He is a producer, beatmaker, DJ and even rapper managers of the caliber of Sfera Ebbasta: Pablo Miguel Lombroni Capalbo, aka Shablo, know him a little in the hip hop environment, because he is basically the Leonardo of Italian Rap Game. He knows how to do practically everything, but precisely his is a role not always as a protagonist.
With Manifestthe first album after at least about ten years, the Italian-Argentine producer decided not only to return to the front row, but also to do so with a journey backwards to the origins of rap. It is an album first of all played by real musicians with the instruments in hand and sung by voices (also and above all emerging like Joshua) who bring back soul, R&B, funk and all the ingredients of that cauldron from which hip hop was born in the New York of the 70s.
This thing, at this moment, is important for two reasons. The first, as confirmed by the artist himself, is that there is a lot of people from his generation (he was born in Buenos Aires in 80), or so, who does not feel much represented by Drill, Trap and all the things that go now. But that still a thirst for hip hop has always had it. The second, perhaps even more important than the first, is that all young people who are instead bombed by a thousand single traps who come out every week can only discover something new in rap: that is, the roots.
The advice is therefore to go and see him live, starting from the first date of July 3 (better known as today) in Perugia. Then in Locorotondo and Rome in August, and so on. Give update, here.
So, are you Gasato?
Yes, I'm happy. Everyone tells me “Are you Gasato that the record comes out?” In reality there is an ego I have a quite constant gags. I am an enthusiastic person of things. Then, you know, independently of my album, I actually make music all year round for other people, for my artists, as a producer, so I am actually always gas. This is saying that it is a bit of a different satisfaction, because it is my personal project.
Shablo. Photo by Enea Colombi
It was a little bit that something impressive of yours was left.
Yes, for a long time. From a year to this part I decided a little more to dedicate myself to myself as a precisely artist. When you do the work even of management or to work behind the scenes, this thing takes away from you to the artistic part, in quotes. So I felt, after so many years that I also dedicated to the organization, to management, that the time had come to return a little to the origins. It's right.
Among other things, you started doing live before the disc was released: I saw you at MI AMI in May.
On the live side it is as if I were totally an emerging, because people know me for my DJ sets. Maybe I did in the past live with the groups. I started on stage with the Dogo in 2002, but I was always someone else's DJ, understand? Or I do dj set where I put music in clubs. But basically a real live in my name I have never done a tour. A tour in my name. So for me it is the first time, and I felt a bit of the need. The difficulty I found with this new project is also the fact of a little reconstruction of the artist shablo. Because in the hip hop environment everyone has heard me name, but maybe because they are the sphere manager, or because I produced another artist, or because in the 90s he was with Inoki.
There are many names to which maybe it is associated with: Irama, Rkomi, Gaia, there was Rab Blanco, but basically the first Shablo was the one who made music since the late 90s. Maybe the youngest fans who know me today for the trap or for other things are not clear where I arrive. So also on the live side for everyone is a bit of a novelty, for me primarily. The idea was slowly performing me, it is not a classic DJ set, but in a live reinterpretation of what have been my influences in these 20 years. This live will be a tribute to all the songs that formed me: classics of soul, rt & b, of the hip hop 90s. And then obviously the unpublished of the new album. It is a bit of a double soul.
Also call him Manifest It is then a statement: in the sense, “this is what they are”, isn't it?
Exact. I liked both the Statement speech to clearly show what they are and what my origins are and let's say all the influences I have had. What represents even if we speak so much of hip hop culture, which today perhaps has been lost, compared to what was the rap of the 80s -90. I talk to you about the times when he really had a meaning, a message. So, on the one hand there is this statement, on the other hand a little the discussion also to manifest what one has. I also liked the word of manifesting that now it is so fashionable.
Yes, intended how to give life to something, a physical form.
That's right. I am very close to the rap of the origins and I realized that there is a part of the adult audience that does not feel so much represented by the trap, the so -called urban music that today fills the rankings. There are many people from my generation or even bigger than me or slightly smaller who maybe want to hear something different, but still linked to the world of hip hop. On the other hand, however, there are a lot of young and very young people who perhaps have the curiosity and the desire to discover something different. To go to the root, thus discovering totally new stuff. For me it is the same stuff that I have been doing for 30 years with which I grew up, for many it is something that goes around and becomes cyclically an original thing.
Yes, but in fact I think this record is in any case precious, because because we return to the music played by the instruments. We evolve from Dal Mero and in any case sacred beatmaking. There are many winds, so soul and even a drum n bass track towards the end.
Shablo. Photo by Enea Colombi
In my opinion it is always necessary to counter the times. Maybe at a time when the tools were played so much, especially the 90s, in Italy I was one of the first to bring electronics to rap a little, because it was the novelty. Now that everything is very synthetic, very plastic, in my opinion to return a little to the staff, it is in turn the novelty, the breath of fresh air. You must always try to rebalance things. It is not that one style is beautiful and the other ugly. It's just a matter of balanced. And to balance at this moment I thought of returning to the origins of Black music: not only the soul and the R&B, but also funk, so much soul. And then hip hop and electronics of that English scene that went a lot in the 90s. This is explained that kind of jungle/drum n bass.
Among other things, that is a piece that was born with the Yellow Straps, a Belgian duo famous for doing these things a little 2Step, half -jungle, half electronic. Today it is thought that the urban world is very approved, which is all the same. Indeed, it is from a certain point of view, so I thought that reviewing a little subgenres of the Black world did well to everyone, above all to me. There is a whole world to explore.
It's not the classic producer album where you put the whole scene together, or am I wrong?
No, in fact. I got a little stewed from the producer albums of recent years because it had become a featuring list. Many big names to listen to streaming and that's it. Cases in which sometimes the artistic discourse was sometimes lost, more than anything else of the manufacturer's vision. In the past I have signed big successes also combining big names, but in the end it always comes out that the piece is from the artist who sings. The vision of the manufacturer often and willingly go into the background. This time instead I announced the tracklist without names at the beginning. I wanted people to focus on my vision. To date I do not even plan to put out the tracklist with the names until the day of the release, understand? We will probably add the featuring a few days before.
In addition, always unlike the producer album, this time there are new and very recurring names in the pieces. Have you bet a lot on Joshua, for example?
Yes, it is a bet and also the novelty: he is a young, emerging boy, but at the same time he has this way of singing that seems much more mature than his age. It has a style, a very R&B stamp that in Italy was missing. Then oh well there is torment that represents such a master and Guè who is the godfather.
But did you record it in the same studio as San Giminiano that Mace also talked to me?
Just that. The place is certainly magical because it is in the middle of nothing. Nature and allows you to connect that part that is deeper, more creative. I always live 2000 rpm here in Milan, always with my hands in the business. Here, instead going there allows you to unplug for a moment and to make intensive sessions where you give the priority totally to creativity. Among other things, it is mega supplied, it has a lot of games and toys that for us production nerds is a practically playground. It then counts that, rather than registering it, that album was written there. The recordings have been engraved mainly in Moyssa [creative hub e studio di cui Shablo è socio in via Watt, ndr].
Well, Tuscany is now very strong. A few months ago J Balvin told me and Fred De Palma that he bought the house there.
With Balvin we have known each other for a long time, it has been several years. I followed everything the first time that Sfera met him, we saw each other in Miami several times. However, I am Argentine, so let's say that there is a nice connection with the whole Colombian world. He is one of the family and every time he comes to Italy he calls us. There is certainly a nice support on its part.
And now that Casa Montalcino has bought and wants to learn Italian perfectly within a year, we must wait for it in the Fimi rankings. Would you sign a beat for him?
Certain. Who knows what will happen? We will see.
