Marracash

Fabio Bartolo Rizzo (born 22 May 1979), known professionally as Marracash , is an Italian rapper. Starting his career in the rap group Dogo Gang, he rose to fame as a solo artist in the 2010s. He released six studio albums that reached the top ten of the Italian Albums Chart, including two top positions with Santeria and Persona (2019). He has also released numerous singles and collaborations, seventeen of which reached the top ten of the Italian Singles Chart. He has sold over 5 million copies in Italy, becoming one of the top selling Italian rappers in the 2010s.

He has sung and written songs with numerous artists including rappers like Gué Pequeno, J-Ax, Fabri Fibra, Emis Killa, Club Dogo, Baby K, and pop-influenced artists such as Tiziano Ferro, Elisa, Giusy Ferreri, Federica Abbate and Elodie.

In 2013, together with producer Shablo, he founded the independent record label Roccia Music, which involves established figures and newcomers to rap, producers and DJs. From 2012 to 2014, he hosted MTV Italy's freestyle music TV program MTV Spit.

Biography Fabio Rizzo Bartolo was born in Nicosia, Sicily, Italy, to a mother who worked as a custodian and a father who worked as a truck driver. He has a younger brother. His family moved from Sicily to Milan in a house in Bramante; when he was ten, he was expelled from his home with his family, who moved to the suburbs of Barona, where he grew up and still lives.

After graduating as an electronical technician, Rizzo recorded his first verses under the pseudonym Yuza delle Nuvole, appearing on Prodigio's 1999 demo "The Royal Rumble", alongside Il Guercio, Fame, Aken and Corvo D'Argento. He adopted the stage name Marracash after his childhood nickname, , jokingly because of his Sicilian origins), as a pun on the name of Marrakesh.

In 2005, under the Contagion Area label, Marracash released "Popolare", a single produced by Don Joe and made available for free download. The song anticipated the release of the mixtape Roccia Music I, in which the Dogo Gang (Club Dogo, Vincenzo da Via Anfossi, Deleterio and Ted Bundy) collaborated along with guests such as Inoki, Co'Sang, Rischio, Shablo, Misa and Royal Mehdi.

In June 2008, his first solo album Marracash was released by Universal Music. It reached number 9 on the Italian Albums Chart, receiving a gold certification. Gué Pequeno, J-Ax, Vincenzo da Via Anfossi and Jake La Furia made guest appearances. Two singles were released from the album: "Badabum Cha Cha", which becomes the singer's first top ten hit, and "Estate in città".

In 2009, he participated together with 55 other Italian singers on "Domani 21/04.2009", a charitable release to remember the victims of the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake. Towards the end of the year he released the song "Cani pazzi", ahead of his second album Fino a qui tutto bene, which came out on 13 July 2010. It included collaborations with Giusy Ferreri ("Rivincita") and Fabri Fibra ("Stupidi"). It met with less success than his previous album.

In September 2011, Marracash released the song "King of Rap", ahead of his eponymous album released in October. The album debuted at the number 3 on the FIMI chart, receiving platinum certification. Later in 2012 he released the collaboration "Giusto un giro" with Emis Killa and announced the launch of his own record label, La Roccia Music. On 22 December, Marracash presented the first episode of MTV Spit, a television program covering rap battles between artists of the underground scene.

He worked on the collective album Genesis with the artists of the Rock Music of 2013. On 20 January 2015, he released his fourth album Status, which reached number 2 on the Italian Albums Chart and 32 on the Swiss charts. From the album he released the single "Status", which peaked at number 2 on the Italian Singles Chart, "Senza un posto nel mondo" with Tiziano Ferro, "In radio", and "Niente canzoni d'amore" with Federica Abbate.

In June 2016 the rapper released a studio album with Gué Pequeno. Titled Santeria and comprising fifteen tracks, it became his first number one album. The forerunner single "Nulla accade", released on 7 June, was certified double platinum and reached number 16 on the Italian Singles Chart.

He released an album collecting his hits for the 10th anniversary of Marracashs release. On 12 June 2019, he released a collaboration with singer Elodie, "Margarita", which peaked at number 9 on the Singles Chart and sold over 100,000 copies in Italy. On 31 October 2019, Marracash released his sixth album, Persona. It peaked at number one on the FIMI Chart and received double platinum certification. It was supported by several hit singles, including "Marylean", with Salmo and Nitro, "Crudelia - I nervi" and the number one song" Supreme - L'ego". In 2020 the rapper collaborated with Dardust on "Defuera" and the third lead single from Persona "Sport - I muscoli", which peaked at number three on the Italian chart.

On 17 November 2021, Marracash announced on Instagram a studio album Noi, loro, gli altri ("Us, Them, The Others"), which was released two days later. The album, consisting of fourteen tracks, was entirely produced by Zef and Marz and features three guests: Gué Pequeno, Calcutta and Blanco. The first track released from the album was "Crazy Love", which was accompanied by a music video starring his ex-girlfriend Elodie.

On 13 December 2024, Marracash released another album È finita la pace. It features a song with the same title as the album, which became a certified Gold track by the end of 2024 and currently sits at Double Platinum. The track was written entirely by Marracash and was produced by his trusted associates Marz and Zef. With the release of È finita la pace, certain critics have described Marracash as having his own genre: the "Marracash genre." The album was nominated for the Rockol Awards 2025. The album has been described as dark, one that "absorbs truth and spits it out" while also being a true and personal manifesto in an age where copy-and-paste models of music and industrial productions predominate.

Music influences and style

In an interview with AllMusic in July 2008, Marracash said he regularly listened to Metallica and 883 as a child. He takes inspiration from American artists such as Jay-Z, Drake, Kanye West, DJ Khaled, Nas, Kendrick Lamar and Wu-Tang Clan. From Italy, he cites Frankie Hi-NRG MC.

Marracash described his writing and writing process for the 2019 album Persona in an interview with Rolling Stone Italy: "It develops over time, in the sense that I mature stuff, it's something I do on an introspective level, I do it without writing. I just take notes and then at a certain point I throw them out, and when I started writing the pieces flowed out like blood from a wound." He then describes his feelings and the way he analyzes the situations he reports in the texts: "I exercise a constant self-consciousness that leads me to experience emotions very intensely. [...] But each time I tend to pull the rope a bit to its extreme and it is perhaps also a way to feel alive, a search for adrenaline, because in the end I detach myself enough to find them stronger than before."

Criticism and controversy In 2006, when Marracash criticized Nesli's way of rapping through the song "Popular", a rivalry between the two began. The following year, in fact, Nesli responded to Marracash with the song "Life is just one", accusing him of making neighborhood rhymes and being a chatterbox. Marracash's response came in 2008 with the song "Dritto al punto", in which he reversed the quotations made by the opposing rapper, who replied with "Riot", closing the debate.

On 14 January 2017, six months after the release of Santeria, Marracash and Gué Pequeno gave an interview to Corriere della Sera, in which they criticized the musical style adopted by their colleagues Fedez and J-Ax, ahead of the release of their studio album Comunisti col Rolex. Fedez responded by accusing the two rappers of criticizing them to achieve visibility, as well as calling Marracash a coward for not meeting him during Moschino's fashion show. Marracash, referring to Fedez as a "dwarf with Napoleon complex", denied Fedez's claim.

Personal life Between 2019 and 2021, the rapper was in a relationship with singer Elodie.

Discography Studio albums + List of studio albums, with chart positions and certifications Title Album details Peak chart positions Certifications ITA SWIMarracashReleased: 13 June 2008 Label: Universal Format: CD, digital download9—FIMI: GoldFino a qui tutto beneReleased: 13 July 2010 Label: Universal Format: CD, digital download7—FIMI: GoldKing del RapReleased: 31 October 2011 Label: Universal Format: CD, digital download, streaming3—FIMI: 2× PlatinumStatusReleased: 20 January 2015 Label: Universal Label: Universal Label: Island Label: Island Label: Island

Live albums Title Album detailsSanteria Live (with Gué Pequeno)Released: 31 March 2017 Label: Universal Format: CD, DVD, digital download

Mixtapes Title Album detailsRoccia Music IReleased: 2005 Label: independent Format: digital download Roccia Music IIReleased: 2011 Label: Roccia Music Format: digital download Double Dragon Mixtape (with Gué Pequeno)Released: 28 May 2016 Label: Universal Format: digital download

Singles As lead artist

Guest appearances

Awards and nominations