Listening to nayt's tenth album, “io Individuo”, is like receiving your best friend at your home in the middle of the night – or rather, at midnight – who for an hour wants to let off steam and share with you his doubts, his fears and his experiences, divided between darkness and light.
A subjective and personal story between urban and singer-songwriter along 13 songs – for the more technical, a “conscious rap” – which becomes collective and expands on society, with its contradictions and its limits. In a direct, sincere, at times even crude way – for the most sensitive, with “explicit lyrics” which are never gratuitous but which enhance the story -, rarely judgmental, without frills, rhetoric and superstructures. Just like the arrangements, however refined, essential, functional and at the service of the words and the message, above all capable of ranging credibly between different moods – from urban to acoustic, also passing through the jazz nuances of “Scrivendo” and “Esistere (più di me)”.
A rap that does not boast of the usual clichés linked to fame – notoriety, money, relationship with the opposite sex – but rather highlights its contradictions and weaknesses, of which the forerunner “Scrivendo” is a true manifesto of intent, between piano and wind instruments, even allowing itself an invective on the recording industry (“money solves nothing, on the contrary it makes it worse, even a deaf person suffers from it, the public is a drug addict and the goods are poor, the system squeezes a talent (…) the pop stuff of the last thirty years is torture, to save it Calcutta wasn't enough (…), to me the music industry in Italy sucks, it's not my problem, everyone talks badly about it but they wallow in it, it's a bit stuffed up, a withered flower, I'll publish an estimate: 99% of the public is passive”).
There are abundant biographical references (“when a father teaches you how to be alone”, “overcoming the allure of drugs”…) and reflections on his artistic journey (“I enter the mainstream in my own way or it could even go into gangrene, my success does not depend on singing in Sanremo”).
Furthermore, a Festival that has faced for the first time exactly as it has faced this album, without distorting itself and without sparing itself, but rather, already demonstrating a relevant experience for its still young age – it is no coincidence that the piece presented, “Prima che”, worked even better than recorded on the Ariston stage, thanks to a more airy orchestral arrangement, vocal variations and intertwining with the choir.
Among the most interesting moments of the album, “L'astronauta” with vocal sample of “Briciole” by Noemi – which could be a potential single –; “Ci nasci, ci die”, which stands out for the contrast between the breathless verses and the catchy refrain, where he seems to seek a direct comparison with Fabri Fibra; “Forte, the most pop song and another potential single with a summer flavour, with a quick chorus and captivating synths; the acoustic atmospheres in “Addio XX” and the even more singer-songwriter ones in “Essere noi” – while Elisa's featuring in “Stupido pensiero” seems to find a real fit only at the end, with the successful union of the two voices.
However, it is a little surprising that the successful Sanremo duet with Joan Thiele in “La canzone dell'amore perduto” by Fabrizio De André remained out of the tracklist.
The order and mood of the songs seems to trace the artistic direction of nayt, from the most brazen and “angry” rap to the more pop and relaxed soul, managing to be credible in every nuance of itself, underlining that this is a research album, both on a thematic and musical level,
The intimate story is embellished with two very personal interludes: “Origini interlude” with the mother's confessions in her relationship with her absent husband and “Contradictions: interlude”, a dialogue that seems taken from a session with the psychologist – and probably is too, given William's urgency to expose himself as he is. And for this reason it is so appreciated by those who really know how to listen and those who still seek some truth in today's musical panorama.
So much so that when your best friend, after letting off steam and asking you questions and not answers, gets up, thanks you and leaves, you perhaps feel more satisfied than him, because he has managed with his fragility to make you feel less alone.
TO LISTEN NOW
Writing, The Astronaut, Strong
TO BE SKIPPED IMMEDIATELY
Nothing.
SCORE: Score 7.50
TRACKLIST
1. Exist (more than me)
2. The astronaut
3. You are born there, you die there
4. A man
5. Origins – Interlude
6. Meeting point
7. Strong
8. Stupid Thought feat. Elisa
9. Before that
10. Goodbye xx
11. Be us
12. Contradictions – Interlude
DISCOGRAPHY
2012 – Nayt One
2016 – A kiss
2017 – Raptus 2
2019 – Raptus vol. 3
2020 – Mood
2021 – Doom
2023 – Habitats
2024 – Letter Q
2026 – I Individual
Mixtapes
2013 – Shitty Life Mixtape
2015 – Raptus
THE VIDEO
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