Tedua

Mario “Tedua” Molinari, born in Genoa in 1994, started out with the stage names Incubo and Duate, with the latter later becoming his better-known artist name once run through the syllable-inversion rules of riocontra. He grew up between his native Genoa and Milan, spending his adolescence in Cogoleto, a small Ligurian town in the hinterland of the regional capital.

In 2015, back in Milan, he wrote the songs that ended up on his first mixtape, “Aspettando Orange County”, released that same year. Together with the following “Orange County Mixtape” (2016), these are albums that feature appearances from producers and rappers who would go on to become key figures of the Italian trap wave: Sfera Ebbasta, Ghali, Rkomi, Izi, Charlie Charles, Sick Luke, Chris Nolan and others. The initial trilogy closes with “Orange County California” (2017), which effectively expands “Orange County Mixtape”: it's his first platinum record.

The new phase begins with “Mowgli” (2018), also well received by audiences, but the third chapter, “Vita vera”, originally planned for 2020, gets postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. What emerges is a composite album, in the form of an extended mixtape, titled “Vita vera mixtape – Waiting for the Divina Commedia” (2020). “La Divina Commedia” doesn't arrive until 2023.

Among his influences, he cites the dreamlike stream-of-consciousness rap style of Dargen D'Amico.

(Antonio Silvestri)