The Napoli Milionaria's neomelodic trap

During the last years, Neapolitan music saw the explosion of different projects, from “Nuova Napoli” by Nu Guinea to LIBERATO or “Napoli Segreta”, that tried so hard to give back to the audience a new image and a new sound of the city, different from the traditional one. However, until now nobody took into account one of the most explicit Neapolitan cultural tradition, also one of the most popular ones and despised one: the neomelodic. 
Born as a reaction “from the ground” to the classical melodical Neapolitan music tradition - associated with the bourgeois - neomelodic was a kind of a training ground for the singers who later became the most famous characters of Neapolitan sound, like Nino D’Angelo or Franco Ricciardi. But neomelodic is a very wide genre, in which is possible to find music experimentations or trash degeneration. But still, the importance of neomelodic in Neapolitan culture is pivotal, perceivable and interpretable. 
The same interpretation that was made by Napoli Milionaria, a crew of Neapolitan artists that made trap cover of classical neomelodical songs, mixing new sound with the old tradition. The results are “Trap Neomelodica”, a mixtape of cover of the most famous songs in Naples history, plus a brand new song with a beautiful video shot by Alaska Film. The video clip was released on September 19th, when the city of Naples was cheering his Saint, San Gennaro. We met with Napoli Milionaria in order to understand of this musical tradition can last in modern times. 

#1 How the Napoli Milionaria project was born? And, above all, how did you get the idea of the cove of neomelodic classic in a trap way?

The project was born from the will of a group of Neapolitans who wanted to show what means to be Neapolitan now, showing an image of Naples that could be modern and global. Musically, we focused our attention on the most “folk” genres above all, neomelodic and trap. In Naples, now, these two genres coexist and interact one each other constantly. 

#2 How did you choose the song to cover? 

The simply choose the most famous and culturally relevant neomelodic song of our generation, also the ones you can still hear in Naples street. From a more technical point of view we tried to put the old and the new genre in conversation, and try to “convert” the song like in a metamorphosis. It’s like a miracle: when it happens, it happens suddenly. 

#3 Your first brand new song was released on a very particular day, and it recalls a very particular aestetics for every Neapolitan.   

Yes, the song was out on September 19th, on a day that is sacral for everyone in Naples because of San Gennaro. When we first had the idea of reinventing the tradition we started to search for some links in Neapolitan culture, and religion was one of the stronger links we could find. 

#4 The video clip “A nuttat e passat” was also chosen by Napoli Film Festival to attend the competition. It has a very good plot: where did you get the idea?

We obviously took inspiration from the classics: Napoli Milionaria by Eduardo De Filippo or Operazione San Gennaro by Dino Risi. We wanted to tell the story of a parallel event occurring during the San Gennaro celebrations. A kind of a game between sacred and profane.

#5 Sometimes neomelodic is kind of dispised, always by people who hardly understand the cultural impact of the genre. What’s your idea?

The people in Naples for sure didn’t do that. Neomelodic is a genre that is able to cross social classes. It’s folk music, and maybe because of some of its topics is easy to associate with prejudices. Meanwhile, artists like Mauro Nardi are doing a concert in New York, or Ciro Rigione who is collection platinum records. Neomelodic singers are really institutions in Neapolitan music nowadays.

#6 Which will be your next steps?

For sure there will be an album, to be released on the day of the next miracle.