Il Pagante

The impression is that Il Pagante has practically stopped even trying. The parody of the hedonistic, self-deprecating, caricatured Milanese has lost its freshness over time — something we already noticed with "Devastante", three years ago. Since then, Federica Napoli left the project, and the trio has now become a duo: Giordano “Eddy Veerus” Cremona and Roberta “Brancar” Branchini. The singles from the past three years make up the backbone of "FOMO", an album that’s essentially a flimsy collection of stale past hits and forgettable new tracks. Twelve songs in total, 31 minutes long — to be consumed during summer 2025 while trying to capture a bit of lightness.

The problem is that ideas are scarce, and most of them are recycled from previously released tracks. The opening EDM cut "FOMO" sounds like a half-baked version of "Faccio After", with a third of its kitschy exuberance — ironically, it’s a perfect summary of the whole album. Despite its title and lyrics, the hip-house "Spingere" ft. VillaBanks — already a gold-certified single — lacks fun and self-irony. A breath of fresh air comes with "Clamo" ft. Sillyelly, thanks to its over-the-top guest with heavily filtered vocals and a nod to Corona. The funk guitars in the pop-house track "Costa Smeralda" do little to save it, though there’s a flicker of creativity in the lyrics of "Poveri Mai": “And now thanks to a Ponzi scheme / You eat raw fish with ponzu sauce.” But a few clever lines can’t save an otherwise forgettable song. "Cerveza" ft. Raffa FL has slightly better production, with a brass-infused, scratchy beat — but it’s still not enough.

They also attempt a more introspective electro-pop on "Milano Girls", almost a parody of Rkomi or Ernia, but things work much better when the production by Havoc & Lawn & ELYX on "La Nuova Tipa Del Mio Ex" ignites a blistering house beat worthy of M¥ss Keta.

The real hit on "FOMO" is the gold-certified "Maranza" ft. Fabio Rovazzi, which samples 1994’s "Think About the Way" by Alexia and Ice MC, and features production by Zef (who’s worked with Marracash, Ernia, Guè, and more). Here, the balance between immediacy, parody, self-irony, and a bit of lyrical creativity returns to the group’s glory days. There are delightfully trashy lines like:

Ora ho un sogno solo
Vorrei diventare come uno di loro
Un maranza con la tuta del Barça
Che gira per Milano in quattro sopra un SH

Here, Il Pagante manages to capture a social phenomenon — the maranza — with enviable precision and a generous dose of bad taste. It’s a pseudo-anthem that hides a parody: the social type it portrays is ridiculous, wearing a balaclava in 40-degree heat just to stay in character, and eventually “runs off when the cops roll by.” Even Fabio Rovazzi (unfairly hated, perhaps?) works perfectly in this context: he’s probably the farthest you can get from the aggressive image of a maranza with “a few minor convictions,” and yet even he ends up wanting to be like this new kind of zanza.

Too bad it’s only three minutes out of 31 — and very little else on the album is worthy of being added to a summer banger playlist. By 2025, the entire idea behind Il Pagante seems to be in crisis: even the image of a loud, obnoxious, imbruttito Milanese has been rehashed in so many memes and creator content that it’s lost its originality. The problem with gags is that they age fast, and every time you repeat them, they lose a bit more impact — until they just become predictable and dull.

21/06/2025