Who are PSICOLOGI?

It's the 6th of February of 2019 and on YouTube, a new song has just been released on a new channel. The track is called "Diploma" by PSICOLOGI, a duo of two rappers, born in 2001, originally from Rome and Naples, who have been making music together for a month on SoundCloud - where they have been as solos and as trap rappers, making featuring with the major exponents of the Italian SC scene -, before their debut on Spotify. It's the start of a new musical path, the prologue of a new suggestive story that envolves emo rap, Itpop and Soundcloud itself, but mostly is the story of two boys with very clear ideas.

Clearly from the beginning PSICOLOGI, although they come from a pretty trap context, their music differs from the pure self-celebration and dissings. Lil Kvneki - who has the most experience between the two, coming from the BLITZGVNG, who is extremely active on SoundCloud, he owes his name to Ken Kaneki, the character of the anime and manga series Tokyo Ghoul, with this reference we return to the passion of the SoundCloud rappers for the animes -and Drast (these are the names of the two members of the duo), in fact, seem they have nothing more in common with this. Now they have embraced a guitar and started a new chapter of their career, in the name of what Carl Brave and Franco126 were together, I bet that at least one time during these last months, you had them compared to the PSICOLOGI for the sounds and the mumbled cadence. However, there are some differences to remark: Lil Kvneki and Drast, although they aren't anymore on SoundCloud, they stayed true to certain themes, which found fertile ground on SoundCloud. Because of this, we can define them emo rapper: despite they don't sing of depression, the two artists tell about adolescence, the one they are living, and what is adolescence if not full of emotions?

Love but also rebellion, dreams and fears, turbulent childhoods and uncertain futures are the protagonists of the lyrics of the PSICOLOGI. At the moment, the duo has released six songs, everyone with a story and different objectives. For example, "Diploma" is the manifesto of what Lil Kvneki and Drast are.

"Diploma is only a piece of paper

And psychologists don't cure anxiety"

This is probably the most famous bar of the duo because it sums up in a few words the intentions of the two rappers: to transmit the typical teenagers' sensations so that the audience could identify in their lyrics. Moreover, I say this again, the PSICOLOGI are two guys born in 2001 and they still need to get their diploma. From here the song is born, from a desire of explicitly saying and admitting what all the youngsters don't confess.

"Alessandra", is another track of the duo, that tells other aspects. The song doesn't tell about anxiety or fear, but about a revolution, rebellion, like it was a warning for the adults, a compilation of everything that adults wish their sons to be.

"Study, work and then die

Do like your parents

Walk with your own legs

And remember your values" 

These lyrics sound like something already written, like if it was imposed on us. The track is realized in collaboration with Frenetik&Orang3, it represents the answer of the PSICOLOGI to all those outdated rules, and often exaggerated that are imposed on us by a society where the adult is necessarily the wisest, the smartest, despite...

"Alessandra's father misses his father

Who undoubtedly wrote history

But ask yourself if for such great man

There is no day of remembrance"

"Alessandra"'s chorus is dedicated to Alessandra Mussolini, niece of Benito Mussolini, and the closure on "The Day of Remembrance" is a good bar from which emerges the political commitment of the Romanian duo. In lots of tracks, there are political references to the manifestations and the Social Centers, the PSICOLOGI isn't scared of facing the big taboo of the Italian trap new wave from a leftist perspective. The few trap rappers who tried to sing about politics, always slipped in mistrusting positions - like Ghali who sings "What's the difference between left and right? The Ministers change, but it's always the same soup." -, a loud absence that brings back to light the original sin of the Italian hip hop: being born in the Social Centers. The fact is that two eighteen years old guys rapping about politic is an important fact. 

At the beginning of this article, I've talked about how the PSICOLOGI have something to do with Itpop. We already understood that they come from SoundCloud and that they are similar to the now parted group Carl Brave x Franco126, it's not clear the connection with the Itpop. Do you know Bomba Dischi, record label also of Calcutta and Giorgio Poi? For who doesn't know it, Bomba Dischi is a record label, that since few years has under its wings some of the most important exponents of the Italian songwriting scene - like Calcutta and Giorgio Poi -  who have been brought to fame and at the highest peaks of their music genre, Itpop. Now, in 2019, Bomba Dischi has launched towards the Rap scene, they took with them Lil Kvneki and Drast, and they are behind the last two singles, on a certain level, the Label ensures an interesting future for the duo. In front of PSICOLOGI, now has opened the road to independent songwriting, and there are many factors that confirm it: the themes, the musical style and the aesthetics of the duo are three examples that make us think that the two rappers won't public songs or discs, like the one they had previously on SoundCloud. 

The connotation to Hip Hop of the two, class 2001, it's tangible in their album's covers, which differ from the classic cover of Rap music and Itpop. Artistica, for example, is the cover of "Autostima", it has a picture of the Virgin Mary crying two blue broken hearts under her left eye, the cover has a wrapping effect allover - which is repeated for every single cover - and it gives the impression that the artwork is taken from an old CD. Goth - a bit retro - is the typeface of their logo, but as well as of the title of the songs on the covers. Instead we can find a strong social reference on the covers of "Diploma" and "Guerra e Pace", where in the first one is pictured a scene of a riot between the police force and protesters, the second is the symbolic picture of Nina De Chiffre, who is kissing the helmet of a police officer during the tumults against No TAV in Val di Susa, taken in 2013. What is alive in the artwork of PSICOLOGI is not only references to pop-culture and goth, but as well a sense of the split social scenery that is going on in Italy, as mentioned before. This show how the aesthetic of PSICOLOGI is more refine and thought through, compared to what is believed, which makes the two young rappers a new interesting proposal and worth of consideration.

On May 31st, PSICOLOGI released their first project, 2001-EP, a collection of their first five tracks under Bomba Dischi label. They already performed on the big stage of MI AMI Festival in Milan. The impression is that the future looks bright for Lil Kvneki and Drast. We are very curious to hear what they still have to tell us.