ABSTRACT
Anger, disappointment, rebellion, conviction, and grit: written 18 years apart, these two songs express the artistic and cultural continuum that has characterized Italian posse music since the early 1990s. The need to expose the country’s corrupted political system, the inefficiency of school infrastructures, the limited rights of factory workers and high youth unem ployment, the inherent deadlock of existing hierarchies and ensuing margin alization of ‘irrelevant’ communities, the ascendancy of extremist rightwing politics, and the infiltrating presence of local mafias in the South-these are some of the most prevalent issues addressed in this heterogeneous music genre, influenced by hip hop, reggae, Italian cantautori,1 ska, dub, and local folk music. As a hybrid mix of global and local trends, posse music has relied heavily on the politicized activist content of its origins and has come to epitomize a unique mode of social protest and musical disruptions. By
adapting international genres like hip hop and raï and mixing them with regional dialects and traditional beats, these groups called attention to the specificity of their local causes while, simultaneously, establishing inevitable correspondences with other subjugated and exploited cultures across the world (Anselmi, 2002, p. 31).
