One of the key groups of the old school of Italian rap from the 1990s, more aggressive than ever for a unique memorial: this Friday Assalti Frontali are back in the capital to celebrate thirty-five years since "Batti il tuo tempo", the first hip hop album in Italy and at the time signed by Onda Rossa Posse, from whose ashes Assalti themselves were born shortly after.
The event, scheduled for 9 pm at Su Tzirculu, will see the historic militant hip hop group make their third trip to Cagliari this year, marking a significant return to activity. This revival is not only linked to the current anniversary, but also to the artistic need to not remain silent in the face of the genocide in Gaza, as frontman and founder Luca Mascini, better known as Militant A, has repeatedly emphasized.
In 1990, at the height of the "posse" movement in Rome, he took inspiration from his political connections to found the Onda Rossa Posse together with his colleague Castro X. Drawing on the influence of the nascent Forte Prenestino gathering and relying solely on friendly social centers and collectives for distribution, the result was the album "Batti il tuo tempo." Opening with sampled music by Ennio Morricone, the abrasive instrumentals of the Roman band Brutopop, and the raw, direct lyrics of Militant A and Castro X, the album proved to be an unexpected success, selling all of the few thousand copies available. The very first hip hop album ever released in Italy and the most visible product of the genre's nascent Roman scene, "Batti il tuo tempo" would be the first step in bringing rap and hardcore punk together in the musical culture of social centers, once and for all bringing together two previously irreconcilable realities.
After a short time, however, Onda Rossa split up: while Castro X founded the eloquent AK 47, Militant A continued with his ideal of hardcore and politicised rap with the new Assalti Frontali, which found full fulfilment in the sound with the undisputed classic "Conflitto", released in 1996. Today the group still divides its activity between the studio (the latest "Notte Immensa" was released in 2024) and concerts, in a line-up that sees Mascini alongside the rapper Pol G and the beatmaker Bonnot.
