“I’m not bad, it’s just that they draw me like this” said Jessica, very curvy protagonist of the cartoon “Who framed Roger Rabbit?”. And listening to Vincenzo Pandetta, a former neo-melodic converted to Trap overwhelmed by the controversy for having dedicated a song to his uncle, Catania boss at 41 bis, the quote fits perfectly. Face and body full of tattoos, grim eyes, photos with golden guns and wads of money in hand: «It’s the character you like, but I’m not like that. I made a thousand mistakes and paid, but I changed. With some nonsense I’m done: I will always love my uncle because he helped me when I needed it, but I don’t write songs like that anymore. I changed music, I talk about love and I think that Falcone and Borsellino were two respectable people who sacrificed themselves for all of us », he says after two years of press silence.
Catanese of the Cibali district, drug addict father, a difficult family and a past in prison for drug dealing, Niko agrees to speak with Ansa about the bill of the Parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission which provides for the aggravating circumstance of instigation or apology for the Mafia. A rule that could create some problems for the many neo-melodics who praise crime in their songs. «My head was burned, I had the underworld in my brain – he says – I wrote” Dedicated to you “, my first piece, to thank my uncle Turi. I certainly made a fool of myself and I apologize for it ».
Niko wasn’t the only neomelodic to end up in the storm: Tony Colombo, protagonist of a sumptuous marriage with the widow of a Camorrista, Gianni Celeste with his “Nu fugitive”, all Sicilians who, according to tradition, sing in Neapolitan, and have encountered fierce criticism.
“If they made a law which punishes those who praise the mafia, I would not feel harmed in my creativity – says Niko – because basically we have a responsibility towards those who follow us. I’m talking about millions of followers, often young people for whom we are an example ».
And when asked why some photos with guns in hand he replies: «People like this. My videos have 40 million views, if I put a picture of me with my daughter, few people watch it. Unfortunately this is the world and it goes the other way around ».
Business therefore. Recent investigations have ascertained that many local festivals in Palermo are organized by mafia clans who hire singers, all neo-melodics. «Also for this reason I don’t want to know more with that music – he explains – When I went to sing in certain contexts it could happen to meet particular people, for this I don’t want to do it anymore, just to be free».
An album in preparation, contacts with a very large record company, Niko seems to have really changed. So much so that a limitation of artistic expression would be acceptable.
The journalist Gianmauro Costa has a different opinion, author of a book, Festa di Piazza, with the mixture of certain music and organized crime at its center. «Everything that smells of censorship is vulgar, – he comments – We are witnessing an excess of politically correct that becomes worse conformism than the cultural matrix that is being fought. The criminal propaganda is obviously different ».
Gery Ferrara, former anti-mafia prosecutor who dealt with the phenomenon in the essay “La mafia che canta” is on the same wavelength. «We must be careful with the crimes connected to the freedom of artistic expression – he explains – even if other things are instigating conducts with exaltations of mafia exploits. What we must watch out for is that, for example, a performance at a neighborhood party does not become a means of acquiring Mafia consent or collecting money for the clans ”.