Il canto di malavita

In 2000 a controversial cd came out. When you hear the music for the first time, it seems to be nothing more than great Italian folkmusic, but when you listen to the lines (difficult, since it is in dialect, but there are translations on the internet) you hear the songs are about honour, murder, keeping quiet and how difficult life in prison is.

On this cd La musica della maffia, Il canto di malavita (songs of the bad life) are the songs sung by the Calabrese mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta. This music is played when they have a wedding, or a baptism of when they have a party when somebody is released from prison.

Some people say this cd is a unique piece of music history, but in Italy it is forbidden since the music glorifies the mafia and their criminal activities.