Interview with Michele Wad Caporosso

Why put limits on art? Why think of spending the whole life categorized within a trade, a single passion, a place? To move and experiment and then get to know each other more and maybe making mistakes, but with the awareness of being able to grow only in this way.

Today, we present Michele Wad Caporosso, voice of the evening of Radio Deejay, influential figure of the Italian urban world and now ready to launch into fashion with a t-shirt capsule born from the profound concept of "gang". Here's what he wanted to tell us about him, his work and his "err on the go".

#1 Michele Wad Camporosso: radio host, blogger, digital strategy expert, the voice of “Say Waaad?” and “1212” on Radio Deejay. You are that non-rapper that steps from magazines to radio stations with extreme ease, using your voice but also your pen and now also your aesthetic with the drop of your last Tees.
Are you a lover of art in all of its forms or you simply don’t like to be identified in a specific category?

“You are a lover” is the synthesis of all the descriptions, so, yes, I’m a lover. For example, my passions, the simple fact to be passionate of something drives me crazy- may it be journalism or fashion, street culture or music. That sense of urgency a human being is capable of create through its passions is my category. That’s what I think: if there’s one thing able to blend all the possibile passions of a human being in 2018, that is aesthetic. Then, there’s the radio with all of its charme: radio is history, is future, is pure magic.

#2 Where did your passion for radio come from and how did it turn into a job?

I think I will never consider radio a real "job", not even now that I'm part of the most powerful radio in Italy. I have always conceived radio as a feeling and feelings are sacred, we do not say, we do not "speak". That said, radio-speaking I owe everything to Albertino, to British radios like BBC1Extra, to Hot 97, to Beats1 and to all that Radio Deejay did on Radio Deejay since I was a child until today that I am a "child" at Radio Deejay. 

#3 What about design? You’ve just presented #Wadgang, your first line of T-shirts. How did you reach this goal and why did you choose as main theme the “gang”?

The word “gang” had a really long story, I’ve studied it before starting to collaborate with Chris of GDTL and Davide at the first drop of tees  - it went sold out in 24 hours. Historically, the word “gang” didn’t have the negative connotation that it acquired in the ‘900 because of the crime environment. now, it’s turning to a more positive connotation, an almost self-affirmative one. In America, it is in this way since Ice Cube while in Italy it’s all due to generational phenomena like the Dark Polo Gang or BHMG. My tee is just an “instant” celebration of current times and the intention was to turn these celebrations, children of their own times, in limited editions. “Limited” like everything we born in the 80’s, 90’s and 00’s do.

#4 According to you, can fashion be considered a communication channel? What advantages does it have compared to other “media”?

Today fashion, just like music, is all-communication. We’re talking about two of the most influent channels to turn subcultural languages into pop phenomena. The mass appeal won’t exist without the underground’s credibility. Fashion is everything. A few months ago, Coez said me this phrase which he was told by someone else in turn: “Fashion is just like a liquid poured on a pyramid. The upper part has the most advantageous effects and then, as the liquid goes down, these advantages disperse themselves. And someone is just there waiting for someone else to pour more liquid on the pyramid”. The pyramid is communication and the liquid is the thought running through people’s minds also through who does my job and yours. 

#5 By looking at your path, you seem to be a constantly evolving personality, always ready to accept different challenges, without the fear of failing. What should we expect to happen in your future?

I’ve so little fear of making mistakes that I am constantly failing on all the levels. Among the many lessons I’ve learned recently there is the one of not to evaluate myself on the base of what I gained but on what I could have gained instead and on what I could have gained if I wouldn’t have had fear of failure. How Breaking Bad thought us all, fear is the real problem and that’s why I always try to work on different things on the same time, to not to think about it: about fear, about future.

Photographers:Elisa Scotti, Isabella Ponte, Diego Linciano