Sfera Ebbasta

Gionata Boschetti aka Sfera Ebbasta is a rapper born in 1992 who grew up in the outskirts of Milan. Thanks to his collaboration with producer Charlie Charles, he emerges through a series of singles released independently online and reaches his debut album "XDVR" (2015), which helps him attract the attention of listeners, fellow rappers and the music industry, on the lookout for new faces capable of representing a new, budding trap scene. In this early phase, the music videos contribute greatly to defining an imagery different from that of 2000s Italian rap, drawing mainly from the US and French trap scenes. It's a meteoric rise to success, so much so that his first album to have a professional production, if that distinction even makes sense in 2016, is already released with a major label, Universal; "Sfera Ebbasta" presents him as the champion of trap-pop, achieves considerable commercial success and paves the way for the even more resounding success of "Rockstar" (2018; seven times platinum). The hype is fueled by collaborations, gossip and new singles, to the point that "Famoso" (2020; five times platinum) can boast a production with international ambitions and world-famous guests. The star of numerous hit singles, even when featured as a guest, Sfera Ebbasta, now a father and approaching his thirties, partly returns to his origins with "X2VR" (2023), the follow-up to his debut album.

(Antonio Silvestri)