“No nostalgia business”. “We are not a monument, we are the dove that shits on us”. J-axe Celebrate the debut of Article 31 compete at Sanremo Music Festival 2023 which also coincides with his first time at Sanremo, where he never promised to drive either in the race or as a guest. The duo composed by J-Ax and by DJ Jad (Born 1990, paused from 2006 to 2018 and then returned to the scene) was actually announced through amadeus in the cast of singers that the artistic director described as his “super guests in the competition”.
The Social Lane
“We’re back, even more locked in, with walls packed, with records certified,” J-Ax sings in the freestyle rap video posted to social media, joking that he’s changed his mind about the festival.
“So – the song goes on – zero nostalgia surgery, it’s a facial surgery type surgery that changes connotations. I said never again with Jad or with Fedez. I never said talent on TV. Life then said to me: asshole, why are you? block yourself? You know who never changes their mind? The dull and the dead. I never said sanremo and see you at the ariston and if it sends you to the acid suck my gaviscon. I never want to take a friend by the neck again and break up a band because I’m a control freak. I’m not a dictator like Kim in North Korea.”
“So when Jad said, ‘Let’s go.’ I said, ‘Good idea – go on with the song – Let’s go from Milan. Mecca of the zanzas, Beppe takes selfies in the sala but in the basement he scratches his pocket with no money. Inclusivity.’ is a farce, you can call it nolo, but it remains a nolo gram. So the article returns. We are not a monument, we are the pigeon that shits on us,” concludes J-Ax.
Never together on TV
Alessandro Aleotti (J-axe) e Vito Luca Perrini (Dj Jad) have never taken part in a television show together, except as musical guests. In this sense, the numerous holdings in the festival bar in the 1990s, while the duo appeared in the 2004 film Natale a casa Deejay.
A commercial before the single
Article 31’s first single was Born to rap, which was a limited edition, vinyl only release. Subsequently, the song was included in the album Strade di città (1993), produced by Franco Godi, author of some well known commercial music from the 60’s and 70’s and the SuperGulp theme songs. And it is no coincidence that Article 31 and Godi composed the Jinling for the single before A rap of fiat. Later, Tocca qui also appeared as a single, which became an immediate radio success: for the first time, an Italian hip-hop group achieved good sales success and entered the charts.
The following year, the second CD Messa di Vespiri marked a departure from the underground hip-hop scene; in the same year Spaghetti Funk was founded, whose project aimed at the production of Italian hop-hop music. Included on the album were Ohi Maria, which was based on a sampling by Ahi Maria Rino Gaetanowith which Article 31 won in 1995 Disco for the summer, and I want a dirty one. In 1996, the following album, Cosi com’è, achieved excellent commercial results, which included Tranqui funky, Cosi e cosà and Il funkytarro, among others.
In spring 1998 the fourth album Nobody was released, preceded by the single La girlfriend: the theme was based on the chorus of Mom, I too want my girlfriend by Natalino Otto. The song also featured a quote from Cerutti’s Ballad of George Gabriel.
Xché sì! was released in December 1999: a mixture of pop/funk and hip hop, which gave this album a very catchy musicality.
December 2000: Greatest Hits was the title of the first collection. Includes the unreleased volume, some hit singles and other lesser known ones like It’s Christmas (but I’m not in it) and So you keep me.
The musical breakthrough
The musical turning point began in mid-2002. With the release of Domani smetto, Articolo 31, driven by J-Ax’s need to experiment with new sounds, partly different from the previous ones (because, as they often recall, they don’t like to “repeat”) the hip -Hop classics abandoned in favor of a broader genre of music leaning toward pop-rock.
Great success with the new musical formula came in 2004 with the album Italiano medio released by My girl mena (which preceded the album’s release in October 2003) and the title track L’italiano medio.
In 2006, after nine albums, the duo broke up and entered the Olympus of Italian street music history, also thanks to the lyrics of their songs, which did not remind of the gangsta world or talk about money or women as objects. In addition, Article 31 and her crew also made Without filter in 2001, a film that tells the story of Milan at the end of the millennium and that can at times be seen as a manifesto of those years.
solo careers
For J-Ax, television has practically become a second job (although the partnership with fedez, from which he departed and then made peace). Increasingly courted by the small screen, J-Ax made himself known as a coach on the early issues of The Voice, winning one with (the then) Sister Christina.
Webnotte, the beginning of J-Ax: “It’s not a movie”
J-Ax’s second job
From there directing the late night show Sorci Verdi, the Concertone of May Day and participating as artistic director of a competition team of Amici di Maria De Filippi. Most recently, he headed the 100-strong jury for All Together Now.
If J-Ax has never touched the Ariston stage in the midst of so much TV (last year he said on social media never to watch Sanremo on TV but the next day’s online performances), the case is with Dj Jad Anders, who competed in Sanremo instead.
DJ Jad in Sanremo
After the group disbanded, Dj Jad continued to work as a disc jockey and embarked on a solo career, then joining the rapper artistically Ciccio cake create group Hear good sounds.
2010 the landing in Sanremo: Dj Jad was in the running Fabrizio Moro and garlic Jarabe de Palo with the song Non è una canzone, which did not return to the top ten.
In these twenty years Dj Jad seems to have tried to take part in the festival, even in tandem with him about fifteen years ago Toni Esposito. A rumored candidacy but never confirmed.
90’s nostalgia
Now he’ll be back in Sanremo, but with his lifelong friend and a brand, that of Article 31, who, after reuniting for the concerts of J-Ax’s 25-year career, took over the Ariston stage for a ’90s-style performance which despite the J-Ax song will bring back a little nostalgia for many.