WHEN RAP MEETS CHOPIN
The signature of Jacopo Lazzarini
From “Ouverture” to “OuverFOURe,” the classical piano has become one of the most recognisable signatures of the Milanese rapper. Before the bass, the drums and the beat come in, it is almost always there: the piano. In Lazza’s case, though, the piano is not simply an instrument that accompanies the rap. It is a kind of second identity. He studied piano at the conservatory and turned that training into one of the most recognisable elements of his discography.
The clearest proof is a single word: Ouverture.
It starts in 2017…
On his first album, Zzala, Lazza opens the record with a track that would become much more than a simple intro. Ouverture begins with the piano. Not a chord sequence written for the occasion, but Fryderyk Chopin’s Nocturne No. 20 in C-sharp minor, played by Lazza himself. After this introduction the track changes skin: the piano makes room for the rap production and everything that comes with it. [1] It is a choice that already says it all: two apparently distant worlds made to live in the same song, and above all there is a fundamental difference from the simple use of a sample. He has explained it himself: where other artists can lift an existing recording, he prefers to play the classical part in person. In a 2017 interview he said that his classical and hip hop backgrounds earn their credibility through this approach. [2]
Chopin becomes a tradition
What might have looked like an isolated experiment turns into a tradition instead.
In 2019 comes Ouver2re, which picks up the formula of the first chapter. This time the piano material is Chopin’s Nocturne No. 21 in C minor. Once again the piano comes before the rap and Lazza himself plays the classical part. [3] Three years later, with Sirio, comes Ouv3rture. The principle stays the same: Chopin, piano and voice/rap. The track is also credited to Chopin and alternates the classical melody with the trap production of Lazza and Low Kidd. [4] The saga reaches its fourth chapter in 2024 with OuverFOURe, the intro to Locura. This time the reference is the Nocturne Op. 48 No. 1 in C minor. The structure is by now familiar: a classical opening that prepares the rapper’s entrance. [5]
Four albums, four openings, four encounters with Chopin.
Album Intro Chopin
Zzala Ouverture Nocturne No. 20
Re Mida Ouver2re Nocturne No. 21
Sirio Ouv3rture Nocturne Op. 55 No. 1
Locura OuverFOURe Nocturne Op. 48 No. 1
Why Chopin?
Lazza has spoken more than once about his relationship with the Polish composer. In an interview with Billboard Italia, given for a cover story devoted to classical music, he said he loves Chopin in particular and recognises himself in his emotional world. [7] The bond is so strong that it has become physical; he had a tattoo made of the composer. And when he talks about him, he stresses above all the emotional side, the phrasing and the ability to turn the piano into an extremely expressive instrument; [8] and perhaps this is exactly where the meeting point lies. Not so much in using “classical music” because it carries prestige, as in the chance to use a very emotional musical language.
Listening to the four Ouvertures one after another, the most interesting thing is to watch the moment when Chopin becomes an integral part of Lazza. The piano leads the listener into an almost concert-hall setting, then the voice arrives, the flow enters on top of the score and shortly afterwards the beat takes control; the classical language is not erased but used as a starting point to arrive at rap. This is what sets Lazza’s method apart from the simple insertion of a classical sample, and so his relationship with classical music is not limited to the Ouvertures. In 2019 he also released Re Mida (Piano Solo), a project in which some of his songs are reinterpreted through the piano. Then came Sirio Concertos, where the process is developed further with piano, voice and strings. Lazza’s music is thus moved into a setting closer to a chamber ensemble. [9]
The piano comes back live too: in concert Lazza has used the instrument to accompany and reinterpret part of his own repertoire. [10]
And what about Beethoven?
When we talk about Lazza and classical music, it can be natural to include Beethoven as well, above all because of the similarities some listeners have heard between 100 messaggi and the famous “Moonlight” Sonata. But to call it a true Beethoven sample would be too categorical; it is more accurate to speak of a resemblance or a musical echo.
With Chopin, by contrast, the references are far better documented and, in several cases, the composer appears directly in the credits. For example, Ouv3rture is also credited to Chopin. [11] The difference matters: not everything that recalls classical music is necessarily a sample of classical music.
Perhaps this is the most interesting point of all.
Lazza simply took classical music and made it a signature of his own musical training. The piano does not appear as a foreign element, added to make a song more sophisticated; it is part of his artistic identity. In 2023 Billboard Italia chose him as the protagonist of a cover story devoted to classical music, underlining precisely this belonging. [12] And perhaps the “saga” of the Ouvertures is the simplest picture of all this.
Chopin opens the door, Lazza walks in and a few seconds later the drawing room has become a rap track. Lazza’s relationship with classical music is not an occasional use of piano elements within rap production, but the outcome of a musical training that the rapper has progressively integrated into his contemporary artistic language. Seen this way, the recurring presence of references to Chopin in the Ouvertures is an element of continuity through which one can observe the interaction between the piano tradition and the languages of contemporary urban music.