I nomi dietro i numeri: Michele Salvemini aka Caparezza

Abstract

The present work focusses on the onomastic interest shown by a singer belonging to the new generation of Italian rappers, Michele Salvemini, aka Caparezza. His expressive talent managed to shape an anti-purist language, full of styles and registers, open to dialect and spoken language, which ranges from the younger generations’ language to neologisms, from English to special languages, from jargon to Latin. The pattern of his CDs, a sort of “fononovels”, modernises the structure of the concept-album of the ‘70s on the basis of constant references to contemporary Italian events, news and characters, and of his figure as an artist. Caparezza’s choices shows a linguistic awareness which goes beyond the general trend of this music genre. In particular, the last CD (Prisoner 709) represents an autobiographic translation of an onomastic equivalence in a numerical correspondence which is always unexcepted and where the real name and the pseudonym contrast.