Linking the Diaspora Musically

Joey Skee (June 23, 2008)
Hip hop is contributing to an expanding Italian diasporic consciousness, one that offers possibilities for an anti-racist politic


A series of recent email exchanges concerning the now inextricably conjoined topics of Italian identity and hip hop linked such disparate places as Marseilles (France), Turin (Italy), Kenosha (Wisconsin), Oakland (California), Syracuse (New York), and good old Brooklyn. 

His song “L’Americano” is a condensed history of southern Italian migration and its mediated depiction that cleverly uses the chorus of Neapolitan singer Renato Carosone’s 1956 hit “Tu vuo’ fa’ l’americano.”

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