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Raging Fires: O’Priò’s “La Deposizione”

Italian rapper O'Priò fires off a missive to a former crime boss and sheds light on environmental disaster.

O’Priò’s “La Deposizione” has an interesting story to it. It deals with a catastrophe in Southern Italy called “La Terra dei fuochi” (The Land of the Fires), which concerns the areas around Naples and Caserta, respectfully. These areas were targeted for waste contamination years ago and have remained an environmental disaster since, polluting the groundwater and food sources in Italy with toxic waste. O’Priò fingers Carmine Schiavone (a former member of criminal organization Camorra) for this environmental crime, taking him to task in his lyrics of restrained fury.

Recalling the rubbery grooves and melted funk of British hip-hopper Tricky (there’s a faint whiff of the Bristolian’s “Feed Me” in the song’s chiming keyboard licks), “La Deposizione” gives listeners pause to think and takes hip-hop out of the gutters of money and fame to present a deeper, more pressing issue — one that has been cause for concern in Italy these last few years. The music video’s Mafioso shadings and repetitious imagery give it a curious reading of Godfather affectations refracted through a Maya Deren-esque narrative.