Within the last year, 30 year old Carl Brave became one of Italy’s most acclaimed young hip hop artists.
Born in Rome, he sticks to his roots by singing most of his songs in a Roman dialect and even putting the antique insignia SPQR as a tattoo on his fingers – the sign of the Roman empire that can be still found today all over public entities in Rome.
Initially trying to become a basketball pro, he eventually turned to become a music producer and rapper doing a whole range of collaborations with other italian musicians mostly from the hip hop scene. Last year, he released his first solo album „Notti Brave“, which was again packed with collaborations with Italy’s finest selection of young artists including Giorgio Poi, Francesca Michielin and Coez – just to mention a few. End of the year, Brave quickly released his follow-up EP „Notti Brave (After)“ that featured also a collaboration with Italy’s finest Max Gazzé. A great extent of material from both releases featured massive airplay on the radio and quickly propelled Carl Brave to the top of the Italian charts.
fully energetic, yet very slick and smooth
This Thursday, Brave finally stopped for a show in Berlin after a very successful and sold-out tour through Italy. His performance did not show any signs of fatigue after alot of travelling through the hot summer. Dressed up with gold ornamentations on his jacket, wearing his squarish sunglasses and sipping on a red cocktail throughout the show – probably some Campari-infused aperitivo – his presence was fully energetic, yet very slick and smooth. His band featured in addition to the classic setup a horn section with two trumpets and a saxophone together with a percussionist. The setlist included mostly all of his solo catalogue and radio hits and was presented by his band with a rock-solid performance.
Thanks to the massive airplay, the audience had a firm grasp on most of the lyrics and happily supported singing along with Brave for most of the time. After asking to the audience who is currently doing his Erasmus in Berlin, Brave charmingly picked one of the women to dance on stage during the song „Professorè“. Halfway within the set, all stage lights were turned off and replaced with the audience’s smartphone flash lights to create a fitting mood for the ballad „Noi“.
The grand finale of the evening featured his most famous songs „Merci“, „Vivere Tutte le Vite“ and „Posso“. After thanking the audience for the wonderful evening, the band emptied their water bottle leftovers in a big splash over the front of the stage and waved goodbye to the sound of Gigi D’Agostino’s Italodance trash-n-smash hit „L’Amour Toujours“. Arrivederci, long Roman summer nights, hail nasty Berlin autumn tristezza.
