Dj Shocca

Producer albums as a turning point for Italian hip-hop

The album that stands as the original blueprint for Italian producers is arguably “La rapadopa” by Dj Gruff, released in 1993. Thanks to collaborations with heavyweights like Kaos, Esa, La Pina, Neffa and Deda, it's a rare chance to observe key players of the scene up close before the 1994 Big Bang. The record is massive, brazen in its sheer scale, and at the same time definitive and programmatic, a statement of intent that applies as much to Gruff himself as to homegrown hip-hop: this is where things start getting serious. A full 25 tracks, then, drawing on Italy's leading names and a host of musicians, alternating instrumentals with rapped tracks, in a compendium that even today would put many hip-hop records to shame.

Then, following the huge surge in audience in the mid-Nineties, Italian hip-hop changed profoundly: from posse crews and squatted social centres, it moved into television, radio and concert halls. By the end of the millennium, it seemed everything had been swallowed up by the very system that Assalti Frontali had fought against with the antagonistic spirit of scene pioneers. There's a whole historical-musical question around this end-of-millennium malaise, to borrow a phrase from Uomini di Mare, one that leads us to another outstanding producer album as a symbolic closing of the circle opened at the start of the Nineties: it's “Novecinquanta” (1999; named after the Akai 950 sampler) by Fritz Da Cat, pivotal in rethinking the very idea of rap in Italian and, in particular, the relationship between producer and rapper. In the black hole that swallows the scene between the two millennia, it stands as a beacon telling of the possibility of rebirth and, at the same time, an album that seals an era, that of hip-hop in the Italian mainstream, which is fading before a long night sets in. The dawn will be heralded by a handful of remarkable debuts, such as “Turbe giovanili” (2002) by Fabri Fibra and Club Dogo's “Mi Fist” (2003), and it's also crowned by a third landmark producer album, Dj Shocca's “60 Hz”.

The frequency that became a cult classic: the producer album that tells the story of a rebirth

Treviso native Matteo “Dj Shocca” Bernacchi has a hardcore soul and a veteran's experience. Already active with Centro13 (alongside Mistaman, Ciacca and Frank Siciliano), who reached the album “Acciaio” (1997) before splitting up, he went on producing for others over the years, notably teaming up with Mistaman for the album “Colpi in aria” (2001). His style, rooted in the turn-of-the-millennium sound, makes him one of the most credible heirs to Fritz Da Cat, a solid link to the past that allows for a future to be imagined. He released the producer album that left his mark on the scene in 2004, while working at the Vibrarecords record shop in Verona. He was about to turn 25 and probably had no idea that, thanks to the 21 songs on “60 Hz”, he'd be remembered for a long time by fans of Italian hip-hop.

In an interview for the YouTube channel Groovesionary, Dj Shocca himself reconstructs the period when the album took shape: initially Andrea “Zeta” Zanetti, a collaborator of Bassi Maestro and the shop's owner, was also involved, but it later became a solo project, growing from a simple EP into a full LP; Francesco “Stokka” Romito would lend substantial help, on the logistical side, to finish the work after about two years.

The many guest vocalists (including Esa, Mistaman, Stokka & MadBuddy, Club Dogo, Nesli, Bassi Maestro, Tormento, Primo Brown, Frank Siciliano, ATPC, Rido, Inoki, Shezan il Ragio, Danno, Masito Fresco) move between old-school scratching, ubiquitous samples and clear US influences across a full 21 tracks. Boom-bap, jazz-rap and hardcore blend together in a tribute to hip-hop culture, both American and Italian. Not only that, it's also a group photo of the various local scenes, from Treviso to Rome, from Bologna to Turin.

The opening “Sessanta Hz” introduces a painstaking piece of assembly work by the man himself, with an instrumental that brings together, among others, A Tribe Called Quest, Jaylip, Fat Joe and Gangstarr: it's a dizzying feat of hip-hop production virtuosity, capable of dismantling and recontextualising even Pink Floyd's “Echoes”. There's always room, however, to let the beats breathe, even when guest vocalists are on the mic. The dripping piano on “The Industry Don’t Understand”, featuring a bitter Esa and Belgian rapper Rivalcapone as the international guest, serves as a bed for more scratches and samples, alongside lyrics that place the album in a critical stance towards the mainstream phase of the late Nineties:

Con i telecontenitori non vuoi rientrare in sintonia

Quando l’economia mondiale cresce

Solo per chi favorisce guerre di interesse

E non sai più se sei quel che volevi essere

Mistaman's long, intricate verses on “Adesso lo so” close with a small declaration of love for this music:

Il rap e i graffiti, i fat e gli skinny

I breakbeats, i loop, i book con gli schizzi

Un microfono, un jack

Linoleum, Adidas, rhymes inside a cypher

Scratching and vinyl, tags across the city

Breakdance, the moves, crews with their styles

A microphone, a check

That sound that wrecks and gels together on 60 Hz

The trio Stokka, MadBuddy and DJ Double S make the mix explosive on “Ghettoblaster”, with a powerful sample of LL Cool J for another identity-defining track (“The more they give you dirty looks, the more you feel like a rapper”). Amid the crossfire between Jake La Furia and Guè Pequeno on “Rendez vous col delirio” there's a beat that merges funk with sax scratches borrowed from Bob James's “One Loving Night”: it's a fusion of modernity and vintage, creativity and nostalgia.

There are those who come back from the mainstream toward boom-bap, like Tormento on “Fotografie”, credited under the alternate name Yoshi and also capable of soul vocalizing, but when the late Primo Brown shows up on “Sempre grezzo” the album hits one of its peaks: Italian hip-hop can also start over from those who never stopped believing in it, always chasing an authentic sound. The only ones competing in the same league of Italian-style hardcore are Danno and Masito of Colle der Fomento on “Coltelli”.

There are also two Bologna anthems that left an indelible mark on the local scene. The first is “Notte blu”, with Frank Siciliano on the mic, built on a sample of piano taken from the soundtrack of “Una donna tutta sola” (1978) and split between a fairly lively rhythm and a mournful lyric, akin to that “Aspettando il sole” that had turned Neffa into a somewhat unexpected hit maker . The second is “Bolo By Night” with an Inoki in top form alongside Royal Mehdi, laid over a sample of Herbie Hancock. The chorus is a snapshot of a generation of young rappers who still want to believe in hip-hop, live it and identify with it:

Sotto i portici viviamo street life

Siamo sempre per la strada mentre tu sei online

Rinchiusi in qualche casa ci fumiamo gran lainz

Mehdi, Inoki, Bologna by night

For Inoki it becomes an anthem and an essential track in his catalogue, so much so that in 2005 a remix also arrived, titled “Bologna by Night 2004” and included on his second album “Fabiano detto Inoki” (2005), which cuts out Mehdi's contribution and polishes up the somewhat hazy original recording, tweaking the first verses and adding a brand new third one.

Change of frequency: distance and return

“60 Hz” is a breakout success that Dj Shocca will never replicate again, even though he remains active, producing an album with Frank Siciliano under the name Unlimited Struggle: “Struggle Music” (2007) once again gathers plenty of guests (Mistaman, Stokka & MadBuddy, Bassi Maestro, Club Dogo, Ghemon, Tony Fine, Amir and Jack The Smoker) but doesn't renew the impact of its predecessor. Amid other productions, he fully produces “La scatola nera” (with Mistaman; 2012) and “4 Mani” (with Inoki; 2022), but only in 2023, in a reduced format, does he return to a true producer album, albeit a mini one: “Sacrosanto”, whose sound, harking back to “60 Hz”, can't help but grab the attention of anyone who's been following the scene since the previous century.

The actual follow-up arrives only in 2025, and it's yet another sign of a scene that has entered a phase of self-celebration: it's a parade of big names, entirely geared toward reviving the magic of twenty-one years earlier. Surprisingly, it partly succeeds, thanks to contributions from old hands like Neffa or Tormento, flanked by younger names on the scene. Dj Shocca's classic productions, full of quotes and references, do the rest, even if they slide dangerously into self-celebration when they rework old beats and new chapters of vintage tracks. In short, not even this beatmaker managed to replicate the magic.

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07/04/2026