La Pina

About

Born: 20-6-1970 in Florence, Italy. La Pina has the distinction of being the first female rapper to record in Italy and the godmother of Italian women rappers. La Pina's first foray in to the music scene was in her home town of Milano where she hung with emerging alternative music groups like Casino Royale, Shocking TV, the Silver Surfers, to name a few. In 1989, she moved to Bologna for her university studies in Education and it was there that La Pina began frequenting the important centro sociale Isola nel Kantiere. L'Isola was the home of the all-night jams called "Ghetto Blasters," organized by Speaker Dee Mo', and the meeting place of some of the early practitioners of rap Italiano — the Isola Posse All Stars, Papa Ricky, DJ Gruff, Sud Sound System, and Carry D, Italy's first female MC. Returning to Milano in 1992, La Pina encountered a hip hop scene that operated outside of the centri and artists like Radical Stuff, Il Comitato, Articolo 31, graf writer Fly Cat, and GeeGee, an early Italian practitioner of double dutch. La Pina moved to Varese, OTR's home town and began touring with the group. In 1994, La Pina and OTR opened for Public Enemy's Milano concert.