Inoki

Fabiano Ballarin, known as Inoki, is a rapper born in Rome in 1979 and artistically raised in Bologna. After starting out with the Porzione Massiccia Crew and forging a friendship with Joe Cassano, he made a name for himself on the Italian hip-hop scene with tracks like “Giorno e notte” and appearances on major works such as Fritz Da Cat's “Novecinquanta”. His debut “5° Dan” (2001), self-produced and praised for its technical skill, marked the start of a career full of ups and downs, caught between '90s influences and attempts at modernization.

Inoki stayed active on the scene with mixtapes, freestyle battles like “2theBeat” and collaborations, but struggled to settle on a stable formula. He released “Fabiano detto Inoki” (2005) and “Nobiltà di strada” (2007), the latter on a major label. The following “L'antidoto” (2014) came too late to really make an impact, with his style already looking dated. In 2021 he returned with “Medioego”, an album that combines self-awareness with fidelity to his roots, standing as one of his most successful works. In 2025 he released “The Jazzness”, a project in which he reinterprets nine tracks from his past in a jazz key, rescuing forgotten songs with a more intimate, nocturnal and mature style, reaffirming his artistic identity in a completely changed landscape.

(Antonio Silvestri)