MARRACASH - È finita la pace

And if I shot you, we'd both be brainless

When the picture of the main Italian hip-hop releases of 2024 seemed by now settled in its own indefinability — because nobody today could ever dream of having listened to even a tenth of everything that gets dropped online every day — along comes the surprise return of Marracash. The album after the Premio Tenco, after his maturation in subject matter and after the rapper's recognition as an author and musician, not just among hip-hop obsessives. “È finita la pace” is an album that risks being crushed by expectations, stunned by the clashing opinions that pollute the web we're all tangled up in.

It's the album of a 45-year-old rapper commenting on the present, from politics to society to music, with no features, no lead singles, no social-media countdowns to pump up the hype. If “Persona” (2019) was a rebirth, with Marracash finally seeming able to shift register and approach, and “Us, Them, the Others” (2021) marked a peak that would be hard to replicate, then “È finita la pace”, rather than trying to replicate or outdo it, steps sideways, crosses a few boundaries and, occasionally, also returns to a simpler, more direct, more muscular language. With this approach — which has obviously disappointed those expecting an even more structured album than its predecessors (weren't those enough for you?) — Marracash has simply found his own evolutionary trajectory in a 2024 that has revealed a certain fatigue in the Italian scene.

The thrilling opener “Power Slap” is a cannon blast of distorted electronics and a tribal beat on which Marracash puts all his colleagues in their place, speaking bluntly, biting hard beyond the usual boasting, calling out the market's distortions and those of listeners too, all too ready to reward rappers with no ideas and no personality.

Non cerco nostalgia e non inseguo i new (Yeah)

Remaster, remake, reunion, reboot

Ne abbiamo piene le palle

Le stesse marche, stessi designer

Stessi orologi, stesse vacanze

Stessi producer e stesse guest

Stessi argomenti, le stesse reference (Yeah)

Va bene così perché fanno tutti i platini (Mhm)

Premiati in TV, tutti bravi su esse Magazine

He clearly doesn't stop at the scene, but widens his gaze to the new powers-that-be and the system, narrating a horror never so realistic in “Crash”, bitter and anxiety-inducing over a beat worthy of Noyz Narcos and Salmo's “Cult”.

After two aggressive tracks, hardcore even in their contemporary feel, comes a pop-rap number that, once again, wants to say something about society and even become an (anti-)anthem for its audience: “Gli sbandati hanno perso” is one of the Italian songs of the year, the kind that could well stand the test of time, as well as his way of approaching a “The self-righteous crowd” he's been chasing for many years, which he comes close to here (without quite equaling it) without imitating it.

This heavyweight opener is followed by a slower, sung track, “È finita la pace”, which perhaps takes too big a risk and relies on vocal skills that, on this front, still need refining: “∞ Love” was one thing, but here there's too little rap, replaced by a choral ballad that will probably work best live.

We return to the language of “Noi, loro e gli altri” with the two-part “Detox/ Rehab” and the aching “Soli”, moving once again between the personal and the collective.

More original are the pounding beat and pause-filled flow of “Mi sono innamorato di un AI”, echoing the most cyborg side of Kanye West, and at the very least intriguing is the depressed dub of “Factotum”.

The concept-rap idea he's already explored (and didn't invent) returns in the pained dedication “Vittima”, in contrast with the far more brazen and foul-mouthed “Troi*”, a stance on machismo in language set over a mechanical, muscular house beat.

Dire 'playboy' non sarebbe lo stesso

'Casanova', 'dongiovanni', 'troia' lo rende meglio

Okay, non è amore di certo

Però siamo due persone, non è mai solo sesso

If one sung track has to stand out even more than the title track, let it be “Pentothal”, a litany or suicide note from the bottom of the abyss.

Io non so dire mai la verità

Senza mentire

E la tua cura, sai, non formerà

Le mie tossine

Io ti ho già detto la verità

Ma tu non vuoi sentire

Do you want to give me another shot of Pentothal

Gossip sites will probably latch onto “Lei”, even though it's one of the weaker tracks on an album that finds its closure in “Happy End”, marking the end of a chapter in Marracash's career and, perhaps, of a chapter in the now long history of Italian hip-hop as well.

To this writer, È finita la pace doesn't feel like the exploit that its predecessor was, since the language and themes have already been explored by the rapper, but it's still capable of suggesting new trajectories, different approaches, ideas worth exploring further. It's an ending, but not a depletion — confirmation that we can count on Marracash for thoughtful, outspoken Italian hip-hop, without stepping outside the genre or climbing into convoluted intellectualism or technical mannerism behind the mic. More than most others, Marracash has proven himself to be not just a rapper but, above all, a talented musician.

Italian rap

That no longer knows how to speak

That no longer knows what to say

Ah, è finita la pace, è finita la pacchia

How the industry works

One day you're God, the next day you're nothing

From marriage to slander

A fragile bubble floating

Nessuno ha dato e fatto quello che ho dato e fatto, è un dato di fatto

Even when I've lost it, the message

È che nessuno diventa qualcuno seguendo le orme di qualcun altro

Ride the wave of great music

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01/01/2025