Music / Caparezza

"He was once Mikimix, insignificant singer, from whose self-disgust today's himself was born"

— Caparezza on himself

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 and his afro. Influenced by Frank Zappa, Caparezza is also known for genre blending concept albums.

He began his musical career in 1995 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.

Musicians

• Diego Perrone – second lead vocals, backing vocals
• Alfredo Ferrero – chitarra, synthesizer, backing vocals
• Giovanni Astorino – bass, cello, backing vocals
• Gaetano Camporeale – keyboard, synthesizer, backing vocals
• Rino Corrieri – drums

Discography

Studio albums:

• as Mikimix:
  • Tengo duro^note "I hold on" (1996)
  • La mia buona stella^note "My lucky star" (1997)
• as Caparezza, demos:
  • Ricomincio da Capa^note Pun between "I'll start over" and "I'll start as Capa(rezza)" (1998)
  • Zappa (1999)
• as Caparezza:
  • ?! (2000)
  • Verità Supposte^note "Presumed Truths", with a pun about "supposta" meaning "suppository" (2003)
  • Habemus Capa (2006)
  • Le dimensioni del mio caos^note "The size of my chaos" (2008)
  • Il sogno eretico^note "The heretical dream" (2011)
  • Museica^note A pun on "musica", "museo" and "sei" (being his sixth album) (2014)
  • Prisoner 709 (2017)
  • Exuvia (2021)

Live albums:

• Esecuzione pubblica^note "Public execution" (2012)
• Prisoner 709 Live (2018)

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Provides examples of:

• 15 Minutes of Fame:
  • "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.
  • In "Cover":
  During class I eat a banana that gives me 15 minutes of notoriety, Underground, Velvet.
• Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Intentional example in "Goodbye Malinconia". "Malinconia" (melancholy) should be pronounced with the accent on the last 'i' (maleenkoNEEa), but the song moves it over the 'o' (maleenKOnya) making it sound somewhat like the name of a place. This is because "Malincònia" is Italy, the land of melancholy.
• After the End: "Il Mondo Dopo Lewis Carroll" ("The world after Lewis Carroll") pictures a Wonderland after its wonders are gone.
• Album Intro Track:
  • Habemus Capa begins with "Mors Mea Tacci Tua", which is a chaotic remix of the line from "Jodellavitanonhocapitouncazzo" where he mentions how Dead Artists Are Better.
  • Il sogno eretico has a double introduction: the first part is "Nessun Dorma" ("Let no one sleep", from the opera of Turandot), but the second is "Tutti Dormano" ("Let everyone sleep").
  • Museica is introduced by "Canzone all'Entrata" ("Entrance Song"). Caparezza introduces the audience to his new album as if it was an art exhibition.
• All Just a Dream: The album Il sogno eretico is framed as such.
• Ambiguous Syntax: "Non siete Stato voi" means both "it wasn't you" and "you are not the State". Since "Stato" is written with a capital 'S' and it's an Hail to the Thief song, it's very likely that the second meaning is the intended one.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: All three members of the Russian family getting exposed to Caparezza on the TV in "Avrai ragione tu" turn into Caparezzas at the end.
• Animated Music Video: For the songs "Jodellavitanonhocapitouncazzo" (All-CGI Cartoon), "The Auditels Family" (Python-esque animated cutouts) and "Cacca nello spazio" (an interesting use of Stop Motion).
• Anthropomorphic Personification: In "Larsen", the title character is a personification of tinnitus. He is portrayed as a bird-man whose head is that of a club-winged manakin.
• Anti-Love Song: In "Ulisse (You Listen)", Caparezza talks about his newfound love Ilaria, mentioning not her charms or looks, but her attitudes toward certain societal and political situations: it is a protest song under the guise of a love song.
• Arc Number:
  • 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");
    • 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).
  • In Exuvia, the number 16 (or 7 + 9) has some significance, but its usage is more subdued than its predecessor.
• Arc Symbol:
  • The Executioner, a shirtless overweight man in dark pants wearing a red, pointy full-head mask, is a prominent symbol for Il sogno eretico.
  • 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".
• Art Initiates Life: In "Canthology", the rapper describes characters and situations described in his songs popping out of his writings.
• Artistic License – History: Deliberately invoked in one song. "Pimpami la storia" ("Pimp My History") is all about this, being sung by the perspective of students who don't give a damn about learning history. More broadly it's about how history is being over-simplified for the masses, or even totally distorted to please ideologies. For instance, one line says the Marshall Plan was made by Eminem's grandfather.
• Audience Participation Song: The chorus in "La Marchetta Di Popolino", which parodies typical preschool children's music where the audience of children sing a line. In live concerts, the audience is prompted to sing that line.
• Author Tract: For politics, society or anything else really.
• The Backwards Я: The video for "Avrai ragione tu", being in part a gentle spoof of Communist iconography, naturally features many of these. It also features V's in place of U's, which is more a Latin type of thing...
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • "Tutti Dormano" introduces the "dream" explored in Il sogno eretico with a heavy rock 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.
  • Well into "Comunque Dada", the song tricks the listener into believing it is returning to the chorus, only to go for another verse.
• Beat: In "Fugadà", after the lyric that references the hazing involving pushing military newcomers' heads into toilets.
• Became Their Own Antithesis:
  • 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.
  • In "Canthology", this is what Caparezza's narrates happened to the characters from his past songs. For example, Michael Jackson^note "from "Tutto Ciò Che C'è" and Galileo^note from "Il dito medio di Galileo" are hostile toward him, and the bull who wins against the matador in "La Parte Del Toro" becomes complacent with its abuser.
• Beware the Nice Ones: From "La Mia Parte Intollerante" ("My Intollerant Side"):
  But those who are mild like me know that, when your balls go cubic, like a kamikaze drunken on sake, I focus everything around me.
• Bigger Than Jesus: 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 Hello Kitty instead, predicting the backlash, taking after The Beatles.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Caparezza likens his eyebrows to those of Frida Kahlo in "Fai da tela".
• Black Humor:
  • In "Fuori Dal Tunnel", Caparezza says "I feel tight, like when I screw a Smurf", followed by a Smurf voice moaning "Oh, I hate Caparezza".
  • In "Confusianesmo", Caparezza says he'd like to reach Nirvana "but not their frontman".
• Blank White Void: The setting of the "Legalize the Premier" and "Ti Sorrido Mentre Affogo" music videos.
• Bookends:
  • In Le dimensioni del mio caos, the first track "La rivoluzione del sessintutto" starts with a news anchor closing a reportage on pandas and moving on to a reportage on Caparezza's concert that kicks off the story. The last song of that album, "Bonobo Power", ends with the same news anchor closing the reportage on bonobos.
  • Prisoner 709 is opened with the song "Prosopagnosia" and closed with the song "Prosopagno Sia!", which is a Triumphant Reprise of the first song, more upbeat, with larger focus on the instrumentation and with Caparezza's vocals missing, implying his escape from the prison.
• Call-Back:
  • The third album begins with a snippet of a song from the second album that says "mamma quanti dischi venderanno se mi spengo" ("Oh my, they'll sell a lot of records if I pass away"). Indeed the album satirizes, among other things, the concept of Dead Artists Are Better (see below).
  • In "Avrai Ragione Tu", Caparezza jokingly apologizes to the Lega Nord party, a throwback to "Inno Verdano"^note "Verdanian Hymn", where he parodies them, as well as club-goers and cool guys, calling back "Fuori dal tunnel" and "La mia parte intollerante".
  • In "Troppo Politico"^note "Too political", Caparezza mentions he has "collaborated with ministers of dark times". The Ministri (Ministers) are a rock band with whom Caparezza collaborated in "Ulisse (You Listen)", and "Tempi bui" (dark times) is one of their albums.
• CamelCase: The album covers render his stage name as "CapaRezza", however this way of writing is used almost only on That Other Wiki (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".
• The Cameo:
  • "Vieni a ballare in Puglia" has an intro featuring famous singer Al Bano, who also appears in the video.
  • Caparezza's only film part so far was in Checco Zalone's Che bella giornata (which incidentally was the highest-grossing Italian film of all time) where he and his band played parodies of themselves; however he really didn't care much about it and went on to his music career.
  • In the video for "Avrai ragione tu (Ritratto)", Giovanni Allevi (pianist, composer and orchestra director, with an iconic afro of his own) briefly appears when he gets name-dropped in the lyrics.
• Canis Latinicus: Habemus Capa is a pun between is name and Habemus Papam ("We have a Pope"), that is the official announcement when a new pope is elected. To be picky about Latin declension, it should have been "Habemus Capam"...
• Chekhov's Gun: In the "Jodellavitanonhocapitouncazzo" video, one scene shows one of the guards in the mental asylum 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 very mop wrapped on his clothes, which Caparezza has set up in order to escape.
• Closeup on Head: The cover of Verità Supposte, a close up on the left side of Caparezza's face.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He self-admits to being one in "Jodellavitanonhocapitouncazzo".
• Color Contrast: The cover for ''Prisoner 709''◊ is black and white, a choice made to convey the album's polar-opposite themes. It also comes right after the most brightly colored cover art in Caparezza's discography.◊
• Comically Missing the Point: In the Exuvia tour, about the song "La Scelta", Caparezza says that, between being Beethoven or Mark Hollis, he picked "Beethollis", the reason being: if he chose "Markoven", he'd be confused with Mark Owen of Take That!.
• Concept Album: Every single one of his Caparezza career since the third one.
  • Habemus Capa is themed after Caparezza dying and being reborn in various roles in society.
  • Le dimensioni del mio caos is a Rock Opera born from a story Caparezza wrote about in his book.
  • Il sogno eretico is set inside a dream where each song leads to the next via skits.
  • 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, and is set in a prison from the sentencing to his escape.
  • Exuvia takes place after evasion from the prison, in a forest where the rapper goes through a rite of passage to leave his past behind and be reborn.
• Conscious Hip Hop: Pre-Museica, themes regarding social issues were predominant.
• Continuity Cavalcade: "Canthology" is this, with most of its lyrics calling back to many of Caparezza's previous songs.
• Crapsack World: The world 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.
• Crossover:
  • While the album version of "Vieni a ballare in Puglia" is performed solely by Caparezza, the video version features the fellow Apulian singer Al Bano.
  • "Goodbye Malinconia" is a duet between Caparezza and Tony Hadley from the Spandau Ballet.
• Cross-Referenced Titles:
  • Halfway through Museica, there is the track "Canzone A Metà", meaning "half-finished song", but also "song in the middle", making a connection to "Canzone All'Entrata" and "Canzone All'Uscita" ("song on the entrance" and "song on the exit"), the intro and outro tracks.
  • 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 unchoosable. 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".
• Darker and Edgier:
  • His album "Il sogno eretico", a concept album 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.
  • Compared to Museica, which was more varied and objective in subject matter, Prisoner 709 is deeply introspective, personal and painful. Apparent in the respective cover arts.
  • A literal interpretation of "Pi Esse" (P.S.), picking up after the fallen Wonderland from the previous track "Il Mondo Dopo Lewis Carroll", describes that "that children's story has become a western movie, the Queen polishes a Winchester rifle...".
• Dead Artists Are Better: Caparezza viciously mocks this concept. He calls his third album "a posthumous album of a still living singer", and actually the first track spoofs people's typical reactions to artists dying (imagining himself as the dead artist). The album as a whole is a concept about him being dead and his spirit still living on until he "resurrects" at the end.
• Defiant Strip / Naked Nutter: In "Avrai ragione tu", Caparezza mentions dancing nude in Moscow's Red Square covering his genitals with only a colback as an example of his supposed "mad communist behavior".
• Design Student's Orgasm: The cover of Museica.
• Determinator: The titular character of "Eroe, Storia di Luigi Delle Bicocche" ("Hero, Story of Luigi Delle Bicocche"), who continues to work even though he's retired to earn a living for his family.
• Devolution Device: The guitar smashed onto the amplifier that turns humans into bonobo monkeys at the end of Le Dimensioni del Mio Caos, even though the last track would put it as an "evolution device".
• The Diss Track:
  • Caparezza is featured on the track "Morti Pythons" by Stylophonic where he responds to the rapper Jesto's allegations of plagiarism and insults against him.
  • Fictionally, "Argenti Vive" is Filippo Argenti's — an acquaintance of Dante Alighieri's — response to Dante putting him in Hell and damning him in in The Divine Comedy.
• Double Take: In the "The Auditels Family" video, Caparezza quickly glances through a door in the ghost house where he sees three family members wearing Ku Klux Klan masks before turning back to the camera. They remove their masks before he glances back.
• Easter Egg:
  • The outro of the song "La marchetta di Popolino" features a skit where a YouTube comment urges other listeners to visit a website called "staperarrivarelafinedelmondo.com" ("the end of the world is about to come"), which actually exists.
  • The bridge in "Non Me Lo Posso Permettere" begins with a Morse code message that, when decoded, reads "tradurre non serve" ("you don't need to translate this").
  • In "La Scelta"^note "The choice", a song in which the lives and opposing career choices of Ludwig van Beethoven and Talk Talk's Mark Hollis are put side by side, Beethoven's "Für Elise" can be played along with the song's verses, while Talk Talk's "Such a Shame" can be played along the chorus.
• Eccentric Artist: Especially pre-Prisoner 709, Caparezza used to have such an image.
• Either/Or Title: Exaggerated 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)".
• Enemy Within / Jekyll & Hyde / Split Personality: "Dualismi" ("Dualisms") features Caparezza portraying his timid and introvert Michele person in therapy trying to free himself from the bold Caparezza persona that takes over him. Although the latter is not "evil", Michele is shown as being scared of him and unwilling to comply with him.
• Everything Is an Instrument:
  • "La Mia Parte Intollerante" samples punching sounds and "oof"s for percussion.
  • In the Esecuzione Pubblica (live) version of "House Credibility", pots and pot lids are used as instruments.
  • "Teste Di Modì" briefly features a riff made from hummingbird noise samples.
  • "Come Pripyat" uses Geiger counter sounds.
• Face on the Cover: Every studio album apart from ?!, Museica and Exuvia. Exuvia is the first one to not even reference his hairdo, or have a picture of him on the back.
• Fantastic Racism: In "Vengo dalla Luna" ("I come from the Moon") the protagonist is an alien from the Moon who suffers from this upon arriving on Earth. The song is clearly a metaphor for actual racism against migrants in Italy.
• Father Time: In "Zeit!", Caparezza calls out Chronos/Time for losing the influence and power over humanity he had in the past. Considering the song is actually inspired by Franz Kafka's Letter to His Father, this is likely a reference to this character.
• Fetal Position Rebirth: In the end of the "Exuvia" video, the protagonist is lying nude on the ground in fetal position while the scene pans out to reveal he is lying in the center of a giant Exuvia symbol — which stands for rebirth — he built out of rocks throughout the video.
• Fetish: An early version of "La Grande Opera" ("The great construction"), rather than focusing on corruption and crimes by the construction market, was a very sexual song mostly regarding the lyrical I engineer character's fetish on construction work.
• Four More Measures: The intro of "Il Dito Medio Di Galileo".
• Freudian Couch: In "Forever Jung", the line "I take a chaise longue to the studio session", comparing rapping to psychological therapy.
• Genius Loci: Played with in the cover for ?!, which is Earth with Caparezza's hair and beard.
• Genre Mashup: Caparezza's music has elements of various genres, including Alternative Hip Hop, Progressive Rock, Heavy Metal and, in the case of "Argenti vive", Dubstep elements. Not only do his albums use live instrumentation (and not just rock instrumentation, but also horn and string sections), but he also writes sheet music for many of his songs.
• Genre Roulette: Each song of an 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 The Beatles-inspired beat, blues and ballad respectively.
• Gratuitous Latin: Numerous instances, in album titles, song titles and in lyrics.
• Grief Song: "Ilaria Condizionata".
• Hail to the Thief: "Non siete Stato voi" is a scathing attack against corrupt politicians.
• Homage: His music video for "Abiura di me" (a song apparently about videogames) is a glowing homage to TRON, a couple years before TRON: Legacy hit the theaters.
• Hidden Track: In Prisoner 709, a hidden track in the end comprised of noise can be converted into an 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."

• Homoerotic Subtext:
  • In "Vengo dalla luna":
  I'm willing to remain under only when I fuck.
  • In the video for "Avrai ragione tu" he tries to make out with a (male) scientist. This happens when the lyrics mention kissing on the lips like t.A.T.u. did.
  • 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 John Lennon and Yoko Ono, while the painting shown is "The Kiss" by Francesco Hayez.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: The entity of Time itself in "Zeit!".
• Hurricane of Puns:
  • "Troppo Politico" ("Too Political") uses a buttload of puns on political terms used to express non-political ideas.
  • A certain batch of lines in "El Sendero" subtly include the names of Greek mythological deities and creatures in a normal-sounding sentences.
  Arte, mi devi (Artemis) guidare, fa' uno (faun) sforzo (Art, you must guide me, make an effort)
  Di' a natura (Diana) di vegliare il mio percorso (Tell nature to look over my journey)
  Dalla borsa tiro (satyr) fuori un grande corno (From my bag I take out a big horn)
  Per soffiare via il mio panico (Pan) dal corpo (To blow away the panic from my body)
• Hymn to Music: often.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The subtitles of the songs in Prisoner 709: the first part is a term relating to imprisonment ("The Crime", "The Letter", "The Guard" and so on); the second is a pair of opposite words of seven and nine letters respectively, starting with the singer's two identities at war with each other: Michele (seven letters) or Caparezza (nine letters).
• I'll Kill You!:
  • Ultra-Communist!Caparezza toward Scientologists in "Avrai Ragione Tu (Ritratto)".
  • The seller toward the corpse buyer in "Compro Horror" after the latter offers only five euros for the corpse brought in by the former. He goes through with it.
• Inherently Funny Words: Verità supposte literally means "presumed truths", but "supposte" most commonly just means "suppositories" — thus making an Ass Shove-invoking pun.
• Inside a Computer System: "L'infinto" plays with this idea.
• Intra-Franchise Crossover: "Canthology", the first song in Exuvia, rounds up characters and elements from Caparezza's seven previous albums.
• "I Want" Song: 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 "Michael Jackson dice: Capa sei un genio!" (Michael Jackson says: Capa, you're a genius!).
• Last Note Nightmare: The song "Limiti" from his second album ends with a few seconds of silence... followed by Capa screaming "AIUTO!" ("Help!") in a distorted, screechy voice.
• Laugh Track: In "Tutti Dormano" and "Chi se ne frega della musica", which are framed as a stand up comedy act.
• List Song:
  • "Canzone a Metà" 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.
  • In "House Credibility", lethal things that can happen in people's homes.
  • "Eterno Paradosso" ("Eternal Paradox") is a list of paradoxical and contradictory situations in Caparezza's life.
• Location Song:
  • "Vieni a Ballare in Puglia", about Caparezza's home region, Apulia.
  • "House Credibility", which is about... inside homes.
  • "China Town", about a metaphorical "ink town", which represents the artist's fantastic world brought to life through writing.
  • "Come Pripyat", once again, conveys its message through a metaphorical/fictional place, a city which stands for Caparezza's past, lively world turned mutated and contaminating.
• Lyrical Dissonance:
  • "Vieni a ballare in Puglia" ("Come Dance in Apulia") is a cheerful, lively song...about work-related deaths, devastating fires, deadly 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.
  • "Giotto Beat" from the 2014 album as well: as the title says, it sounds like a happy beat song from The '60s, but the actual lyrics are pretty pessimistic.
  • "Come Pripyat" is closed with a triumphant-sounding trumpet section, while the song's lyrics are anything but triumphant.
• Lyric Video: For "Teste Di Modì", "Troppo Politico" and "Confusianesimo".
• Meaningful Name:
  • His stage name "Caparezza" means "curly hair" in Apulian dialect. Did we mention before he's famous for his afro?
  • Larsen, the personification of tinnitus, gets its name from the Larsen effect or audio feedback, whose sound is compared to the perceived sounds of tinnitus.
• Mistaken Identity: In "Avrai ragione tu (Ritratto)":
  I see visions when I'm at the piano
  Like you coming closer and asking "Allevi, are you playing?"
• Mood Whiplash:
  • "Non siete Stato voi" in Il sogno eretico stand out for being the single solemn, completely serious track in a very over-the-top album, that is then followed by the playful "La ghigliottina".
  • In Museica, tracks are upbeat or loud up to "Giotto Beat", which is followed by the softer and darker-sounding "Cover".
• Most Writers Are Writers: "China Town" is, as he put it, a love letter to the art of writing.
• Multilingual Song:
  • In the duet between Caparezza and Tony Hadley in "Goodbye Malinconia", the latter sings in his native English language. Give how the song is about Italian youth migrating abroad, this can't but be a fitting choice.
  • Various other songs have their choruses in English, also performed by a featured artist: "Cover", "Prosopagnosia", "Minimoog", "Canthology" (whose chorus draws from The Droogs' song "Get Away").
  • "Legalize the Premier" is in Italian and Jamaican Patois.
  • "Kitaro", musically based on the theme song of the GeGeGe no Kitarō anime, includes some excerpts in Japanese from it for its intro and chorus.
  • "È Tardi" and "Forever Jung" feature verses in English sung by American rappers Michael Franti and DMC respectively.
  • "El Sendero" has its chorus sung in Spanish, drawn from the song "La Selva" by Mexican artist Mishel Domenssain, featured on the track.
• Multiple Reference Pun: In "Prisoner 709", 709 is derived from:
  • the idea of "7" and "9" representing opposites that are explored through the album;
  • "0" conveying the idea of a music disc between said opposites, and which may be read as both the English "0" and Italian "o" ("or") to give it another interpretation as "seven OR nine";
  • the code 709, which identifies a type of envelope especifically for sealing CDs.
• Mundane Made Awesome:
  • Tony Hadley driving a truck at the end of "Goodbye Malinconia"'s video.
  • A negative case is "House Credibility", all about minding the listener that staying at home is DEADLY through various over-the-top examples of household dangers.
• Murder Ballad: "Sono Troppo Stitico" ("I'm Way Too Mean") is narrated by a man who wants to find a way to kill his girlfriend "legally", although the point of the song is to bring to light the large amount of dangerous instruments and substances people are exposed to daily.
• Mushroom Samba: Toward the end of the album Prisoner 709, "Minimoog" has Caparezza in the prison infirmery 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.
• Music Is Politics: Referenced in his song "Chi se ne frega della musica" ("Who gives a damn about music"). He implies that videos, song charts, producers, talk shows are all that is important in the music business, and nobody gives a damn about the music itself.
• My Country Tis of Thee That I Sting: A recurring theme, most notably in "Vieni a ballare in Puglia" (about his home region of Apulia specifically) or "Goodbye Malinconia".
• Nature Is Not Nice: "Contronatura" ("Unnatural").
• New Media Are Evil:
  • "L'Età dei Figuranti" is an attack to the concept of 15 Minutes of Fame. People are desperate to be seen even if they don't deserve it, even at the cost of embarrassing themselves, all while spectators are take TV drama way too seriously.
  • "The Auditels Family" reprises the topic through a deeper perspective: the cultural impoverishment brought forth by modern television is intentionally lead by the powerful, who want to keep populace uninformed and blissfully ignorant. The Auditel (a society which deals with television audience data) is presented as a dark secret sect, which controls television by promoting garbage shows and countless advertising, all while shutting down educational or "inconvenient" programs.
• New Sound Album: Prisoner 709, which was produced after Caparezza developed a case of tinnitus, is less concentrated on social consciousness and issues, becoming instead a deeply introspective, psychological work. The very name of the album signifies his own condition as a "prisoner" within his own mind, caused by his ailment. The following album Exuvia, intended as a "sequel" to the previous album, revolves around his longing for freedom from his mental prison.
• No OSHA Compliance: "Vieni A Ballare In Puglia", as explained in Lyrical Dissonance above.
• Non-Human Head:
  • In the video for "Dalla Parte Del Toro"^note "Rooting for the Bull", the bull character is represented by a man wearing a bull mask.
  • As noted before, Larsen in "Larsen" is a human figure with the head of a bird (a club-winged manakin, specifically).
• Nude Nature Dance: Near the end of the "Exuvia" video, the protagonist starts taking his clothes off and running around the forest in the nude.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • In "Non Siete Stato Voi", Caparezza uses his normal voice to gravely denounce a number of political issues with no "fun filter" like his music usually does.
  • From Prisoner 709 on, Caparezza's usage of his exaggerated nasal voices and stage persona zaniness decreased as his song topics became more personal and tragic. The first track of that album is rapped entirely in his normal voice—a rare feature up to that point—, establishing this new direction.
• Obsession Song: "Ti Clonerò" ("I'll Clone You") simulates this... except it's actually about pirating music.
• Obviously Not Fine: The sulky chorus in "Il circo delle pantegane"^note "The circus of the sewer rats":
  You ask me "how's it going?"... It's going fine...
  You keep asking me "how's it going?"... It's going fine...
  ...the life in the circus of the sewer rats...
  ...the life in the circus of the sewer rats... *deep sigh*
• One-Woman Wail: "Fugadà" includes these for the voice of nature.
• Ode to Sobriety: "Fuori Dal Tunnel" was mistakenly believed to be an anti-drug usage message by a large portion of listeners.
• Profane Last Words: The bug at the end of "Gli insetti del podere" ("The bugs of the croft") is shot to death while letting out a "vaffanculo" ("fuck you").
• Pun-Based Title:
  • 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".
  • His 2014 album Museica takes the cake: the songs therein are inspired by works of art, and the title is a pun on "museo" (museum), "musica" (music) and "sei" (six, as this is his sixth album).
  • 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" (Donkey Kong is mentioned), and a reference to the G8 summit (G-otto), especially the one that took place in Italy in 2001 where several protesters were brutally beaten by police officers. And it's also a throwback to the beat songs from The '60s.
• Reference Overdosed:
  • He applies a metaphor to his lyrics and takes it up to eleven, 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 Walt Disney references.
  • "Cover", the first single of his 2014 album, is a long list of references to notorious album covers, which mirror his personal growth as a man and an artist.
  • The video for "Avrai ragione tu" contains several references to Russian and Communist-style iconography, including a parody of the famous video by Eduard Khil (a.k.a. the Trololo Guy).
• Religion Rant Song:
  • 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" and "Il Dito Medio di Galileo"^note "The middle finger of Galileo".
  • "Messa In Moto"^note a double entendre that usually means "Set in motion" but here also means "Mass on a motorcycle" calls out Christians' habit of praying.
  • "Confusianesimo", which is about Caparezza wanting the comfort spirituality may give him, snarkly mocks religions throughout, and ends with him ultimately rejecting the idea of seeking to be religious, considering it to be one more layer of imprisonment among all others.
• Retro Universe: The "Avrai ragione tu" video appears to take place in the late 20th century, during the Cold War.
• Revolutionaries Who Don't Do Anything: The main topic in "La Ghigliottina" is calling out useless symbolic protests that won't change anything in society.
• Rock Opera: Le dimensioni del mio caos. A time traveling hippie ends up conforming to modern society, and the album ends with an alternate history where prehistoric Bonobos surpass humans on the evolutionary scale.
• Rockers Smash Guitars: Caparezza smashes his guitar at the end of a concert in the narrative of "Le Dimensioni del Mio Caos". Luigi the construction worker does the same near the end of the story.
• Running Gag:
  • In the Esecuzione Pubblica concert, during the performance of "Kevin Spacey", Gaetano Camporeale pulls out a rifle and "shoots" "Kevin Spacey" when the lyrics mention the killing of his character in American Beauty. Later, during an act preceding "Abiura di Me", the band members wearing Angry Birds costumes are being "launched" by Caparezza from a large slingshot, until Gaetano pulls the rifle again and shoots one of them dead.
• Sampling: Various examples.
  • A notable usage 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.
  • "Campione Dei Novanta"^note "Champion of the 90's" uses two remarkable samples: the first is from the 1992 song "Zighidà" by the band Statuto; and the other one is from the 2018 song "Campione" by Chef, which says "call me a champion". Their inclusion is derived from a double entendre on the word "campione", which means both "champion" and "sample", the Zighidà sample being literally a "sample of the 90's" and the Campione sample refering to itself as a sample.
• Saving the World With Art: Caparezza mocks this idea quite a few times, saying that, although songs of his bring light to some issues, 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":
  If I were king I'd be Ludwig II in Bavaria [...]
  If they told me "the whole population is starving",
  I'd say "I'm sorry, at least you have art."
• Sdrawkcab Name: 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 him end the peace of others around him (and his own peace as well).
• Sdrawkcab Speech: In "Il dito medio di Galileo", the chorus, 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.
• Self-Demonstrating Song: "Canzone a Metà", a song about leaving things unfinished, ends abruptly in the middle of a sentence.
• Self-Deprecation:
  • He mocks his Mikimix persona in a few songs. In addition, he sometimes says he is not an artist, he can't sing, and so on. His earlier work had many instances of him mentioning he comes from the gutter.
  • Once, during a concert, he tried to give a speech, but was constantly interrupted by the doorbell. The video feed (in daylight - "What kind of time zone do they have out there?") showed himself, with an annoyed expression, still ringing.
  CapaRezza: [Beat] Pretend that I'm not here, I know that guy, he never shuts up...
  • From "Autoipnotica":
  I am a seagull that laughs after shitting on my monument.
• Shout-Out: Too many to list.
  • "Cover" references various iconic album cover artworks.
  • In "Teste Di Modì":
  (in English) Would the real Modigliani head please stand up?
  • The video for "La Scelta", where Caparezza experiences a time loop while wearing a yellow raincoat, likely throws a shout-out to Dark (2017).
• Singer Name Drop
• Slasher Smile: Filippo Argenti during the last shot of the "Argenti Vive" video.
• Some of My Best Friends Are X: "L'Uomo Che Premette" is about this kind of rationale, and begins with:
  I start off by saying I have many gay friends.
• Somewhere, a Mammalogist Is Crying: "Bonobo Power" plays straight the stereotype attributed to bonobos as an altruistic, empathetic and hedonistic species, presenting them in a positive light compared to humans. In reality, it's a bit more complicated. Compared to common chimpazees, bonobos do stand out as a much more peaceful species, as their communities are much more cohesive and seldom degenerate into infighting. Their culture of sexual freedom is also factual. But aggressivity towards bonobos of other communities or other species is generally comparable to that of common chimpanzees, only slightly less frequent at best.
• Sophomore Slump:invoked The hook of "Il secondo secondo me":
  The second album is always the most difficult in an artist's career.
• Spoken Word in Music:
  • "Bonobo Power" has the rapper saying the song's verses in a spoken fashion through a muffled speaker filter as to sound like a zoo guide giving info on bonobo monkeys.
  • "Cose che non capisco"^note "Things I don't understand" is presented as a game show, complete with a non-singing host.
  • "Non me lo posso permettere" has a brief intro in which Caparezza dismisses his orchestra because "he can't afford it".
  • In "Non siete Stato voi" as a whole Caparezza's tone is solemn, but musically rather flat, so much that "reciting" would be more accurate than "singing".
  • Two of the skits in Exuvia: "Marco e Ludo" and "Ghost Memo".
• Split-Personality Takeover: Prisoner 709 has as its core idea Michele Salvemini's feeling that the Caparezza persona is taking over his actual self, and the prison setting takes inspiration from the Stanford Prison Experiment, as the subjects for that experiment similarly had their assigned roles dominate their personalities.
• Spontaneous Choreography: In the video for "Non me lo posso permettere", the auction attendees break into dancing after the seller (played by Caparezza) stops their riot by slamming his hammer on the table.
• Stanford Prison Experiment: One of the primary inspirations for the concept of Prisoner 709. Caparezza's alias as Prisoner 709 is inspired by Prisoner 819 in that case, and the infamous chanting "Prisoner 819 did a bad thing!" is referenced in the intro of the song "Forever Jung".
• Surprisingly Gentle Song: "China Town" is a soft ballad and a rare case of a Caparezza song completely devoid of conflict.
• Teenage Death Songs: "Compro Horror", a song about the fact crime news are presented as entertainment, mentions mainly teenagers being murdered.
• Testosterone Poisoning: "Un vero uomo dovrebbe lavare i piatti" mocks the concept, sarcastically listing things that only "real men" do (like being violent, treating women like objects, being sexually promiscuous, never showing emotion) and then saying that what a real man should actually do is to wash the dishes.
• That Man Is Dead: Caparezza toward his Mikimix persona, mostly in his first album but also in "Campione Dei Novanta":
  Put my old self in the 27 Club.
• The Unpronounceable: His first album is called ?!, although its cover◊ results in "Caparezza?!".
• Think Music: "Cose che non capisco", being 'set' in a game show, has its instrumentals modeled after this.
• This Is a Song:
  • In "Comunque Dada":
  This song is ready-made, born already done
  and it sounds like drawing a moustache on the Mona Lisa,
  more obnoxious than a swarm of redshanks,
  but it makes my life more pleasant!
  • The chorus in "Il testo che avrei voluto scrivere":
  The lyrics I'd want to have written are certainly not these!
  • "Ti Fa Stare Bene" ends with:
  This song is a bit too radio-friendly... who cares, as it will make you feel fine.
• This Loser Is You: Many songs include disparaging comments about:
  • his fandom's behaviour (e.g. "Annunciatemi al Pubblico"^note "Announce Me to the Audience", "L'ottavo, Capitolo" ^note The eighth one, I give up);
  • the listeners in general (e.g. "Fuori Dal Tunnel", "Mica Van Gogh"^note Not Van Gogh, "Eyes Wide Shut").
• Title Track: In Habemus Capa, Prisoner 709 and Exuvia. Also partially Il sogno eretico, which has "Sono il tuo sogno eretico".
• Triumphant Reprise: "Prosopagno Sia!" to "Prosopagnosia" in Prisoner 709. See Bookends above.
• Unusual Euphemism: "Dancing" in "Vieni a ballare in Puglia". It becomes clear if you pay attention to Al Bano's intro. It means "dying".
• Troll: In some songs, such as "La Legge Dell'Ortica" and "Azzera Pace", Caparezza says he enjoys making people mad.
• Walking Spoiler: "Kevin Spacey" is all about purposely spoilering as many movies as possible, especially those featuring the actor in question. Hands down, the biggest example of assholery in music ever. Appropriately, Caparezza introduces the song claiming that it's the only reason why one should hate him, not his politics or his voice.
• Whole-Plot Reference: "Nel Paese dei balordi" ("In the Land of the boorish") is a Darker and Edgier take on The Adventures of Pinocchio: Pinocchio is the son of an Abusive Dad and his mother fleed the house because of the mistreatments, working as a stripper with the name of "Blue Fairy"; Lampwick is a 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 Become a Real Boy storyline is a metaphor for the simple desire to have a normal life.
• Zombie Apocalypse: In the video for "Vieni a ballare in Puglia". As always, there's a second meaning: the pollution and chemicals from factories are what turned people into zombies.

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