On Rhythms and Rhymes: Poetics of Identity in Postcolonial Italy

Music, media and the arts in general have become a prime site of deep cultural contestation and polarization in Italy, generating unprecedented fractures in how Italian identity is conceived and lived. This article examines how the borders of Italian identity have been gradually stretched and challenged in the music of contemporary artists such as Mahmood, Ghali, and Amir Issaa. Through their beats, their lyrics, and, in the case of Issaa, his writing, these artists have given voice to a facet of Italianness that is rarely spotlighted in the media. In this sense, these cultural productions complicate the Italian collective memory by adding a layered understanding of contemporary identities, rooted in different cultures, speaking different languages, and embracing a way of being Italian that is looking to the future through the lens of the country’s colonial past.