Italian Hip Hop

Italian hip hop is the Italian-language branch of hip hop, built on rapping in Italian and regional dialects over boom bap, and later trap and drill, production. It began in the late 1980s in the centri sociali and jam circuit, where *Articolo 31*, *Frankie hi-nrg mc* and *Sangue Misto* turned an imported form toward Italian social critique; *Sangue Misto*'s "SxM" (1994) is its foundational album. After a commercial peak and decline around 2000, a second wave led by *Fabri Fibra* and *Marracash* restored it, and a third, trap-led generation made it the dominant Italian youth music of the late 2010s.