?! (Explicit)

by Jason BirchmeierCaparezza's Tutto Cio Che C'E showcases just how solid international rapping had become by the end of the '90s. The Italian rapper drops his rhymes with just as much fluency and dexterity as his American peers throughout the album. He rhymes at a quick pace, partly because the Italian dialect works well within the context of hip-hop rhyming, rolling off the tongue with a liquid-like flow because of its heavy use of vowels at the end of most words. Linguistic analysis aside, Caparezza obviously has a mastery of the Italian dialect and how to shape it into highly alliterate rhymes that fly out of his mouth at a dizzying speed. It also helps that he has great beats to drop his rhymes over -- not so much the sampled breakbeats that characterize New York hip-hop, the synthesized funk that characterizes California gangsta rap, or the drum machine beats that characterize the Dirty South, but an uncanny style of beats that defy much of the precedent established by American rap. The beats on Tutto Cio Che C'E draw their sounds from everywhere, for example, the heavy metal guitar crunch of "Mea Culpa." It's this experimental approach to beat-making, as well as Caparezza's mastery of the Italian dialect, that make this album so stunning.