Singer/Performer: Gennaro De Masco
T’aggia scassà ‘o sanghe*. What promise could be more brutal, what threat more exaggerated? And yet, anything is possible in the highly colourful reality that Roxy in the Box presents in all its “natural” savagery where she juxtapositions teeth grinding in anger and the wide-eyed hurt look of betrayed innocence. But T’aggia scassà ‘o sanghe is something more. something that can be read in many ways spanning a gamut of unexpected, stimulating possibilities. The messages of this Neapolitan artist are easy, but not simple, especially for those who, in confusing the language of pop with disengagement, aren’t able to go beyond the bright colours, the catchy, appealing, danceable, sing-able little songs that have been so successful on the web and night life hit lists. T’aggia scassà ‘o sanghe, however, is no joke. If it seems like just a jingle, a little, oh-I like-that song-so-much sort of tune, it’s because violence has become the everyday soundtrack of our lives.
In order to get straight to the point, Roxy in the Box could only have chosen to use Neapolitan dialect. The expression of a cultural and popular heritage in which blood is omnipresent, no other “language” lends itself to such intense, immediate communication. Thus, in the space of just a few moments, the artist manages to summarize the spirit of her land in a revue of platitudes, manners of speech and idiomatic expressions interpreted by Rino De Masco. An extraordinary performer who, thanks to his versatile, powerful vocal potential and innate sensitivity, cuts a fine hair distinction between the Italian word “sangue” and the Neapolitan “sanghe”. The former are reminiscent of hospitals, disinfectants, cherry-flavoured syrup against a white backdrop. The latter, with its intense, deep, sensuous sound, is a dense mixture of red and black, with a little more love, it might even sciogliersi (dissolve) and not scassarsi… (be shattered).
*a threat of physical injury which literally involves “shattering” blood.
Anita Pepe