Producers

A visual map of all the collaborations between the most influencial Italian hip-hop producers of the 90s and early 2000s.

In the early 1990s, hip-hop in Italy was still a small underground movement. Few people were producing beats, rapping, or even listening to this new sound coming from the US. Crews were tight, everyone knew each other, and most collaborations were born out of friendships and shared passion rather than the music industry.

Over the decade, a handful of producers shaped the sound of Italian rap — crafting the beats behind what would later become classic records. Their studios became creative hubs, connecting MCs from different cities and collectives.

This visualization maps those connections. Each large node represents a producer; each smaller node a rapper who collaborated with them. The lines trace their collaborations, revealing clusters, overlaps, and the hidden network that defined a generation.

The data was collected manually from sources like Genius, Discogs, Apple Music, and Wikipedia. The result is not a complete history, but a visual snapshot — a way to see how a small circle of producers helped shape the early sound of Italian hip-hop.

⟩⟩ Producers ⟩⟩