THE 21st CENTURY ONLINE AWARDS NOMINEES FOR THE BEST ITALIAN ARTISTE OF THE DECADE.

Joshua KING Bolatunji Imahfidon
Feb 21, 2021
3 min read

Fabiano Ballarin aka Inoki Ness

Born - October 2, 1979 (age 41 years), Ostia

Record labels: RAP PIRATA, Asian Fake, CGD/EastWest Italy.

Italian rapper and record producer, In 2001, the first studio album, entitled 5º Dan , self-produced and recorded under the pseudonym of Inokines, was released, followed by the second PMC mixtape, Demolition 2(2002). In 2003/2004 (and up to the last edition of 2006) Inoki took care of the organization of 2theBeat , an important freestyle battle tournament that takes place in the local Link in Bologna and involves the whole national scene. In the same year he collaborated with the Tekno Mobil Squad tribe, giving life together with Lou Chano (DJ and producer of the Roman collective Truce Klan) at the first cross-over tekno-rap, participating in many parties and recording two songs (one of which was published in the soundtrack of the film Fuori vena ).

In 2004 the Massiccia Crew Portion collaborates with Club Dogo to create the PMC VS Club Dogo mixtape - The Official Mixtape . In the same year, Inoki participates as a host in the Rai Hip Hop Generation program and appears in the television series Inspector Coliandro .

In 2005 Fabiano called Inoki was released , Inoki's second solo album, containing pieces recorded between 2003 and 2004. The album comes out under the Relief Records label and sees the collaboration of important exponents of the rap scene: the productions are entrusted to Shablo , DJ Shocca , Don Joe , while among the features there are Club Dogo . This is the work that marks Inoki's artistic maturation, capable of dealing with various themes ranging from social protest to the most autobiographical pieces, up to the lighter pieces, always maintaining his own stylistic imprint.

A few months later, at the end of the year, together with Shablo he released The Newkingztape Vol. 1 , a mixtape full of participations and composed of 29 tracks. The collaborations concern the main exponents of the Italian rap scene of the time (including Gué Pequeno , Co'Sang , Bassi Maestro , One Mic and many others) and some international guests (Lil'Dap of the historic American group Group Home , the German Afrob and the French Tandem). In October 2006 the signing of the MC for Warner Music Italy was announced .Shortly thereafter, the non-definitive version of the single Mutual Sentiment begins to spread online without Inoki's knowledge. Many years later he will declare that this was just a marketing move by the record label to promote the upcoming album.

In February 2007 the third album Nobility of the street was released , which was successful nationally, also thanks to the help of the television station MTV , which elected it "Bet MTV of 2007". The disc sees the collaboration of G Max, the Turkish, Mic Meskin and Tek Money, while the productions are entrusted to DJ Skizo , Bassi Maestro, Lou Chano, Bonnot, Big Aim & Yaky. The first single extracted is Sentimento reciprocal , followed by the promotional single Il mio country if it does not care , a piece that goes against the trend of the first, but which still gets a good response from fans and critics.