“Popcorn expires? And if they tell us they expire in a week, do we believe them? Do we eat it? Popcorn is the symbol of a show that is about to begin. And we are just spectators. All around us things happen and we watch them helplessly. Sitting on the sofa, with the 60-inch TV set and the popcorn in our hands. And we are not sure whether they are really expired or not, we trust what they tell us. Because that is our society, it devours everything and if they tell us at some point that that popcorn might not be good, they spill it and throw it away without even asking us why. We are spectators, consumers, most of the time unaware.”
Daniel Mendoza, former member of the historic group Gli Inquilini and co-founder of Street Label Records , returns six years after Rivincita with a new look and a new official record: “Pop Corn Scaduti da una settimana”
Back in 2019, the single ‘Trolley’ had marked the artist’s transition from classic HipHop to sounds and concepts closer to indie pop and had thus paved the way for indie rap, becoming its forerunner in Italy. Daniel Mendoza had emphasised the importance of his origins with the need to approach a different audience less bound by the intransigent rules of rap.
“I had to change, I was starting to get bored.” So began Daniel Mendoza, and indeed “Pop Corn scaduti da una settimana” highlights the mutation that led the artist to conceive music in a different way. The obsessive search for topical ideas and topics remains in the concept, but with a less orthodox stylistic and musical drafting that is less obsessive about depth of concept, joints and wordplay. The songs that Daniel Mendoza offers today are suitable for an alternative, but more transversal and less niche audience. The deep concepts are told in a lighter and less cryptic way than in the past.
The artist says: “I have always loved to tell the story of the society of the historical moment I lived in when conceiving the album. I love analysing everything that is social and sociological. Human behaviour, understanding it, questioning it and why not a little healthy irony. This analytical vocation of mine clashes with my melancholic soul, which over the years has turned from gloomy to hopeful. Each track on this album is not a depressive manifesto, but rather a motivational anthem. We live in difficult times, of wars, pandemics, economic crises.
Recognising this we react and do what we can to not get sucked into the spiral of the ‘great depression’ of this century. From this concept in my album one can hear a realistic awareness where despite everything it is better to laugh at ourselves than to feel sorry for ourselves. Also because we are not so good at helping this planet.”
“Pop Corn scaduti da una settimana” , available in the best digital stores, boasts typically indie sounds mixed with black music. Many of the productions were signed by the artist himself and Tonic 21Grammi in collaboration with musicians such as Emanuele Lollobrigida, Napodano and Luca Traverso. The album, out on Street Label Records and distributed by Believe, is homogeneous, modern and structurally interesting.
Below we show you all the interviews and articles on the project obtained through our press office and music promotion service.
Daniel Mendoza Interviews
IlRappuso.com
La Casa del Rap
Moodmagazine
IndieLife
Daniel Mendoza Articles
HipHop Italy
Hano.it
Music in Black
Cherry Press
Rivista Web
Ophelia Blog
Il Rifletore
Fatti Musicali
Blog della Musica