[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F63w4j0huPw]
Italian rap sounds like the punchline to a bad music joke, but when it comes to Jovanotti, there’s nothing to laugh at. To be fair, Jovanotti—the stage name of Lorenzo Cherubini—doesn’t play straight hip-hop, instead offering up a surprisingly bewitching blend of Italian soulfulness, American funk, a smattering of Afrobeats and a sort of universal grooviness that has made him a superstar in Italy. The performer is poised for an American invasion, though, which is why he recently moved to New York City. Jovanotti’s debut compilation in the United States, Italia 1988-2012, attempts to introduce American audiences to the performers vast catalogue, but it’s hard to know where to start with a rapper who joyfully offers up tri-lingual covers of Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise” in concert.
Listen: “Ora”