this character.

** "L'Età dei Figuranti" is an attack to the concept of FifteenMinutesOfFame. People are desperate to appear, to have that small amount of fame even if they don't deserve it, even at the costs of putting themselves in embarassing situations. All while spectators are hypnothised and take too seriously tv drama.

** 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 the Trololo Guy).

* {{Sampling}}: Various examples. A notable one 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.

* ShoutOut:
** The video for "La Scelta" likely throws a shout-out to ''{{Series/Dark}}'', with the video using the idea of a time loop while Caparezza wears a yellow raincoat.

** Due to the storytelling concept of ''Le dimensioni del mio caos'', songs in this album end with a spoken scene in order to guide the storyline to the next song. Something similar happens in ''Il sogno eretico'', where almost every song is connected to the next one by means of a short scene played at the end of the current track.

* FifteenMinutesOfFame: "L'Età dei Figuranti" ("The Age of Figurants") mocks how this concept has become pervasive in nowadays television, how people are willing to do everything to obtain that small amount of celebrity and how spectators take too seriously television drama.

* AfterTheEnd: "Il Mondo Dopo Lewis Carroll" ("The world after Lewis Carroll") pictures a [[Literature/AliceInWonderland Wonderland]] that is far past its prime.

* ArcNumber: From ''Prisoner 709'', 709 represents the state of mental imprisonment the album describes. References to it are numerous: it is used in the extended titles of each song; the album contains 16 tracks (7 + 0 + 9); tracks 7 and 9 in this album are thematically opposites (Caparezza sending a message to his child self and his elderly self, respectively); and the video for the title track was uploaded on September 7, 2017 (or '''7/09'''/2017). In the video for "Exuvia", the number is once again seen, associated with the central character's own "mentally-weighed" side of life.
* ArcSymbol: In ''Exuvia'', the symbol seen on its cover, representing "a change from a previous state to a future state, passing through a set of spirals representing cycles of beginnings and ends".
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Deliberately invoked in one song. "Pimpami la storia" ("Pimp My History") is all about this, being sung by the perspective of schoolboys who only care about modes and having fun. More broadly it's about how history is being over-simplified for the masses, or even totally distorted to please ideologies. One example: they think the "Marshall Plan" was made by Music/{{Eminem}}'s grandfather...

** Interesting musical-structural example: well into "Comunque Dada", the song tricks the listener into believing it is returning to the chorus, only to go for another verse.

* BlankWhiteVoid: The setting of the "Legalize the Premier" video.

* 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 if it was a visit in an art museum. ''Prisoner 709'' is more introspective and tackles themes of identity, depression and the contrast between his stage persona and his private self.

* EverythingIsAnInstrument: In the ''Esecuzione Pubblica'' (live) version of "House Credibility", [[TrashCanBand pots and pot lids]] are used as instruments.

* {{Fetish}}: An early version of "La Grande Opera" ("The great construction"), rather than focusing on corruption and crimes by the construction market, was an extremely sexual song about the singing engineer character's fetish on construction work.
* FreudianCouch: In "Forever Jung", which talks about rapping being like psychological therapy, one line says "I take a chaise longue to the studio session".

** "Come Pripyat", once again, conveys its message through a metaphorical/fictional place, a city which stands for Caparezza's past, lively world turned unrecognizable, desolate, mutated and contaminated.

** "Non siete Stato voi" in ''Il sogno eretico'' stand out for being the single solemn, completely serious track in the context of meaningful but humorous, high-spirited albums, that is then followed by the playful "La ghigliottina".

** Various other songs have their choruses in English, also performed by a featured artist: "Cover", "Prosopagnosia", "Canthology" (whose chorus draws from The Droogs' song "Get Away").

** "El Sendero" from the same album has its chorus sung in Spanish, drawn from the song "La Selva" by Mexican artist Mishel Domenssain, featured on the track.

* MushroomSamba: Toward the end of the album ''Prisoner 709'', "Minimoog" has Caparezza being stuck to a bed in prison for procedures and being administered tranquilizers. The subsequent tracks are... curiously psychedelic and trippy — musically and lyrically — and very unlike the rest of the album.

* RetroUniverse: The "Avrai ragione tu" video appears to take place in the late 20th century.
* RevolutionariesWhoDontDoAnything: The main topic in "La ghigliottina": protesters who just do symbolic acts and rely on unmotivated leaders, and in the end nothing actually changes.

* SdrawkcabSpeech: In "Il dito medio di Galileo", a certain part of the chorus[[note]]namely, "Nessuno sarà più chiamato babbeo se lo infilerà nei pressi del perineo" ("Nobody will be called a moron anymore if you shove [Galileo's middle finger] into the proximities of the perineum")[[/note]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukVGCIdmskk when played backwards]], will sound vaguely like "How much of a slave religion makes you. I know, it is deep, but the darkness will create its light". This interpretation, despite totally unintended by Caparezza, was found by him when actively searching through the album for a "satanic backwards subliminal message" of the kind, as he wanted to play with ''Il sogno eretico''[='=]s overall blasphemous theme.

** He sometimes mocks his Mikimix persona in a few songs. Also, he says things such as he's not an artist, he comes from the gutter and so on.

* ComicsRuleEverythingAroundMe: The man gives [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] to ''everything'' from the Smurfs to Commodore 64. See Reference Overdosed below.

** "Tutti Dormano" introduces the "dream" explored in ''Il sogno eretico'' with a heavy metal section, which suddenly switches to the proper circus-like comedy backed by a piano tune, the mood that defines the first part of the album.

** "Canzone a Metà" ("Song by the Middle" but also "Half-Finished Song") lists various works left unfinished, from Dicken's Dream (the painting which is associated with this song), to Marylin Monroe's ''Something's Got to Give''.

* RhymingWithItself: Often playing with different meanings of the same term. For example:
** "La Grande Opera" rhymes "''opera''" ("construction") with "''sciopera''" ("goes on strike"), which itself contains the term "opera".
** In "Exuvia":
-->''And everything will be new, like a newborn with'' [its] ''stomach to the air'' [facing up]
-->''After my passage from the'' [mother's] ''stomach to the air'' [outside]

-->''Gimme some advice, and I'll do the opposite of it.''
-->''To cause trouble: I'll willingly do it.''
-->''They'll say [it] about me: "That guy has no peace!''
-->''"That guy does away with the advice, 'cause he does the opposite of it.''
-->''"He's an entanglement all in all, both inside and outside his skull."''
-->''They'll say [it] about me: "That guy 'ends peace'!"''

* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: "China Town" is sung with a hard "k" sound at the beginning because it's a reference to India ink, "china" (pronounced ''keena'') in Italian.