Numero Zero: The Roots of Italian Rap

The documentary traces where Italian rap came from. Hip hop arrives in the eighties as a wave from overseas; the first album lands in 1990. What follows moves fast: occupied social centres, tapes changing hands, the first records. Through Sangue Misto, Kaos One and Colle Der Fomento the thing comes up out of the underground, and with Neffa, Articolo 31, Sottotono and Frankie Hi-Nrg it reaches the charts. Fabri Fibra starts at the end of that stretch. Then, at the turn of the millennium, it all stops at once, and that is the question the film puts. Enrico Bisi directs the Italian documentary; ninety-one minutes. The narrator is Ensi, a freestyle rapper who grew up on that music. Most of the people talking are the names of the period themselves.