He performed on Saturday at the Verdi theater in front of hundreds of kids. Ravaglia (Fidapa): “Censorible way of understanding the relationship of dominance and possession over women”

Cesena, 21 November 2023 – A late but perhaps timely protest is mounting on social media, in telephone chats, in conversations between parents, after the trapper Niky Savage, stage name of Nicholas, performed at the Verdi theater last Saturday Alfieri. Those who stigmatize the choice of a trapper who sings vulgar, sexist, violent lyrics and towards whom mayors such as that of Trento have asked to cancel the concert are mainly mothers of adolescents who are wondering how to be more effective in the education of children, male and female, which also passes through the music they listen to.

And they call for greater attention from venue managers. “They call this Savage an artist – in fact one of them writes on the page ‘You are from Cesena if…’ -, and I feel so angry. My daughter was at the Verdi, a few days after yet another feminicide, and I had no idea what was the message that this ‘guy’ would have brought to the stage. I feel angry because I should have been more careful, informed myself, read and explained… I feel angry for all those little girls who sing his rubbish and, practically naked, go under his stage to be called with unrepeatable epithets. Anger because we allow certain types of messages to be carried: today and never should we accept that phrases from songs such as ‘I don’t accept those who tell me NO’ are delivered to our children, to many young men of tomorrow…” .

The mother of a son says that the boy wanted to go to the concert “but I told him: do you realize what that trapper says? His songs are violence! And he replied: I’m not I agree with what he sings but everyone, including the girls, goes crazy for Niky and stands under the stage screaming. However, he didn’t go to the concert due to his own decision.”

To provide an example, we tried to select a few passages from the trapper’s texts, which are also inconclusive from a lexical point of view, but among what is publishable we chose this “pearl”: “There’s a girl who says hello (eheh, muah). There’s two pears that wao (wao), Wa-wa-, she wants her hands there. But she doesn’t know that tomorrow she won’t walk.” There are those who point out that those contents were also present in 60s and 70s rock, and that trap music does not escape the timeless transgression of adolescence. True, but not inevitable. Faced with this awareness, indifference becomes connivance. “Because – underlines Mirella Ravaglia, president of Fidapa Malatesta -, understood as a body without other values”.

The artistic direction of Verdi prefers not to make statements, whose invitation to students from the first to the fifth year of high school is accepted by several hundred very young people, while the “Forum sui generis” at the Municipality which brings together many committed voluntary associations, with the councilor Carlo Verona in the lead, in the promotion of gender equality and for the culture of respect, is seething with disdain. “In the aftermath of yet another feminicide – states Barbara Monachesi of Apeiron – the young people of Cesena dance to the rhythm of songs like these. Can we immediately make a petition or move in some way to make our disapproval felt, strong and immediate? We all know and all the power that words have, especially of followed and “admired” characters like this, of how much they strengthen patriarchy with all the consequences that derive from it”. “The teachings imparted in the family are a raw nerve – is the opinion of Ines Briganti -. As the Perledonne association we have been promoting meetings for parents with experts on education in respect and emotions since January at the Scientifico”.

Zaccaria Mouhib, aka Baby Gang, is an Italian trapper of Moroccan origins. He was born in Lecco in 2001 and from the age of 11, he spent his life in and out of juvenile prisons and educational communities. In 2018 he released Street, his first single, but shortly afterwards he was arrested and taken to the Beccaria juvenile prison in Milan, from which he was released thanks to the intervention of Don Claudio Burgio who took him to his community.

Simba la Rue, pseudonym of Mohamed Lamine Saida, was born in 1999 and has Tunisian origins. He lives in Italy, in Merone in the Como area, with his family. Passionate about hip hop music since he was a child, he made his debut on the Italian music scene with “Sacoche” together with Baby Gang. Baby Touché, alias Amine Mohamed Amagour, is a trapper born in 2003 in Padua and of Moroccan origins. Since he was a child he has had a great passion for French rap and has experimented with this musical genre since he was very young.

A dispute that was originally only verbal, a sprout of insults and teasing that slowly degenerated into attacks, beatings and ambushes between Como, Bergamo and Padua. It begins with the stabbing of Simba’s friend at the Padua station. Later, as revenge, the trapper and some of his cronies attack a rival gang in the Piazza Venezia area. The girlfriend of a member of the group, Sara Ben Salha, also contributed to the ambush and helped prepare the attack through her earphones. And again, in June, Simba la Rue kidnaps his rival, which after an investigation ends in Simba’s arrest and trial. But he doesn’t end there; Simba ends up back in cell after the clashes in Corso Como, in Milan, involving firearms and brawls. This time he opts for a collaboration with Zaccaria Mouhib, Baby Gang. The newly formed Gang-Simba alliance against a group of Senegalese boys begins a night of violence. According to the account of a 28-year-old injured in the clash, it looked more like a real punitive expedition, with a precise logic. Not, in short, like a common argument between kids over a betrayal, a showdown, one word too many. The lives of many artists, trappers and otherwise, can find comfort and help in music, a wild and untamed beast just waiting for the right person to accept and love. When music becomes the subject of dispute and violence, life turns against you, so you have to find the right path and the right thread to pull to make the most of it and love it.