Sandro Orrù (born January 8, 1968, Rome), known as DJ Gruff, Gruffetti or Lowdy N.C.N., is a pioneer of the Italian hip hop scene. Known for his original take on

rapping Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates " rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backin ...

and

scratching Scratching, sometimes referred to as scrubbing, is a DJ and Turntablism, turntablist technique of moving a vinyl record back and forth on a phonograph, turntable to produce percussive or rhythmic sounds. A crossfader on a DJ mixer may be used to ...

techniques since 1982. He has been active as a

turntablist Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music, sound effects, mixes and other creative sounds and beats, typically by using two or more turntables and a cross fader-equipped DJ mixer. The mixer is plugged into a PA syste ...

, DJ,

beatmaker A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

, rapper and producer.

Biography

DJ Gruff has been a member of a number of groups/collectives/crews such as The place to be (Next One, Carrie D, Igor, Nando- Boogie and Mr Hyde), Casino Royale (Alioscia Bisceglia, Giuliano Palma, Michele Pauli, Ferdinando Masi etc), Radical Stuff (DJ Skizo, Soul Boy, Sean, Top Cat and Kaos One) and Isola Posse All Stars, and was among the founders of

Sangue Misto Sangue Misto was an Italian band, one of the first groups of Italian hip hop. It was formed in Bologna in the early 1990s. Its members included Neffa and Deda (rappers, producers), and DJ Gruff (rapper, DJ, producer). Their only album, '' SXM'' (1 ...

(DJ Gruff,

Neffa Giovanni Pellino (born 7 October 1967), best known as Neffa, is an Italian singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. He is a pioneer of Italian hip hop scene. Life and career Born in Scafati, at young age Pellino moved to Bologna with ...

and Deda) recording with them the album ''SxM'', universally acknowledged as a milestone of Italian hip hop. His musical production is vast, including collaborations with musicians, MCs, breakers and street artists from all over the world. Since 1996, he has been collaborating with

Alien Army Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, a lifeform with ext ...

, the collective representing the greatest turntable talents in Italy.

Career

Orru was born in Rome and came into contact with

hip hop culture Hip-hop culture is an art movement that emerged in New York City, in the borough of The Bronx; Primarily within the black community. Hip Hop as an art form and culture has been heavily influenced by both male and female artists. It is charac ...

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

in 1982. In 1984, his improvised, irreverent rap exclusively in Italian and Italian dialects, started to become popular, thanks to the breakers he was meeting. During a few nights in local venues in Torino, he developed a new approach to playing music -an endless series of

mixtape In the modern music industry, a mixtape is a musical project, typically with looser constraints than that of an album or extended play. Unlike the traditional album or extended play, mixtapes are labeled as laid-back projects that allow artists mo ...

s with extreme scratching sessions conducted on a mixer built for other purposes. Customized switches half melted on a flame, extremely long slides and unsuitable needles could not stop his desire to develop the kind of instrument that in time would become the most popular in the world. In 1986, he became part of the hip hop scene in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

working with Top Cat, Skizo,

Kaos One Marco Fiorito (born June 11, 1971), known as Kaos One or simply Kaos, is an Italian rapper, beatmaker, and writer. He began his career in 1986 in Milan, first as a breakdancer and writer, then as an MC, first in English and then in Italian. ...

and Sean among others. While in Milan, Orru joined Fresh Press Crew which subsequently changed its name to Radical Stuff. In 1990 he began playing in concert with Casino Royale and appeared on three of their records. In 1998, Orru signed with PolyGram, though its unclear what his relationship was with the label after its sale in 1999. In 1995, Gruff moved to Puglia where he lived for three years studying the ancient rhythms of Salento. In 2001, he moved to Japan where he took his turntable techniques to a new level. This brought him to produce ''Frikkettonism'', an eccentric album produced, mixed and printed in Tokyo. The album was released in the Double H Vinyls series in 1,000 hand-numbered copies in double gatefold vinyl, of which the first 600 were in marbled transparent blue vinyl. In 2014, a meeting with the greatest contemporary trombone player, Gianluca Petrella, resulted in a fruitful collaboration exploring an experimental vision where rap, hip hop, scratching and jazz meet in an intense and totally unprejudiced partnership. As of 2016, Orru was part of the group ("his group") Gruffetti and the Sinfonaito, which was working on a pair of albums. In 2019, the album ''August11th'' by DJ Gruff & RayZa was released, produced with Gianluca Petrella feat. Reggie Reg from Crash Crew, Grandmaster Caz, Grand Wizzard Theodore, Sadat X, Ekspo, Kemar Williams, Ramtzu, Uomodisu, Antonio Tarantino, Diego Martino, Allien Army and 2ph13b. The album ''August 11th'' is a homage to hip-hop culture, born in

The Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

on 11 August 1973 when Kool Herc organized at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue (Bronx, New York) what is considered the first hip hop party in history. Every track on the record has lyrics by RayZa set to music composed by Sandro Orrù a.k.a. Dj Gruff and

Gianluca Petrella Gianluca Petrella is an Italian jazz trombonist. In 2001 he won Italy's Django d'Or Award as well as Musica Jazz's annual critics poll as Best Young Talent. In 2006 and 2007 he was featured in ''Down Beat'' magazine, winning their award for "Bes ...

who with turntables, synths and trombone created their own interpretation of the movement established by legendary pioneers such as Reggie Reg from

Crash Crew Crash Crew is an American early hip-hop group who recorded for Mike and Dave Records in 1980 and then signed to Sugar Hill Records. The group, based in Harlem, Lincoln Projects New York City, consisted of members DJ Daryll C. (who died in 19 ...

Grandmaster Caz Curtis Brown (born April 18, 1960), better known by the stage names Grandmaster Caz and Casanova Fly, is an American rapper, songwriter, and DJ. He was a member of the hip hop group The Cold Crush Brothers from 1979 to the mid-1980s. He is best k ...

Grand Wizzard Theodore Theodore Livingston (born March 5, 1963), better known as Grand Wizzard Theodore, is an American musician and DJ. He is widely credited as the inventor of the scratching technique. In addition to scratching, he gained credibility for his mastery ...

who, along with the hip hop giant

Sadat X Derek W. Murphy (born December 29, 1968), better known as Sadat X, is an American rapper, best known as a member of alternative hip hop group Brand Nubian. Originally known as Derek X, Sadat takes his name from former Egyptian president Anwar ...

, are all on the album.

Articolo 31 controversy

In 1998, DJ Gruff wrote the song "1 vs 2", a verbal assault against

Articolo 31 Articolo 31 is a band from Milan, Italy, formed in 1990 by J-Ax and DJ Jad, combining hip hop, funk, pop and traditional Italian musical forms. They are one of the most popular Italian hip hop groups. Band history Articolo 31 were formed by ra ...

, a fellow Italian rap band. Articolo 31 successfully took him to court and had the song removed from Gruff's album ''Il Suono Della Strada''.

Discography

* Let's get dizzy (1990) * Rapadopa (1992) * SxM (1994, with

on the Century Vox label) * Il Contact (1997) * Zero Stress (1997) * Il Suono Della Strada (1998) * Orgasmi Meccanici (1999) * O Tutto O Niente (1999) * Tiffititaff (2002) * Svarioni Premeditati (2002) * Karasau Kid (2002) * The End (2003) * Pecorino Sardo (2003) * Scientific Experiment (2003) * Lowdy '82 / '03 (2003) * Frikkettonism (2004) * Uno (2005) * Sandro OB (2009, featuring various artists on the Sinfonie label) * Phonogruff (end of 2010, noted as his "last official album" as of 2016) * Le Consequenze Del Bene (after 2016) * August 11 (2019)

References

External links

Official websiteOfficial DJ Gruff mixtape
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gruff, Dj 1968 births Living people Italian rappers People from Sardinia