DrefGold has always been a curious character in the Italian trap scene. Already in 2016 with his first mixtape Kanaglia he intrigued us with his colorful and caramel-like imagery, without arrogance gangsta nor the ambitions of a Sanremo pop star but with a sincerely light-hearted trap attitude of those who make music without the obsession of views or rankings. Almost ten years have passed and today he too has to deal with a bulimic scene that he quickly forgets: he did it with Goblinsa refined and fresh album in sounds and productions, giving a freak dusting to his imagery, now full of gremlins, goblins and goonies. A return to the future that they talked about in this interview.
Goblins it's a sort of trap manifesto, a genre that many consider “close to death” but which you managed to revitalize with fresh sounds and unexpected productions.
My real fortune is that I have never looked for the extra step towards pop or towards a more commercial sound, because in my journey the pieces that have worked – Tesla, Syrup, Elegant – they were purely trap. Goblins it is therefore just a reaffirmation and an evolution of what I like and know how to do, trap.
A couple of years ago you tried your hand at pop, sampling Bongo Bong by Manu Chao in your single Days in the block.
I've never perceived it as commercial, even if in reality it is: Manu Chao is part of my background, I listened to his songs in the car with my parents, together with those of many singer-songwriters, De André above all.
Manu Chao's pieces are linked to a well-defined political imagination.
I have never let politics enter my music. Days in the block it was written in a time when many took a sample of a famous song and brought it into their trap version, there was no other meaning than to make a hit with a song I liked.
But a bit of politics in Goblins there is: “Fuck a nazi, fuck the fasci”. Do you confirm?
Of course, I'm not hiding anything. I come from Bologna, and there is a climate there that is more human than political which leads to having these common thoughts. The fact remains that I am an artist and I do not have great political culture.
Bologna has a great tradition, from the first posse like that of Isola nel Kantiere (on whose ashes the Sangue Misto di Neffa, Deda and DJ Gruff were born) up to the news of recent weeks with the demonstrations of the social centers.
Although I may have principles in common with this world and have played in community centers, at the beginning of my career – when I released music on YouTube on Lil Wayne beats sung with autotune – I was seen by them as a white fly because Only those who used DJ Premier's bases were considered a rapper.
Is this why you left Bologna to move to Milan?
Milan is a much colder and meaner city, but if you want to do something there are more possibilities. There are other values.
Like money?
It bothers me that I chased this mentality. As a child I told my mother that I wanted to live in Milan because I had a rap mind and I thought that this was a rap city, but when I got there I realized that here everything revolves around money and less than human dynamics.
Maybe it's to escape these less than human dynamics that you created a videogame imagery made up of goblins, gremlins and goonies on the album?
For me, the imagery behind the project is very important. I've been a fan of artists whose songs I haven't listened to, but I was satisfied with that. And the imagery does not need to be explained, the meaning is abstract. As you say, it could also be a video game created by artificial intelligence, mine.
Photo: press
But if we really wanted to explain, who or what is the Goblin who gives the album its title?
He's a G, someone who has the situation under control, who doesn't need third parties. He is the leader of the goonies who are groups of ten kids stationed in the park outside a petrol station or I don't know, outside McDonald's, ready to do anything together. And then there are gremlins, which are more abstract than goonies, but they also respond to the Goblin.
I didn't understand much, but the mood of the album seems quite “sunny”, to be “taken well”, or am I wrong?
Certainly yes, although the sound is certainly darker. In pieces like Junkie Bar there are many rhymes that for me are just a gag, they arise in chatter and jokes between friends. Maybe one day I'll do introspective or love songs, but now my mood is not to be distressing or annoying!
Your slang, full of anglicisms and distorted words, is a real trademark. Do you care a lot?
They're games, I get excited about writing like this even though I realize that if I were more understandable I would broaden my audience, I would be more pop. The thing is, I only listen to American or English stuff and my vocabulary is influenced by that.
One word that always appears is Komparema. What does it mean?
My family is originally from Salento and in the dialect we call each other that, it's like saying “bro”.
This Salento vibe can be perceived in your music, lu sule, lu mare and lu reggae as Sud Sound System sang. Is this part of your background?
You got us. And the Manu Chao song we were talking about before was also chosen because it has a sound I recognize myself in, a bit reggae. As a kid in Salento I saw hundreds of live acts, people like Capleton and Buju Banton, I grew up with that dancehall rhythm. I listened to Vacca when he went to live in Jamaica and released a mixtape inspired by that experience. And between a techno party and a dancehall I always choose the latter!
In Goblins you talk a lot and casually about drugs…
Then in my life I haven't experienced some things, and when I tell them people are surprised. I'm certainly for the legalization and decriminalization of joints, but otherwise I don't like praising drug use, I've seen a lot of people ruin themselves. And I don't like saying “I do this, I do that” like many colleagues do, I find it a bit…
Non-educational?
But no, rap is not supposed to educate. When Sciroppo was in the charts I was thrilled by the idea that it was an incorrect song, I've always liked the idea of going against political correctness. I remember when my father brought me the Club Dogo book on holiday, The law of the dogbecause I asked him and he told me “these only talk about cocaine, about bitches, what bullshit is that?”, I replied “it's rap”. But my parents never stopped me, they left me free to do my own shit.
Maybe because you come from an educated family, I know that your mother is a writer and screenwriter. What do you think of your music?
He told me that Junkie Bar It's his favorite piece. I've always seen her at home writing on the computer and this comment of hers makes me proud. Writing has always been very important to me. In high school they gave me a five and a half in an essay and I, even though I ended up with a 64 in high school, went to the teacher, gave her the essay back, left school, put on my helmet and went home. It was a vote I didn't want to accept.
A curiosity. My trusted barber told me that there is a boy in Milan who gives you and Ghali arrows. Who is?
Ibrah, number one. His first job is making mozzarella in a dairy, imagine him with very long dreads, a wonderful cultural clash, he is a true professional in his field. I spend four hours with him braiding my hair and talking only about Sizla Kalonji or Vybz Kartel: he is a super positive figure and fundamental for us “dread heads”.
