Interview: Pretty Solero from Lovegang126

Whilst the Italian rap scene is birthing trap star after trap star in a nation-wide love and hate craze, The National Student is speaking to a couple exponential figures of the movement, and a few members from some seminal crews riding the craze-wave and taking it to another level.

In this article from the series we’ve had a chat with Pretty Solero, aka Sean Loria, creator of the viral roman crew, Lovegang126. Lovegang are indeed known for doing a bit of this, a bit of that, a bit of trap, a bit of rap, and pretty much everything in between. Sean has previously released interviews where he explains the mission:” Lovegang is basically aesthetic, hedonism, looking for pleasure, looking for what’s beautiful.”

After booming with the release of one of the most listened to albums of 2017, Carl Brave x Franco126’s Polaroid, Lovegang might be the next big thing. Pretty’s geniality might be the factor to credit: indeed he’s now taken it to going full-out on social media, between insta-stories where he throws money everywhere and facebook statuses punctuated in a funky manner (as this interview is too).

He’s reassuring listeners that now the only way is up. But what’s he got to say about the Italian musical scene as of now?

What do you think of Italy? Of the youths, and the opportunities available to them here in Italy?

"Look, basically, I think Italy is the most beautiful place in the world, and at the same time one of the worst managed places. We live in the cradle of art, we should all be able to make a living solely out of this. My friends and I are very lucky, thank God, and thanks to our work, to our sweat. We are succeeding in realizing our dreams, but we understand that we are privileged, we’ve had the chance to believe in these dreams, having more or less a family behind us that allows us to make music and to commit our time to this, even before it became our actual job. Unfortunately finding employment nowadays is difficult even if you have a degree and come from a decent situation, think about how messy it gets for those who barely have a dime."

What do you think of the Trap in Italy and what Trap has brought to the Italians? How is this revolutionizing the rap scene? What do you think about it? How is it evolving?

"I think for some years now, Italian music scene has been improving exponentially, both purely on a musical basis, but especially from the point of view of an actual show, the entertainment side of it. I do not know whether to attribute this to the trap, to the power of social network, or to globalization, but the bottom line is I find it all quite pleasant and amusing to say the least. Any respected artist should push talented young people, or whoever, for one reason or another, enjoys less of a visibility but deserves more. As of now the level is very high, and for us it can only be a stimulus to do better."

Would you like to break through abroad too? Who do you is at the top, in Italy, right now? And globally? Who do you look up to?

"As I like to often repeat, if we did not think we were the best in this game, we would not have put our faces to it... ours shouldn’t be taken as if we’re showing off, ours should be seen as passion, love, feeling, if you like a girl, for example, you will do anything and everything to stand out, to cut out other competitors... The winner’s only one in the end... and we are not interested in participating...  we each listen to different music, we are so many, obviously we’ve got a lot of inspirations, we are passionate about music, first and foremost... We’ll start off by taking over Italy, then for the rest, we will see..."

How was 126 born? What is your philosophy? What inspires you? How do you write your songs? How did you break through with Carl Brave for example? Do you have a technique? How are you playing this game? How do you share your roles in the crew? What do you have in store for the future?

"I’ll quote Ketama on this: 126 is family, soldy music is a business, lovegang is religion.

We are first and foremost a group of friends, real friends, we’re not pretending, it’s not for show, or for convenience. We’ve grown up together, on the stairs of Via Glorioso, at the beginning it was all a game, but since we’re not stupid, and since we could see the direction things were going, we turned it into our full-time job. Everything starts from heart, we are genuine, we are not pretending to be what we are not, thank God, we do not need that… With Polaroids maybe we've reached a wider audience, it's a fantastic sound, it really sticks, little girls like it as much as a father of three can like it as much as a lad who’s on the streets day and night; I think this is our strength. Yes, we obviously have strategies...

You’ve just got to wait and see…"