Nemesi - Sotto il sole, lungo i vicoli 2004

Nemesi - Sotto il sole, lungo i vicoli (rmx) 2004

Music lovers know the dilemma. No matter how much stuff you listen to, how high your records already tower, how hard you pin your ears to the speakers when your trusted disc-jockey is on the air, you can’t shake the feeling that you’re missing out on something completely essential. A life-changing album by some band you never heard of. Some legendary live recording by your favorite artist you’ll never be able to track down. A Buddhist brotherhood who developped this amazing vocal technique over the course of centuries. The 19-year old slacker who bought a guitar a month ago and already pens the most brilliant songs. Living with the burdening certainty that he hasn’t heard nothing yet can drive any music freak insane.

But what if some of the best music never reaches us because whoever made it is not interested in making it public? Despite the overpopulation of online platforms like www.SoundClick.com, there are still people who make music solely for their own enjoyment. If you don’t believe me, ask Nemesi. I’ve had exchanges over the internet with the man for up to five years now and am still baffled by his unusual but at the same time perfectly normal relationship with making music and what you and I call hip-hop. To put it short, it’s not easy to please the music fan in Nemesi. I might even call him a snob if it wasn’t so apparent that he holds originality and sincerity in very high regards. Ask him about hip-hop and the answer is gonna be that it mostly sucks. Not just the music, but the very idea of it. Yet and still, he’s been writing rhymes, recording raps and putting beats together for the longest. Just not in the most productive manner. Nemesi cares about music - a lot - but not that much that he would want to turn his life upside down for it.

It is therefore not because he would look for exposure that I showcase his music on our blog. It is because listening to it made me realize how much good music never leaves the confines of its creator’s home. So it is my pleasure to present you (by consent) two versions of Nemesi’s “Sotto il sole, lungo i vicoli.” It’s a song inspired by Naples, a famous city in southern Italy (Nemesi himself is from northern Italy). Naples is still plagued by organized crime (la camorra), a fact reflected in the chorus that references several Italian cop flicks (polizieschi) from the sixties and seventies, some of which came with really interesting soundtracks. As a fitting tribute, the sinister version of “Sotto il sole…” samples Francesco De Masi’s “Smooth Thrill” (AKA “Organised Crime”) from 1977’s Napoli Spara (Weapons of Death). Which sample he uses for the remix you can figure out yourself. Nemesi uses Sound Forge and Acid Pro.