Behind the beats, the sound and the rap bars – the unit of measurement of a verse – there is a talented twenty-four-year-old who navigates through emotions. Sgribaz, aka Lorenzo Calderone, a rapper from Cagliari, has built his musical path between dreams, obstacles and an expressive urgency without reticence.
After a two-year wait, Friday, February 7th, Emotional Kid , the new EP by Warner Music, will be released. Produced by his blood brother Enomoney, at first listen it is not just a tracklist, but a manifesto, an answer to the existential question: “What will I be?”. At twenty-five, these questions are a spark of maturity and introspection that not everyone has.
Lorenzo is aware of being, as a man and an artist, in progress : «My music evolves every day. I worked on the general message of the EP and I think it is a presentation of mine that comes very close to the idea», he says.
00Adolescenza (2020) was his first “spontaneous, unfiltered mixtape”, where the urgency to communicate outweighed the search for the perfect sound. In Cosa Saremo (2022) he began to question who he was and what he wanted to become. Today comes an answer: a more structured, but always dynamic, identity.
Emotional Kid, because Lorenzo feels "sensitive but not weak". Music dresses the person, as young as he is full of reflections, starting from the first autobiographical track Lorenzo . A life of emotions and events, to understand and overcome, not without wounds.
A nine-piece EP, a puzzle of a story, featuring artists such as Disme, 22simba, Praci, Luchetto and Quentin40: « It doesn't have everything of me, but it has a lot of me, starting from a sound that identifies me». The common thread? An emotional journey to search for the light through moments of darkness. In the first bar of Mood // Luna he sings 'Uscito dal buio, ora sono outside': «I've been through difficult times, bad times, and music is the path to return to the light». A journey of life and art, with a vivid representation: «The road between Cagliari and Villasimius, the sun and the darkness of the tunnels. The signs have been redone throughout the town. But the paint has also run out where the road surface is ruined». A continuous oscillation between past and future, obstacles and ambitions.
' Grown up without benefits'. The need to express one's opinion also comes from a social condition that Sgribaz does not hide and that encourages him to take revenge: «I come from a humble family, I have done many jobs such as pizza delivery or door-to-door sales, I feel the difference and I suffer it. In Cagliari there is no great ambition in the air. When no one gives you anything, you have to go and get it yourself». In the EP the bond with his family emerges, the tears of his father - who recently lost his job - and the gratitude for his mother, together with his friends who 'are extraordinary'. Long Life is dedicated to them, a good journey, aware that 'you can't have expectations while the world is falling apart'.
'I want to write records for those who can understand me', another line: "The code to decipher me are values, love, family, loyalty. I have always avoided those who have no values, those who do not sacrifice themselves". Then there is another fear, more personal: "Accepting myself".
Emotional Kid is "looking in the mirror". A path that also passes through social media: «You think you are inferior, but in reality those who seem superior have only accepted themselves and found a way to express themselves».
Sgribaz knows that making music from an island is not easy: «The world seems far away, but the stories I tell and the messages I send are universal». Fear, desire for redemption and to express oneself: «We are all equal points in the universe until you express yourself' he sings». The courage to tell the truth without filters makes Sgribaz – already hundreds of live performances on the island's stages and in Italian festivals – an artist who deserves to be listened to, not only by his generation.
