Over the last two decades, Caparezza has been one of the most original voices in Italian music. A constantly evolving rapper, he has a vast and loyal audience who have followed him through ever-changing concept albums mixing languages, musical genres, and imagery. His most recent album, Orbit Orbit, released last fall, is accompanied by a comic book written by him. In July, it won the Targa Tenco for best album of the year — the most prestigious award in Italian songwriting, and a rare one for a rapper.

Caparezza (real name Michele Salvemini) is one of the few contemporary Italian musicians capable of combining commercial success, artistic experimentation, and political engagement. His songs echo through marches and demonstrations throughout Italy without him ever conforming to the aesthetic and linguistic stereotypes of the “left-wing singer.” While his albums strike mainstream success, he remains somehow in the shadows, far from the obsessive search for visibility.

In his home region of Puglia there was some controversy when the album was released, as some politicians contrasted the empty polling stations of the regional elections, held around the same time, with the long queues for Caparezza’s book signings. A few days later, Jacopo Custodi met him in his hometown of Molfetta to talk about freedom, music, politics, and the “pathosphere” — a term the rapper coined to refer to the sphere of empathy and sensitivity, which we increasingly tend to drift away from.