Murubutu | Letteraturap: Words chosen with care

Murubutu | Letteraturap: Words chosen with care Sunday, 11 October 2026 | 6:30 pm | Piazza del Sole, Bellinzona Sconfinare Festival

What happens when words meet rhythm? When a rhyme does more than simply sound good, becoming instead a story, a character, an inner landscape? Alessio Mariani, better known by his stage name Murubutu, is one of the most original voices on the Italian rap scene. A teacher of philosophy and history as well as an artist who has made storytelling the heart of his musical research, he has developed over the years a unique artistic path in which rap, literature and narrative imagination intertwine in a distinctive expressive form that he himself calls Letteraturap.

In his songs, words are never just sound: they are living matter, carefully chosen, capable of moving across eras, genres and imaginary worlds. From Dante to the Italian singer-songwriter tradition, from poetry to classical and contemporary fiction, literature merges with a language that is deeply rooted in the present while continuing to explore the timeless power of storytelling.

At the Sconfinare Festival, Murubutu takes the audience on a journey through voice, rhythm and narrative, showing how rap can become a space where words take shape, preserve memory and restore presence. Through reflection, conversation and live performances, this event offers an opportunity to explore the relationship between freedom of expression and responsibility, between what words can say and what, through rhythm, they can bring out of silence.

Moderated by Chiara Fanetti, journalist.

Murubutu, the stage name of Alessio Mariani, is a singer-songwriter and teacher of philosophy and history. Active on the Italian rap scene since the early 1990s, he has developed a solo career entirely devoted to storytelling, beginning with Il giovane Mariani e altri racconti (Young Mariani and Other Stories, 2009) and continuing with albums such as La bellissima Giulietta e il suo povero padre grafomane (The Beautiful Juliet and Her Poor Graphomaniac Father, 2011) and Tenebra è la notte ed altri racconti di buio e crepuscoli (Dark Is the Night and Other Tales of Darkness and Twilight, 2019). In 2020, together with Claver Gold, he released Infernvm (Glory Hole Records), a concept album inspired by the Inferno, the first canticle of Dante's Divine Comedy. In collaboration with the publisher BeccoGiallo, he has also published Murubutu. RAPconti illustrati (2020), Dante a tempo di rap (Dante in Rap Time, 2021), and Storie d'amore con pioggia (Love Stories with Rain, 2023). His latest album, La vita segreta delle città (The Secret Life of Cities), was released in 2025 by Django Music / Glory Hole Records.