Assalti Frontali - The seed of hip-hop yet to come

No fear

It's an assault, it's a frontal assault

(from “Assalto Frontale”)

Protest rap: from Onda Rosse Posse to Terra di nessuno.

The essential band par excellence of early Italian hip-hop is Assalti Frontali, from Rome, active since the early '90s. They rose from the ashes of one of the most seminal Roman musical collectives, Onda Rosse Posse, formed in the late '80s as an offshoot of Radio Onda Rossa, a station founded by a group of militants from Rome's Autonomia Operaia movement.

In 1990 Onda Rossa Posse released “Batti il tuo tempo”, one of the very first examples of hip-hop sung in Italian. The record remained a relic for a handful of enthusiasts until 2005, when it was reissued on CD. It amounts to the 24 most seminal minutes in the history of Italian hip-hop, even accounting for the project's thoroughly amateurish nature. The single “Baghdad 1.9.9.1”, released under the name Uniti Contro La Guerra, shows that the Onda Rosse Posse story had already come to an end: the anti-war anthem is in fact credited to a number of artists, among them the future members of Assalti Frontali.

Dicono 'state calmi'

Ma intanto io li vedo in armi

Che ci stanno cercando

Guarda al Leoncavallo, assassini al soldo

Maiali, qual è la ricompensa?

La vostra ricompensa per il Leonka morto

(from "Batti Il Tuo Tempo")

The connection between Onda Rossa Posse and the most important band in Italian hip-hop, though, couldn't be stronger: the name Assalti Frontali was originally meant to designate the label that would handle Onda Rossa Posse's record releases. Only later did it become the name of a band.

The turning point, however, only comes in 1992 with the release of what is probably the most important debut in early Italian rap, Terra di nessuno, an album sold through independent channels and recorded inside the Forte Prenestino social center. This debut is entirely self-produced by the band, in line with a do-it-yourself philosophy dictated by circumstance. For distribution, they relied on grassroots networks within squats and social centers, a solution that let the music immediately filter into a specific social environment, one built on opposition to the establishment and anger toward the state and its representatives. This underclass imprinting would prove fundamental to the band's history, as they emerged "from below" and would remain firmly anchored to those roots even once wider recognition arrived at a national level.

More than just an album, it's a major event in the history of Italian music: someone was attempting to transplant into our country the expressive urgency - militant, politicized, aggressive, violent, cutting - of the most committed American hip-hop. The sociopolitical context naturally changes, in this case the Italy of the Tangentopoli scandals. The sound is still doubly tied to the homegrown rock tradition, particularly the strain that had already taken root in the social centers. It's only natural, then, that the instrumentation of "Assalto Frontale," the identity anthem featuring a veteran of Italian hip-hop like Lou X, plays a fairly formulaic punk-rock, seasoned with scratching and a particular attention to groove. But Militant A, the voice and symbolic figurehead of Assalti Frontali, is in every sense a new kind of rapper, focused on rhyming and flowing with the beat, uninterested in melody and committed to delivering an ultra-politicized message.

The mood is grim on "Terra di nessuno," another notable moment for understanding the first steps of Italian hip-hop: it's the urban paranoia of Roma Capitale, a stifling, unhealthy atmosphere, polluted and suffocating, which brings Assalti Frontali close to Sangue Misto. Compared to the sanitized, party-oriented version of hip-hop already popularized by Jovanotti, here we get a concentrate of invective and threats like "F.O.T.T.I.T.I.," already fairly explicit in its title. Admittedly, some tracks seem undone by rough production, like "Mai soli per il mondo" or "Dobbiamo esserci." On Terra di nessuno there's still the urgency to put political ideas and ideological convictions on record, but without the technical support that would come with the mature works of the Italian scene. The choice to use a "real" band like Brutopop acts as an ideal compromise with the social centers' recent punk past, turning Assalti Frontali into a curious hybrid of alternative rock and thoroughly underground hip-hop.

⟦Q1⟧

⟦Q2⟧

⟦Q3⟧

⟦Q4⟧

⟦Q5⟧

(from "Terra di nessuno")

Fugazi and majors: Conflitto and Banditi.

Incredibly, with their second album Conflitto (1996), Assalti Frontali swerve away from the entire Italian hip-hop scene that had in the meantime blossomed all around them. The new music had moved from the social centers to the charts, and the Rome-based band, going completely against the grain, opted for a path that, rather than a "third way" between pop and hip-hop, was simply unique, if not outright experimental.

The challenge was to merge the sound of America's Fugazi with a hip-hop sensibility, in a rap-rock fusion that isn't just an isolated case in Italy, but one that finds few parallels anywhere in the world. To make this possible, production duties went to none other than Don Zientara, who had worked with the Washington DC band.

The fusion of rap and rock typically happens through funk, the ideal meeting point. Veering instead toward tensions closer to Slint than Funkadelic, Assalti Frontali gave up capitalizing on their status as founding fathers of the hip-hop movement, instead exploring a solution entirely removed from what had been proposed both by the more "hardcore" factions (Sangue Misto, Dj Gruff, Frankie Hi-Nrg, Lou X, 99 Posse) and by the more overtly pop ones (first and foremost Articolo 31). There are few Italian works, rock or hip-hop, from the '90s that, in this writer's opinion, match the creativity and distinctiveness of Conflitto. The cohesiveness of the work, which explores various forms of resistance to society, ideological hostility and rebellion, is enough to make the album one of the most politicized collections of songs on record in Italian popular music.

The anguish is that of Massimo Volume (particularly in the tormented “In Movimento”), one of the few credible points of comparison for this angular Assalti Frontali, though obviously far more oriented toward rap than the spoken-sung style of the band behind “Along the edges”. Jesus Lizard and Fugazi can be heard in “Devo avere una casa per andare in giro per il mondo”, but it's the tragic atmosphere of “Verso la grande mareggiata” that really grabs the attention: it's a new way of depicting social depression, somewhere between Sonic Youth and an urban neo-tribalism.

“Sud” is the single that becomes the soundtrack to Gabriele Salvatores's film of the same name, the movie that cements hip-hop as a new means of expression even among intellectuals. The title track is a convulsive charge, which benefits from its contrast with the frenzied dance groove of “Fascisti in doppiopetto”. The album closes with the hardcore-punk of “HC”, reaffirming an old bond with the musical tradition of the centri sociali.

A work with no precedents and no successors, Conflitto is an album that is in some ways essential and in others marginal. It's hard to leave it out of any account of Italian hip-hop, since it's extremely original and atypical, yet it's also an album that, precisely because of its remoteness from the rest of the scene, stands apart from it without actually narrating the scene's evolution. Conflitto seems to represent the only way to sound different, alternative and militant once again, in a musical landscape where the (often self-proclaimed and presumed) militant sound of posse hip-hop has been forgotten in favor of other, far more palatable solutions for the mainstream audience.

Not even Assalti Frontali would continue down the difficult path of post-rock hip-hop: indeed, Banditi (1999) is by far the most conventional of their albums. Ice One's production, striking but also completely detached from punk and rock, overhauls the music and puts Militant A's rapping front and center. There's still strong ideological and political tension, there's still aggression in the rhymes, but the whole thing is easier to place within the generic national scene.

Their arrival at major label Bmg also coincides with “Va tutto bene”, the first track in their discography with a radio-friendly sound. Some moments, though, still land like punches to the gut, especially “Zero tolleranza”, textbook hardcore hip-hop. “A 30 miglia di mare” is a new manifesto of political commitment, addressing the war in the former Yugoslavia.

From the band's official page: “After the experience of ‘Banditi’, Assalti Frontali broke with Bmg, right in the middle of a recording-industry crisis caused by the rise of new technologies enabling online sharing and the mass spread of burned CDs; there's no room for an agreement between those moving toward the sharing of knowledge and those looking only for profit. It's an entire style and way of presenting oneself that are in collision.”

Return to independence: from HSL to the thirtieth anniversary.

Bmg told me it doesn't work like that anymore

voleva molto più denaro dai miei cd

mi dice sii più Eminem o più Fatboy

o qualcosa di già conosciuto dentro il parco buoi

he tells me it doesn't make sense if you don't sell thirty thousand copies a year

I tell them you're idiots, this is the album of the year

sarò borderline, sarò a rischio

ma sulla strada io so cosa ha senso per un disco

(from "Sulla Strada")

The ill-fated experience with Bmg comes to a swift end: HSL (Hic Sunt Leones) (2004) sees the band return to independent production, with a decidedly more rock sound and, at the same time, renewed anti-establishment energy. "Denaro gratis", "Le merde fanno affari" and "No religione" are three new anthems for dissenters. Never before, moreover, has the band sounded so playful, as on carefree tracks like "Sulla strada" or "Presto presto": it's a new balance that builds a serious but never gloomy album, one that also recovers a funky immediacy, alongside a few hardcore-punk leftovers.

By the time the fifth album arrives, the musical landscape the band finds itself in is once again new. I think tonight… (2006) forcefully returns to hip-hop, aided by production from Max Casacci of Subsonica. Since 1999's Banditi, though, a lot has changed. The hardcore-hip-hop scene has exploded with names like Colle Der Fomento, Fabri Fibra and Kaos One, while a band like Club Dogo imposed a new, modern way of playing hip-hop in Italy back in 2003. So, catchy, politically engaged and full of hooks you'll be repeating endlessly as it is (good luck not humming along to "Che stress i Ros"!), the album mostly comes across as a belated demonstration that the band deserves a place among the scene's founding fathers.

By now it's well established that the band can play pure hip-hop, keep social and political commitment at its core, and still indulge in moments of irresistible fun: A Perfect Understanding (2008) contains both "Senza resa" and the nursery-rhyme-like "La mia crew", both "Giù le lame" and "Dal Bujaccaro", dedicated to a bona fide Roman trattoria.

The troubled gestation of Profondo Rosso (2011) is due to the crisis at "Il Manifesto", which publishes many of the band's works. Aggressive and lighthearted depending on the moment, with an "Avere vent'anni" worthy of Caparezza and a "Mamy" and a "Sono cool questi Rom" steeped in reggae. In the midst of the new explosion of rap in Italy, that of trap, Assalti Frontali are ready to carry on their musical mission with great consistency on Mille Gruppi Avanzano (2016). They've never been so much like storytellers ("Asbesto", "Il lago combatte" featuring Il Muro del Canto), perhaps the natural consequence of their first grey hairs. They truly have nothing left to prove to anyone, so they remain as untouched by fashion as ever.

In December 2017 the video for "Piazza Indipendenza" is released, about the eviction of the building occupied by 400 Ethiopian and Somali asylum seekers in the square of the same name the previous August, while in April 2019 they release the video for the unreleased song "Simonetta", a rap storytelling piece about the life of Simonetta Salacone, the headteacher of the Iqbal Masih school who had died two years earlier.

Still alive, still active, consistent in their distinct and personal path, Assalti Frontali have developed their own personal take on hip-hop, one that clears the Italian scene of accusations of imitation and derivativeness. Their world and their history are only partly a matter of albums, songs, concerts and videos; they're also a long human and artistic journey, one told even better in the books published by Militant A. Following the decision to sign with a major label, he writes "Storie di Assalti Frontali" (1997), retracing the band's history through the '80s and '90s, intertwined with the collective history of the Italian social centre movement. He follows up with "Il viaggio della parola", about the Zapatista cause, and then "Soli contro tutto – Romanzo non autorizzato" (2014), about a multi-ethnic Rome fighting for public, secular and inclusive schools. In 2018, with "Conquista il tuo quartiere e conquisterai il mondo – La mia vita con il rap", the author recounts the rap workshops held in schools and around the world. "Storie di Assalti Frontali", meanwhile, chronicles the project's more than thirty-year history.

The compilation 1990 – 2020 (2020) is a not-to-be-missed opportunity to pay tribute to a hip-hop act with no equal in Italy, one that shouldn't have to wait any longer for the wider, shared recognition it deserves as one of the cornerstones of our alternative scene.

Still in conflict: Courage and Notte Immensa.

When they return with their ninth studio album, Courage (2022), they prove they still firmly believe in their mission, despite the relentless passing of the years. An opportunity for a new promotional tour, the perfect chance to witness with your own eyes the band's indestructible perseverance, it's an album that points to no new direction, finding its strength instead in its refusal to conform to any trend.

Predictably, the 13 new tracks follow the band's established style, stubbornly defined since the 2000s onward: a Roman brand of hip-hop with ample room for politically engaged messages, varied here and there by a few touches of modernity in the form of more electronic beats ("Strade perse", "Sogno ancora") and lyrics updated to reflect the issues of our times, from the war in Ukraine to the green pass ("La morale"), right up to climate change ("Difendi l'albero").

The title track and anthem "Courage" is essentially a message to themselves, to gather their strength once again and carry on, wearing their heart on their sleeve, with their lifelong activism. On an album written to overcome both the death of Militant A's mother and the hard years of the pandemic, the centerpiece is perhaps "Ufo nella scena", the track that places Assalti Frontali firmly in the present, aliens amid the content and social-media obsession of what Mark Fisher called "depressive hedonia". The gentler, more melancholy "Perdere la testa" and "Vecchi pirati", meanwhile, represent the less combative side of the tracklist, in line with the band's more recent, mellower poetics, which has emerged as the years have gone by.

Closing things out are two very different tracks, held together by the will to reach the audience through more immediate means: first the social commitment of “Gol gol rap – Evviva il calcio popolare”, sung together with the Piccolo Coro dell'Antoniano, then the folk dance of “Brest”, a closer dedicated to the mother, moving in the way it describes her dance steps.

“We had to put something out, it was too important for the album to come out now” is instead the message they put out through the press ahead of the release of Notte immensa (2024). Shaped by the workshops the band's frontman has been running in schools for years, it's steeped in the present, in the language of young people (“Notte immensa”) and even in some of the sounds typical of today's scene, like the distorted basses and grandiose synths of “Subito fuoco”, yet the style is once again unmistakably oppositional, centred on the message.

Uncompromisingly outspoken, angry, with their own “Focus sulle rime”, as the title of one of the most heartfelt and energetic tracks confirms—already tailor-made for live shows, as is the following “Sognatori”: the idea that music can still change the world lives on, protesting in the streets, denouncing the horror of the genocide in Gaza, opposing war and fascism.

“Più che si può” speaks precisely to the very young, lost in a hostile society, “that has massacred us”, and burdened with guilt, much like “Lascia la mente libera”, another message perfectly suited to teenagers.

They even revive the rap-rock they played many years ago on “So' già rientrato”, paired with the Spanish-tinged crossover of “Nel barrio” to show two different sides of a career spanning over thirty years with no equal in Italy.

“Notte immensa” is full of shadows and anguish, but it's also shot through with the brightest of hopes. It uses a recognizable language, at times even rhetorical in some of its slogans and typical of a certain extra-parliamentary left, yet it sounds as alive and urgent as the albums of rappers half Militant A's age too often fail to be. “Fanculo ci siamo anche noi” starts from a simple observation—“the best tea is made in Palestine”—and builds from it a bitter tale full of the will to fight and to loudly declare “it's genocide”. In addressing these themes so explicitly, Assalti Frontali will prove divisive, hard to swallow for those with a different stance, and perhaps difficult to grasp for those who feel distant from such issues—but regardless of whether one agrees with their point of view, they prove still capable of practising a rap of thought and protest, of message and struggle, in a way almost no one does anymore in Italy, and few still do anywhere in the world.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google