text: Italian

text: film director

text: poet

text: writer

text: intellectual

text: actor

text: journalist

text: novelist

text: playwright

text: taboo

text: Bologna

text: leftist

text: Italy

text: Italian army

text: Conegliano

text: Belluno

text: gambling

text: Casarsa della Delizia

text: Friuli

text: Anteo Zamboni

text: Benito Mussolini

text: Arthur Rimbaud

text: Julian March

text: Idrija

text: Slovenia

text: Cremona

text: Lombardy

text: Scandiano

text: Reggio Emilia

text: Dostoyevsky

text: Tolstoy

text: Shakespeare

text: Coleridge

text: Novalis

text: football

text: University of Bologna

text: philology

text: aesthetics

text: figurative art

text: Fascist

text: Friulan

text: atheist

text: Gianfranco Contini

text: Alfonso Gatto

text: Germany

text: Italian culture

text: Communist

text: Second World War

text: Udine

text: Allied

text: Italian Social Republic

text: partisan

text: Pordenone

text: homosexual

text: Party of Action

text: Josip Broz Tito

text: Yugoslavia

text: thesis

text: Giovanni Pascoli

text: poetry collection

text: Rome

text: Italian

text: Christianity

text: social progress

text: Italian Communist Party

text: Christian Democratic Party

text: Romance language

text: exile

text: Catalan

text: Pope Pius XII

text: Roman Catholic Church

text: blackmail

text: Ramuscello

text: carabinieri

text: masturbation

text: indicted

text: André Gide

text: Nobel Prize for Literature

text: laureate

text: acquitted

text: Piazza Mattei

text: Rebibbia

text: proletarian

text: Cinecittà

text: Abruzzese

text: Ciampino

text: lire

text: Ragazzi di vita

text: tabloid press

text: Francesco Leonetti

text: Roberto Roversi

text: Sergio Citti

text: Federico Fellini

text: Le notti di Cabiria

text: Roman dialect

text: La dolce vita

text: Il gobbo

text: Long Night in 1943

text: socialist

text: realism

text: Accattone

text: pimp

text: prostitute

text: neorealism

text: Austin Chronicle

text: anthology film

text: RoGoPaG

text: Elsa Morante

text: Alberto Moravia

text: India

text: Sudan

text: Kenya

text: Ghana

text: Nigeria

text: Guinea

text: Jordan

text: Israel

text: 16th Berlin International Film Festival

text: Venice

text: Ezra Pound

text: neoavanguardia

text: Pisan Cantos

text: student movement

text: Marxist

text: Battle of Valle Giulia

text: Teorema

text: Venice Film Festival

text: Viterbo

text: Eni

text: CIA

text: Mafia

text: Lotta Continua

text: Piazza Fontana bombing

text: Il Corriere della Sera

text: Scritti corsari

text: Ostia

text: testicles

text: autopsy

text: Southern

text: extortion

text: Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom

text: Stockholm

text: Sweden

text: disorders of 1968

text: autonomist

text: guerrilla

text: bourgeoisie

text: Stampa

text: Corriere della Sera

text: Newsweek

text: Le Monde

text: Wu Ming

text: Lotta continua

text: subproletariat

text: Accattone

text: Copernican

text: consumerism

text: coprophagia

text: humanism

text: Himmler

text: Hitler

text: 1975 regional elections

text: carabinieri

text: bombings by neo-fascists

text: collaborating with the CIA

text: Italian Armed Forces

text: economic globalization

text: North of Italy

text: Milan

text: television

text: Italy's minority languages

text: Friulan

text: abortion

text: left-libertarian

text: liberal

text: anti-clerical

text: Radical Party

text: polemics

text: Marco Pannella

text: referendum

text: subaltern

text: Italian Communist Youth Federation

text: developing world

text: Bandung

text: New Left

text: United States

text: Harlem

text: LGBT

text: Teorema

text: Terence Stamp

text: God

text: Arabian Nights

text: Marquis de Sade

text: Ninetto Davoli

text: Uccellacci e uccellini

text: Laura Betti

text: Maria Callas

text: Dacia Maraini

text: Ragazzi di vita

text: Accattone

text: Roman

text: The Gospel According to Matthew

text: Enrique Irazoqui

text: Uccellacci e uccellini

text: Totò

text: Ninetto Davoli

text: Teorema

text: Terence Stamp

text: bourgeois

text: François Ozon

text: Sitcom

text: Takashi Miike

text: Visitor Q

text: Boccaccio

text: Decameron

text: Chaucer

text: The Canterbury Tales

text: Il fiore delle mille e una notte

text: Salò

text: 120 Days of Sodom

text: Marquis de Sade

text: Time Out

text: Gilles de Rais

text: picaresque

text: neorealism

text: Mamma Roma

text: Anna Magnani

text: Berlin International Film Festival

text: Cannes Film Festival

text: Venice Film Festival

text: Jussi Awards

text: New York Film Critics Circle

text: The Gospel According to St. Matthew

text: British Academy of Film and Television Arts

text: Ebbo Demant

text: Stefano Battaglia

text: Abel Ferrara

text: biopic

text: Willem Dafoe

text: Golden Lion

text: 71st Venice International Film Festival

text: Sophocles

text: Euripides

text: Sopralluoghi in Palestina per Il Vangelo secondo Matteo

text: Comizi d'amore

text: Appunti per un film sull'India

text: Appunti per un romanzo dell'immondizia

text: Appunti per un'Orestiade Africana

text: Le mura di Sana'a

text: 12 Dicembre 1972

text: La ricotta

text: RoGoPaG

text: La rabbia

text: Le streghe

text: Capriccio all'Italiana

text: Amore e rabbia

text: Ragazzi di vita

text: Una vita violenta

text: Il sogno di una cosa

text: The Poets' Encyclopedia

text: Petrolio

text: Roman Poems

text: Affabulazione

text: Siciliano, Enzo

text: Interview with Jonas Mekas in Bomb Magazine

text: Pasolini on Filmgalerie451

text: Piers Paolo Pasolini

text: "Pier Paolo Pasolini"

text: BBC News Report on the Reopening of the Murder Case

text: "The Atheist Who Was Obsessed with God"

text: Doug Ireland, "Restoring Pasolini"

text: Pasolini's Own Notes on "Salò" from 1974

text: Pier Paolo Pasolini Poems

text: Enzo Biagi

text: Italian Website dedicated to Pasolini

text: Pasolini's Second to Last Interview, Long Believed to Have Been Lost

text: "Pasolini’s Legacy: A Sprawl of Brutality"

text: The New York Times

categories: Italian Marxists,Italian male journalists,20th-century Italian dramatists and playwrights,Italian magazine founders,20th-century Italian novelists,20th-century Italian painters,Italian dramatists and playwrights,20th-century male writers,Italian male screenwriters,Unsolved murders in Italy,People from Bologna,Italian atheists,LGBT socialists,Gay artists,Italian screenwriters,Italian male film actors,Anti-consumerists,Italian columnists,Italian communists,Marxist writers,20th-century Italian male actors,Italian male painters,Italian magazine editors,Italian male dramatists and playwrights,Italian film critics,Italian film directors,20th-century Italian poets,LGBT writers from Italy,1922 births,Murdered male writers,Murdered filmmakers,Murdered male actors,Italian-language film directors,Friulian-language poets,Italian male novelists,Viareggio Prize winners,1975 deaths,Marxist journalists,LGBT directors,Italian experimental filmmakers,LGBT journalists,People murdered in Italy,Nastro d'Argento winners,People of Friulian descent,Italian male poets

paragraph: Pier Paolo Pasolini

paragraph: Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian film director, poet, writer, and intellectual, who also distinguished himself as an actor, journalist, novelist, playwright, and political figure. He remains a controversial personality in Italy due to his blunt style and the focus of some of his works on taboo sexual matters, but he is an established major figure in European literature and cinematic arts. His murder prompted an outcry in Italy and its circumstances continue to be a matter of heated debate.

paragraph: Section::::Biography.

paragraph: Section::::Biography.:Early life.

paragraph: Pier Paolo Pasolini was born in Bologna, traditionally one of the most politically leftist of Italy's cities. He was the son of elementary-school teacher Susanna Colussi and Carlo Alberto Pasolini, a lieutenant in the Italian army; they had married in 1921. Pasolini was born in 1922 and named after a paternal uncle. His family moved to Conegliano in 1923, then to Belluno in 1925, where their second son, Guidalberto, was born. In 1926, Pasolini's father was arrested for gambling debts. His mother moved with the children to her family's home in Casarsa della Delizia, in the Friuli region. That same year, his father first detained, then identified Anteo Zamboni as the would-be assassin of Benito Mussolini following his assassination attempt. Carlo Alberto was persuaded of the virtues of fascism.

paragraph: Pasolini began writing poems at age seven, inspired by the natural beauty of Casarsa. One of his early influences was the work of Arthur Rimbaud. His father was transferred to Idria in the Julian March (now Idrija in Slovenia) in 1931; in 1933 they moved again to Cremona in Lombardy, and later to Scandiano and Reggio Emilia. Pasolini found it difficult to adapt to all these dislocations, though he enlarged his poetry and literature readings (Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Coleridge, Novalis) and left behind the religious fervour of his early years. In the Reggio Emilia high school, he met his first true friend, Luciano Serra. The two met again in Bologna, where Pasolini spent seven years completing high school. Here he cultivated new passions, including football. With other friends, including Ermes Parini, Franco Farolfi, Elio Meli, he formed a group dedicated to literary discussions.

paragraph: In 1939 Pasolini graduated and entered the Literature College of the University of Bologna, discovering new themes such as philology and aesthetics of figurative arts. He also frequented the local cinema club. Pasolini always showed his friends a virile and strong exterior, totally hiding his interior turmoil. He took part in the Fascist regime's culture and sports competitions. In his poems of this period, Pasolini started to include fragments in Friulan, a minority language he did not speak but learned after he had begun to write poetry in it. "I learnt it as a sort of mystic act of love, a kind of "félibrisme", like the Provençal poets." As a young adult, Pasolini identified as an atheist.

paragraph: Section::::Biography.:Early poetry.

paragraph: In 1942, Pasolini published at his own expense a collection of poems in Friulan, "Versi a Casarsa", which he had written at the age of eighteen. The work was noted and appreciated by such intellectuals and critics as Gianfranco Contini, Alfonso Gatto and Antonio Russi. Pasolini's pictures had also been well received. He was chief editor of a magazine called "Il Setaccio" ("The Sieve"), but was fired after conflicts with the director, who was aligned with the Fascist regime. A trip to Germany helped him also to perceive the "provincial" status of Italian culture in that period. These experiences led Pasolini to revise his opinion about the cultural politics of Fascism and to switch gradually to a Communist position.

paragraph: Pasolini's family took shelter in Casarsa, considered a more tranquil place to wait for the conclusion of the Second World War, a decision common among Italian military families. Here he joined a group of other young enthusiasts of the Friulan language who wanted to give Casarsa Friulan a status equal to that of Udine, the official regional standard. From May 1944, they issued a magazine entitled "Stroligùt di cà da l'aga". In the meantime Casarsa suffered Allied bombardments and forced enlistments by the Italian Social Republic, as well as partisan activity.

paragraph: Pasolini tried to distance himself from these events. Starting in October 1943, Pasolini, his mother and other colleagues taught students unable to reach the schools in Pordenone or Udine. This educational workshop was considered illegal and broke up in February 1944. It was here that Pasolini had his first experience of homosexual attraction to one of his students. His brother Guido, aged 19, joined the Party of Action and their Osoppo-Friuli Brigade, taking to the bush near Slovenia. On 12 February 1945, Guido was killed in an ambush planted by Italian serving in the lines of Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslavian guerrillas. This devastated Pasolini and his mother.

paragraph: Six days after his brother's death, Pasolini and others founded the Friulan Language Academy ("Academiuta di lenga furlana"). Meanwhile, on account of Guido's death, Pasolini's father returned to Italy from his detention period in November 1945, settling in Casarsa. That same month, Pasolini graduated from university after completing a final thesis about the work of Giovanni Pascoli (1855–1912), an Italian poet and classical scholar.

paragraph: In 1946 Pasolini published a small poetry collection, "I Diarii" ("The Diaries"), with the Academiuta. In October he traveled to Rome. The following May he began the so-called "Quaderni Rossi", handwritten in old school exercise books with red covers. He completed a drama in Italian, "Il Cappellano". His poetry collection, "I Pianti" ("The cries"), was also published by the Academiuta.

paragraph: Section::::Biography.:Relationship with the Italian Communist Party.

paragraph: By October 1945, the political status of the Friuli region became a matter of contention between different political factions. On 30 October, Pasolini joined the pro-devolution association Patrie tal Friul, founded in Udine. Pasolini wanted a Friuli based on its tradition, attached to its Christianity, but intent on civic and social progress, as opposed to those advocates of regional autonomy who wanted to preserve their privileges based on "immobilism". He also criticized the Italian Communist Party (PCI) for its opposition to devolution and its preference for Italian centralism. Pasolini founded the party Movimento Popolare Friulano, but ended up quitting upon realizing that it was being used by the Christian Democratic Party in order to counter the Yugoslavs, who in turn were attempting to annex large swaths of the Friuli region.

paragraph: On 26 January 1947, Pasolini wrote a declaration that was published on the front page of the newspaper "Libertà": "In our opinion, we think that currently only Communism is able to provide a new culture." It generated controversy, partly due to the fact he was still not a member of the PCI.

paragraph: Pasolini planned to extend the work of the Academiuta to the literature of other Romance languages, and met exiled Catalan poet Carles Cardó. He took part in several demonstrations after joining the PCI. In May 1949, he attended the Peace Congress in Paris. Observing the struggles of workers and peasants, and watching the clashes of protesters with Italian police, he began to conceive his first novel. During this period, while holding a position as a teacher in a secondary school, he stood out in the local Communist Party section as a skillful writer defying the notion that communism was contrary to Christian values, even though Pope Pius XII had excommunicated communist sympathisers from the Roman Catholic Church. Local Christian Democrats took notice. In the summer of 1949, Pasolini was blackmailed by a priest to renounce politics or lose his teaching position. Similarly, after some posters were put up in Udine, Giambattista Caron, a Christian Democrat deputy, warned Pasolini's cousin Nico Naldini that "[Pasolini] should abandon communist propaganda" to prevent "pernicious reactions".

paragraph: A small scandal broke out during a local festival in Ramuscello in September 1949. Someone informed Cordovado, the local sergeant of the "carabinieri", of sexual conduct (masturbation) by Pasolini with three youngsters aged sixteen and younger after dancing and drinking. Cordovado summoned the boys' parents, who hesitantly refused to file charges despite Cordovado's urging. Cordovado nevertheless drew up a report, and the informer elaborated publicly on his accusations, sparking a public uproar. A judge in San Vito al Tagliamento charged Pasolini with "corruption of minors and obscene acts in public places". He and the 16-year-old were both indicted.

paragraph: The next month, when questioned, Pasolini would not deny the facts, but talked of a "literary and erotic drive" and cited André Gide, the 1947 Nobel Prize for Literature laureate. Cordovado informed his superiors and the regional press stepped in. According to Pasolini, the Christian Democrats instigated the entire affair to smear his name ("the Christian Democrats pulled the strings"). He was fired from his job in Valvasone and was expelled from the PCI by the party's Udine section, which he considered a betrayal. He addressed a critical letter to the head of the section, his friend Ferdinando Mautino, and claimed he was being subject to a "tacticism" of the PCI. In the party, the expulsion was opposed by Teresa Degan, Pasolini's colleague in education. He also wrote her a letter admitting his regret for being "such a naive, even indecently so". Pasolini's parents reacted angrily and the situation in the family became untenable.

paragraph: Section::::Biography.:Rome.

paragraph: In January 1950, Pasolini moved to Rome with his mother Susanna to start a new life. He was acquitted of both indecency charges in 1950 and 1952. After one year sheltered in a maternal uncle's flat next to Piazza Mattei, Pasolini and his 59-year-old mother moved to a run-down suburb called Rebibbia, next to a prison, for three years; he transferred his Friulan countryside inspiration to this Roman suburb, one of the infamous "borgate" where poor proletarian immigrants lived in often-horrendous sanitary and social conditions. Instead of asking for help from other writers, Pasolini preferred to go his own way.

paragraph: Pasolini found a job working in the Cinecittà film studios and sold his books in the "bancarelle" ("sidewalk shops") of Rome. In 1951, with the help of the Abruzzese-language poet Vittorio Clemente, he found a job as a secondary school teacher in Ciampino, a suburb of the capital. He had a long commute involving two train changes, and earned a meagre salary of 27,000 lire.

paragraph: Section::::Biography.:Success and charges.

paragraph: In 1954, Pasolini, who now worked for the literary section of Cinecittà, left his teaching job and moved to the Monteverde quarter. At this point, his cousin Graziella moved in. They also accommodated Pasolini's ailing, cirrhotic father Carlo Alberto, who died in 1958. Pasolini published "La meglio gioventù", his first important collection of Friulan poems. His first novel, "Ragazzi di vita" (English: "Hustlers"), was published in 1955. The work had great success but was poorly received by the PCI establishment and, most importantly, by the Italian government. It initiated a lawsuit for "obscenity" against Pasolini and his editor, Garzanti. Although exonerated, Pasolini became a target of insinuations, especially in the tabloid press.

paragraph: In 1955, together with Francesco Leonetti, Roberto Roversi and others, Pasolini edited and published a poetry magazine called "Officina". The magazine closed in 1959 after fourteen issues. That year he also published his second novel, "Una vita violenta", which unlike his first was embraced by the Communist cultural sphere: he subsequently wrote a column for the PCI magazine "Vie Nuove" from 1960 to 1965, which were published in book form in 1977 as "Le belle bandiere" ("The Beautiful Flags").

paragraph: In 1957, together with Sergio Citti, Pasolini collaborated on Federico Fellini's film "Le notti di Cabiria", writing dialogue for the Roman dialect parts. Fellini also asked him to work on dialogue for some episodes of "La dolce vita". Pasolini made his debut as an actor in "Il gobbo" in 1960, and co-wrote "Long Night in 1943". Along with "Ragazzi di vita", he had his celebrated poem "Le ceneri di Gramsci" published, where Pasolini voiced tormented tensions between reason and heart, as well as the existing ideological dialectics within communism, a debate over artistic freedom, socialist realism and commitment.

paragraph: Pasolini's first film as director and screenwriter was "Accattone" in 1961, again set in Rome's marginal quarters. It was a story of pimps, prostitutes and thieves that contrasted with Italy's postwar economic reforms. Although Pasolini tried to distance himself from neorealism, the film is considered to be a kind of second neorealism. Nick Barbaro, a critic writing in the "Austin Chronicle", stated it "may be the grimmest movie" he has ever seen. The movie aroused controversy and scandal. In 1963, the episode "La ricotta", included in the anthology film "RoGoPaG", was censored and Pasolini was tried for "offense to the Italian state and religion".

paragraph: During this period Pasolini frequently traveled abroad: in 1961, with Elsa Morante and Alberto Moravia to India (where he went again seven years later); in 1962 to Sudan and Kenya; in 1963, to Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea, Jordan and Israel (where he shot the documentary "Sopralluoghi in Palestina"). In 1970 he traveled again to Africa to shoot the documentary, "Appunti per un'Orestiade africana". Pasolini was a member of the jury at the 16th Berlin International Film Festival in 1966. In 1967, in Venice, he met and interviewed the American poet Ezra Pound. They discussed the Italian movement "neoavanguardia" and Pasolini read some verses from the Italian version of Pound's "Pisan Cantos".

paragraph: The late 1960s and early 1970s were the era of the so-called "student movement". Pasolini, though acknowledging the students' ideological motivations, and referring to himself as a "Catholic Marxist", thought them "anthropologically middle-class" and therefore destined to fail in their attempts at revolutionary change. Regarding the Battle of Valle Giulia, which took place in Rome in March 1968, he said that he sympathized with the police, as they were "children of the poor", while the young militants were exponents of what he called "left-wing fascism". His film of that year, "Teorema", was shown at the Venice Film Festival in a hot political climate. Pasolini had proclaimed that the festival would be managed by the directors.

paragraph: In 1970 Pasolini bought an old castle near Viterbo, several miles north of Rome, where he began to write his last novel, "Il Petrolio", where he denounced obscure dealing in the highest levels of government and the corporate world (Eni, CIA, the Mafia, etc.). The novel-documentary was left incomplete at his death. In 1972, Pasolini started to collaborate with the extreme-left association Lotta Continua, producing a documentary, "12 dicembre", concerning the Piazza Fontana bombing. The following year he began a collaboration for Italy's most renowned newspaper, "Il Corriere della Sera". At the beginning of 1975 Garzanti published a collection of his critical essays, "Scritti corsari" ("Corsair Writings").

paragraph: Section::::Biography.:Murder.

paragraph: Pasolini was murdered on 2 November 1975 on the beach at Ostia. He had been run over several times by his own car. Multiple bones were broken and his testicles were crushed by what appeared to be a metal bar. An autopsy revealed that his body had been partially burned with gasoline after death. The crime was long viewed as a Mafia-style revenge killing, one extremely unlikely to have been carried out by only one person. Pasolini was buried in Casarsa.

paragraph: Giuseppe (Pino) Pelosi (1958–2017), then 17 years old, was caught driving Pasolini's car and confessed to the murder. He was convicted in 1976, initially with "unknown others", but this phrase was later removed from the verdict. Twenty-nine years later, on 7 May 2005, Pelosi retracted his confession, which he said had been made under the threat of violence to his family. He claimed that three people "with a Southern accent" had committed the murder, insulting Pasolini as a "dirty communist".

paragraph: Other evidence uncovered in 2005 suggested that Pasolini had been murdered by an extortionist. Testimony by his friend Sergio Citti indicated that some of the rolls of film from "Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom" had been stolen, and that Pasolini planned to meet with the thieves on 2 November 1975 after a visit to Stockholm, Sweden. Citti's investigation uncovered additional evidence, including a bloody wooden stick and an eyewitness who said he saw a group of men pull Pasolini from the car. The Rome police reopened the case after Pelosi's retraction, but the judges responsible for the investigation found that the new elements were insufficient to justify a continued inquiry.

paragraph: Section::::Political views.

paragraph: Section::::Political views.:1968 protests.

paragraph: Pasolini generated heated public discussion with controversial analyses of public affairs. For instance, during the disorders of 1968, autonomist university students were carrying on a guerrilla-style uprising against the police in the streets of Rome, and all the leftist forces declared their complete support for the students, describing the disorders as a civil fight of proletariat against the system. Pasolini, however, made comments that have been frequently been interpreted as statements that he was with the police; or, more precisely, with the policemen.

paragraph: The main source regarding Pasolini's views of the student movement is his poem "Il PCI ai giovani" ("The PCI to Young People"), written after the Battle of Valle Giulia. Addressing the students, he tells them that, unlike the international news media which has been reporting on them, he will not flatter them. He points out that they are the children of the bourgeoisie (""Avete facce di figli di papà / Vi odio come odio i vostri papà"" – "You have faces of daddy's sons / I hate you as I hate your daddy"), before stating ""Quando ieri a Valle Giulia avete fatto a botte coi poliziotti / io simpatizzavo coi poliziotti"" ("When yesterday at Valle Giulia you and the policemen were throwing punches / I sympathised with the policemen"). He explained that this sympathy was because the policemen were ""figli di poveri"" ("children of the poor"). The poem highlights the aspect of generational struggle within the bourgeoisie represented by the student movement: ""Stampa e Corriere della Sera, News- week e Monde / vi leccano il culo. Siete i loro figli / la loro speranza, il loro futuro... Se mai / si tratta di una lotta intestina"" (""Stampa" and "Corriere della Sera", "Newsweek" and "Le Monde" / they kiss your arse. You are their children / their hope, their future... If anything / it's in-fighting"). The 1968 revolt was seen by Pasolini as an internal, benign reform of the establishment in Italy, since the protesters were part of the petit bourgeoisie. The poem also implied a class hypocrisy on the part of the establishment towards the protesters, asking whether young workers would be treated similarly if they behaved in the same way: ""Occupate le università / ma dite che la stessa idea venga / a dei giovani operai / E allora: Corriere della Sera e Stampa, Newsweek e Monde / avranno tanta sollecitudine / nel cercar di comprendere i loro problemi? / La polizia si limiterà a prendere un po’ di botte / dentro una fabbrica occupata? / Ma, soprattutto, come potrebbe concedersi / un giovane operaio di occupare una fabbrica / senza morire di fame dopo tre giorni?"" ("Occupy the universities / but say that the same idea comes / to young workers / So: "Corriere della Sera" and "Stampa", "Newsweek" and "Le Monde" / will have so much care / in trying to understand their problems? / Will the police just get a bit of a fight / inside a busy factory? / But above all, how could / a young worker be allowed to occupy a factory / without dying of hunger after three days?".

paragraph: Pasolini suggested that the police were the true proletariat, sent to fight for a poor salary and for reasons which they could not understand, against pampered boys of their same age, because they had not had the fortune of being able to study, referring to ""poliziotti figli di proletari meridionali picchiati da figli di papà in vena di bravate"" (lit. "policemen, sons of proletarian southerners, beaten up by arrogant daddy's boys"). He found that the policemen were but the outer layer of the real power, e.g. the judiciary. Pasolini was not alien to courts and trials. During all his life, Pasolini was frequently entangled in up to 33 lawsuits filed against him, variously charged with "public disgrace", "foul language", "obscenity", "pornography", "contempt of religion", "contempt of the state", etc., for which he was always eventually acquitted.

paragraph: However, the conventional interpretation of Pasolini's position has been challenged: in an article published in 2015, Wu Ming argues that Pasolini's statements need to be understood in the context of Pasolini's self-confessed hatred of the bourgeoisie which had persecuted him for so long. He notes that "Il PCI ai giovani" states that "We (i.e. Pasolini and the students) are obviously in agreement against the police institution", and that the poem portrays policemen as dehumanised by their work, and that although the battles between students and the police were fights between the rich and the poor, Pasolini concedes that the students were "on the side of reason" whilst the police were "in the wrong". Wu Ming suggests that Pasolini's intent was to express scepticism regarding the idea of students being a revolutionary force, contending that only the working class could make a revolution, and that revolutionary students should join the PCI. Furthermore, he cites a column by Pasolini which was published in the magazine "Tempo" later that year, which described the student movement, along with the wartime resistance, as "the Italian people’s only two democratic-revolutionary experiences". That year he also wrote in support of the Communist Party's proposals for disarming the police, arguing that this would create a break in the psychology of policemen: "It would lead to the sudden collapse of that ‘false idea of himself’ ascribed to him by Power, which has programmed him like a robot". Pasolini's polemics were aimed at goading protesters into re-thinking their revolt, and did not stop him from contributing to the autonomist "Lotta continua" movement, who he described as "extremists, yes, maybe fanatic and insolently boorish from a cultural point of view, but they push their luck and that is precisely why I think they deserve to be supported. We must want too much in order to obtain a little".

paragraph: Section::::Political views.:The rising society of consumption.

paragraph: Pasolini was particularly concerned about the class of the subproletariat, which he portrayed in "Accattone", and to which he felt both humanly and artistically drawn. He observed that the kind of purity which he perceived in the pre-industrial popular culture was rapidly vanishing, a process that he named "la scomparsa delle lucciole" (lit. ""the disappearance of the fireflies""). The "joie de vivre" of boys was being rapidly replaced with more bourgeois ambitions such as a house and a family. He was critical of those leftists who held a "traditional and never admitted hatred against lumpenproletariats and poor populations": in 1958 he called on the PCI to become "‘the party of the poor people’: the party, we may say, of the lumpenproletarians".

paragraph: Pasolini's stance finds its roots in the belief that a Copernican change was taking place in the Italian society and the world. Linked to that very idea, he was also an ardent critic of "consumismo", i.e. consumerism, which he felt had rapidly destroyed Italian society since the mid 1960s to the early 1970s. He described the coprophagia scenes in "Salò" as a comment on the processed food industry. As he saw it, the society of consumerism ("neocapitalism") and the "new fascism" had thus expanded an alienation / homogenization and centralization that the former clerical-fascism had not managed to achieve, so bringing about an anthropological change. That change is related to the loss of humanism and the expansion of productivity as central to the human condition, which he despised. He found that 'new culture' was degrading and vulgar. In one interview, he said: "I hate with particular vehemency the current power, the power of 1975, which is a power that manipulates bodies in a horrible way; a manipulation that has nothing to envy to that performed by Himmler or Hitler."

paragraph: Section::::Political views.:Strong criticism of Christian Democracy.

paragraph: Pasolini saw some continuity between the Fascist era and the post-war political system which was led by the Christian Democrats, describing the latter as "clerico-fascism" due to its use of the state as a repressive instrument and its manipulation of power: he saw the conditions among the Roman subproletariat in the "borgate" as an example of this, being marginalised and segregated socially and geographically as they were under Fascism, and in conflict with a criminal police force. He also blamed the Christian Democrats for assimilating the values of consumer capitalism, contributing to what he saw as the erosion of human values.

paragraph: The 1975 regional elections saw the rise of the leftist parties, and dwelling on his blunt, ever more political approach and prophetic style during this period, he declared in "Corriere della Sera" that the time had come to put the most prominent Christian Democrat figures on trial, where they would need to be shown walking in handcuffs and led by the carabinieri: he felt that this was the only way they could be removed from power. Pasolini charged the Christian Democratic leadership with being "riddled with Mafia influence", covering up a number of bombings by neo-fascists, collaborating with the CIA, and working with the CIA and the Italian Armed Forces to prevent the rise of the left.

paragraph: Section::::Political views.:Television linked to cultural alienation.

paragraph: Pasolini was angered by economic globalization and cultural domination of the North of Italy (around Milan) over other regions, especially the South. He felt this was accomplished through the power of television. A debate TV program recorded in 1971, where he denounced censorship, was not actually aired until the day following his murder in November 1975. In a PCI reform plan that he drew up in September and October 1975, among the desirable measures to be implemented, he cited the abolition of television.

paragraph: Section::::Political views.:Others.

paragraph: Pasolini opposed the gradual disappearance of Italy's minority languages by writing some of his poetry in Friulan, the regional language of his childhood. His opposition to the liberalization of abortion law made him unpopular on the left.

paragraph: After 1968, Pasolini engaged with the left-libertarian, liberal and anti-clerical Radical Party ("Partito Radicale"). He involved himself in polemics with party leader Marco Pannella, supported the Party's initiative calling for eight referendums on various liberalising reforms and had accepted an invitation to speak at the Party's congress before he was killed. However, despite supporting the holding of a referendum on the decriminalisation of abortion, he was opposed to actually decriminalising it, and he also criticised the Party's understanding of democratic activism as being a matter of equalising access to capitalist markets for the working class and other subaltern groups. In an interview he gave shortly before his death, Pasolini stated he frequently disagreed with the Party. He continued to give qualified support to the PCI: in June 1975 he said that he would still vote for the PCI because he felt it was "an island where critical consciousness is always desperately defended: and where human behaviour has been still able to preserve the old dignity", and in his final months he became close to the Rome section of the Italian Communist Youth Federation. A Federation activist, Vincenzo Cerami, delivered the speech he was due to give at the Radical Party congress: in it, Pasolini confirmed his Marxism and his support for the PCI.

paragraph: Outside of Italy, Pasolini took a particular interest in the developing world, seeing parallels between life among the Italian underclass and in the third world, going so far as to declare that Bandung was the capital of three-quarters of the world and half of Italy. He was also positive about the New Left in the United States, predicting that it would "lead to an original form of non-Marxist Socialism" and writing that the movement reminded him of the Italian Resistance. Pasolini saw these two areas of struggle as inter-linked: after visiting Harlem he stated that "the core of the struggle for the Third World revolution is really America".

paragraph: Section::::Sexuality.

paragraph: The "LGBT" encyclopedia states the following regarding Pasolini's homosexuality:

paragraph: While openly gay from the very start of his career, Pasolini rarely dealt with homosexuality in his movies. The subject is featured prominently in "Teorema" (1968), where Terence Stamp's mysterious God-like visitor seduces the son and father of an upper-middle-class family; passingly in "Arabian Nights" (1974), in an idyll between a king and a commoner that ends in death; and, most darkly of all, in "Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom" (1975), his infamous rendition of the Marquis de Sade's compendium of sexual horrors.

paragraph: In 1963 Pasolini met "the great love of his life", 15-year-old Ninetto Davoli, whom he later cast in his 1966 film "Uccellacci e uccellini" (literally "Bad Birds and Little Birds" but translated in English as "The Hawks and the Sparrows"). Pasolini became the youth's mentor and friend.

paragraph: However, it is worth mentioning that there have been some important women in Pasolini's life, with whom Pasolini shared a feeling of profound and unique friendship, in particular Laura Betti and Maria Callas. Dacia Maraini, a famous Italian writer, said of Callas' behavior towards Pasolini: "She used to follow him everywhere, even to Africa. She hoped to 'convert' him to heterosexuality and to marriage. " Pasolini was also sensible to the problematics related to the "new" role ascribed to women through the Italian media, stating in a 1972 interview that "women are not slot-machines."

paragraph: Section::::Works.

paragraph: Pasolini's first novel, "Ragazzi di vita" (1955), dealt with the Roman lumpenproletariat. The book caused obscenity charges to be filed against Pasolini, the first of many instances in which his art provoked legal problems. The movie "Accattone" (1961), also about the Roman underworld, also provoked controversy, and conservatives demanded stricter censorship by the government.

paragraph: He wrote and directed the black-and-white "The Gospel According to Matthew" (1964). It is based on scripture, but adapted by Pasolini, and he is credited as writer. Jesus, a barefoot peasant, is played by Enrique Irazoqui. While filming it, Pasolini vowed to direct it from the "believer's point of view", but later said that upon viewing the completed work, he realized he had expressed his own beliefs.

paragraph: In his 1966 film "Uccellacci e uccellini" (literally "Bad Birds and Little Birds" but translated in English as "The Hawks and the Sparrows"), a picaresque—and at the same time mystic—fable, Pasolini hired the great Italian comedian Totò to work with Ninetto Davoli, the director's lover at the time and one of his preferred "naif" actors. It was a unique opportunity for Totò to demonstrate that he was a great dramatic actor as well.

paragraph: In "Teorema" ("Theorem", 1968), starring Terence Stamp as a mysterious stranger, Pasolini depicted the sexual coming-apart of a bourgeois family. (Variations of this theme were filmed by François Ozon in "Sitcom" and Takashi Miike in "Visitor Q").

paragraph: Later movies centered on sex-laden folklore, such as Boccaccio's "Decameron" (1971), Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" (1972), and "Il fiore delle mille e una notte" (literally "The Flower of 1001 Nights", released in English as "Arabian Nights", 1974). These films are usually grouped as the "Trilogy of Life". While basing them on classics, Pasolini wrote the screenplays and took sole credit as writer. This trilogy, prompted largely by Pasolini's attempt to show the secular sacredness of the body against man-made social controls and especially against the venal hypocrisy of religious state (indeed, the religious characters in The Canterbury Tales are shown as pious but amorally grasping fools) were an effort at representing a state of natural sexual innocence essential to the true nature of free humanity. Alternately playfully bawdy and poetically sensuous, wildly populous, subtly symbolic and visually exquisite, the films were wildly popular in Italy and remain perhaps his most enduringly popular works. Yet despite the fact that the trilogy as a whole is considered by many as a masterpiece, Pasolini later reviled his own creation on account of the many soft-core imitations of these three films in Italy that happened afterwards on account of the very same popularity he wound up deeply uncomfortable with. He believed that a bastardisation of his vision had taken place that amounted to a commoditisation of the body he had tried to deny in his trilogy in the first place. The disconsolation this provided is seen as one of the primary reasons for his final film, "Salò", in which humans are not only seen as commodities under authoritarian control but are viewed merely as ciphers for its whims, without the free vitality of the figures in the Trilogy of Life.

paragraph: His final work, "Salò" ("Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom", 1975), exceeded what most viewers could accept at the time in its explicit scenes of intensely sadistic violence. Based on the novel "120 Days of Sodom" by Marquis de Sade, it is considered Pasolini's most controversial film. In May 2006, "Time Out"'s Film Guide named it the "Most Controversial Film" of all time. Salò was intended as the first film of his "Trilogy of Death", followed by an aborted biopic film about Gilles de Rais.

paragraph: Section::::Legacy.

paragraph: As a director, Pasolini created a picaresque neorealism, showing a sad reality. Many people did not want to see such portrayals in artistic work for public distribution. "Mamma Roma" (1962), featuring Anna Magnani and telling the story of a prostitute and her son, was an affront to the public ideals of morality of those times. His works, with their unequaled poetry applied to cruel realities, showing that such realities were less distant from most daily lives, and contributed to changes in the Italian psyche.

paragraph: Pasolini's work often engendered disapproval perhaps primarily because of his frequent focus on sexual behavior, and the contrast between what he presented and what was publicly sanctioned. While Pasolini's poetry often dealt with his gay love interests, this was not the only, or even main, theme. His interest in and use of Italian dialects should also be noted. Much of the poetry was about his highly revered mother. He depicted certain corners of the contemporary reality as few other poets could do. His poetry, which took some time before it was translated, was not as well known outside Italy as were his films. A collection in English was published in 1996.

paragraph: Pasolini also developed a philosophy of language mainly related to his studies on cinema. This theoretical and critical activity was another hotly debated topic. His collected articles and responses are still available today.

paragraph: These studies can be considered as the foundation of his artistic point of view: he believed that the language—such as English, Italian, dialect or other—is a rigid system in which human thought is trapped. He also thought that the cinema is the "written" language of reality which, like any other written language, enables man to see things from the point of view of truth.

paragraph: His films won awards at the Berlin International Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Italian National Syndicate for Film Journalists, Jussi Awards, Kinema Junpo Awards, International Catholic Film Office and New York Film Critics Circle. "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" was nominated for the United Nations Award of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in 1968.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Ebbo Demant directed the documentary "Das Mitleid ist gestorben" (1978) about Pasolini.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Stefano Battaglia made "" (2005) in dedication to Pasolini.

paragraph: In 2014 Abel Ferrara directed a biopic about Pasolini, with Willem Dafoe in the lead role. It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival.

paragraph: In 2015, Malga Kubiak directed a drama movie based on the story of Pier Paolo Pasolini's life and death titled "PPPasolini". The movie was screened at the seventh edition of the LGBT Film Festival in Warsaw, and received a People's Choice Award at the festival.

paragraph: Section::::Filmography.

paragraph: Section::::Filmography.:Feature films.

paragraph: All titles listed below were written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini unless stated otherwise. "Oedipus Rex" and "Medea" are loosely based on plays by Sophocles and Euripides respectively.

paragraph: Section::::Filmography.:Documentaries.

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Sopralluoghi in Palestina per Il Vangelo secondo Matteo" (1964)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Comizi d'amore" ("Love Meetings", 1964)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Appunti per un film sull'India" (1969)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Appunti per un romanzo dell'immondizia" (1970)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Appunti per un'Orestiade Africana" ("Notes Towards an African Orestes", 1970)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Le mura di Sana'a" (1971)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "12 Dicembre 1972" (1972)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Pasolini e la forma della città" (1975)

paragraph: Section::::Filmography.:Episodes in omnibus films.

paragraph: BULLET::::- "La ricotta" in "RoGoPaG" (1963)

paragraph: BULLET::::- First segment of "La rabbia" (1963)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "La Terra vista dalla Luna" in "Le streghe" ("The Witches", 1967)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Che cosa sono le nuvole?" "Capriccio all'Italiana" (1968)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "La sequenza del fiore di carta" in "Amore e rabbia" (1969)

paragraph: Section::::Written works.

paragraph: Section::::Written works.:Narrative.

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Ragazzi di vita" ("The Ragazzi", 1955)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Una vita violenta" ("A Violent Life", 1959)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Il sogno di una cosa" (1962)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Amado Mio—Atti Impuri" (1982, originally written in 1948)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Alì dagli occhi azzurri" (1965)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Teorema" (1968)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Reality" ("The Poets' Encyclopedia", 1979)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Petrolio" (1992, incomplete)

paragraph: Section::::Written works.:Poetry.

paragraph: BULLET::::- "La meglio gioventù" (1954)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Le ceneri di Gramsci" (1957)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "L'usignolo della chiesa cattolica" (1958)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "La religione del mio tempo" (1961)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Poesia in forma di rosa" (1964)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Trasumanar e organizzar" (1971)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "La nuova gioventù" (1975)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Roman Poems". Pocket Poets No. 41 (1986)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "The Selected Poetry of Pier Paolo Pasolini: A Bilingual Edition". (2014)

paragraph: Section::::Written works.:Essays.

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Passione e ideologia" (1960)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Canzoniere italiano, poesia popolare italiana" (1960)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Empirismo eretico" (1972)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Lettere luterane" (1976)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Le belle bandiere" (1977)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Descrizioni di descrizioni" (1979)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Il caos" (1979)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "La pornografia è noiosa" (1979)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Scritti corsari" (1975)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Lettere (1940–1954)" ("Letters, 1940–54", 1986)

paragraph: Section::::Written works.:Theatre.

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Orgia" (1968)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Porcile" (1968)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Calderón" (1973)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Affabulazione" (1977)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Pilade" (1977)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Bestia da stile" (1977)

paragraph: Section::::References.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Aichele, George. "Translation as De-canonization: Matthew's Gospel According to Pasolini – filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini – Critical Essay." "Cross Currents" (2002).

paragraph: BULLET::::- Distefano, John. "Picturing Pasolini", "Art Journal" (1997).

paragraph: BULLET::::- Eloit, Audrene. "Oedipus Rex by Pier Paolo Pasolini The Palimpsest: Rewriting and the Creation of Pasolini's Cinematic Language." "Literature Film Quarterly" (2004).

paragraph: BULLET::::- Fabbro, Elena (ed.). "Il mito greco nell'opera di Pasolini". Atti del Convegno Udine-Casarsa della Delizia, 24–26 ottobre 2002. Udine: Forum (2004);

paragraph: BULLET::::- Forni, Kathleen. "A "Cinema of Poetry": What Pasolini Did to Chancer's Canterbury Tales." "Literature Film Quarterly" (2002).

paragraph: BULLET::::- Frisch, Anette. "Francesco Vezzolini: Pasolini Reloaded." Interview, Rutgers University Alexander Library, New Brunswick, NJ.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Green, Martin. "The Dialectic Adaptation."

paragraph: BULLET::::- Greene, Naomi. "Pier Paolo Pasilini: Cinema as Heresy". Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1990.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Meyer-Krahmer, Benjamin. "Transmediality and Pastiche as Techniques in Pasolini’s Art Production", in: P.P.P. – Pier Paolo Pasolini and death, eds. Bernhart Schwenk, Michael Semff, Ostfildern 2005, pp. 109–118

paragraph: BULLET::::- Passannanti, Erminia, "Il corpo & il potere. Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma di Pier Paolo Pasolini", Prima edizione, Troubador, Leicester, 2004; Seconda Edizione, Joker, Savona 2008.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Passannanti, Erminia,"Il Cristo del'Eresia. Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cinema e Censura", Joker, Savona 2009.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Passannanti, Erminia, "La ricotta. Il Sacro trasgredito. Il cinema di Pier Paolo Pasolini e la censura religiosa", 2009 also published in "Italy on Screen" (Peter Lang Ed., 2011). The book contains excerpts from the 1962 court trial.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Pugh, Tison. "Chaucerian Fabliaux, Cinematic Fabliau: Pier Paolo Pasolini's I racconti di Canterbury", "Literature Film Quarterly" (2004).

paragraph: BULLET::::- Restivo, Angelo. "The Cinema of Economic Miracles: Visuality and Modernization in the Italian Art Film". London: Duke UP, 2002.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Rohdie, Sam. "The Passion of Pier Paolo Pasolini". Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana UP, 1995.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Rumble, Patrick A. "Allegories of contamination: Pier Paolo Pasolini's Trilogy of life". Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Schwartz, Barth D. "Pasolini Requiem". 1st ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 1992.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Siciliano, Enzo. "Pasolini: A Biography". Trans. John Shepley. New York: Random House, 1982.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Viano, Maurizio. "A Certain Realism: Making Use of Pasolini's Film Theory and Practice". Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Willimon, William H. "Faithful to the script", "Christian Century" (2004).

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Interview with Jonas Mekas in Bomb Magazine

paragraph: BULLET::::- Pasolini on Filmgalerie451

paragraph: BULLET::::- Piers Paolo Pasolini, Italian Website with Extensive Commentary

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Pier Paolo Pasolini", Senses of Cinema

paragraph: BULLET::::- BBC News Report on the Reopening of the Murder Case

paragraph: BULLET::::- Guy Flatley: "The Atheist Who Was Obsessed with God", MovieCrazed

paragraph: BULLET::::- Doug Ireland, "Restoring Pasolini", ZMag

paragraph: BULLET::::- Pasolini's Own Notes on "Salò" from 1974

paragraph: BULLET::::- Pier Paolo Pasolini Poems – Original Italian Text.

paragraph: BULLET::::- (Interrupted and Half-Censored by Enzo Biagi)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Italian Website dedicated to Pasolini

paragraph: BULLET::::- Pasolini's Second to Last Interview, Long Believed to Have Been Lost

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Pasolini’s Legacy: A Sprawl of Brutality", Dennis Lim, "The New York Times", 26 December 2012

description: Italian film director, poet, writer and intellectual

wikidata_label: Pier Paolo Pasolini

wikipedia_title: Pier Paolo Pasolini


text:
Jamaica
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categories: Male actors from New York City,Underground rappers,Hardcore hip hop artists,Jamaican emigrants to the United States,East Coast hip hop musicians,Living people,Georgia Perimeter College alumni,21st-century American rappers,American male rappers,AT&T people,American rappers of Jamaican descent,Entertainers from the Bronx,United States Army soldiers,Rappers from New York City,21st-century male musicians,1974 births

paragraph: Canibus

paragraph: Germaine Williams (born December 9, 1974), better known by his stage name Canibus, is a Jamaican-born American rapper and actor. He initially gained fame in the 1990s for his ability to freestyle, and eventually released his debut album Can-I-Bus in 1998. Since releasing his debut album, Canibus has gone on to release 13 solo studio albums in total, as well as multiple collaboration albums and EPs with other rappers as a member of The HRSMN, Sharpshooterz, Cloak N Dagga, The Undergods, and one-half of T.H.E.M.

paragraph: About.com placed him at number 32 on their list of the "Top 50 MCs of Our Time (1987–2007)", while in 2012 "The Source" placed him number 44 on their list of the Top 50 Lyricists of All Time.

paragraph: Section::::Early life.

paragraph: Germaine Williams was born on December 9, 1974 in Kingston, Jamaica. He is of West Indian descent. His father, Basil Williams, was a Jamaican and West Indian cricketer. The family moved frequently, living in The Bronx; Newark, New Jersey; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; Miami; Buffalo; and London due to his mother's career requiring constant relocation. Canibus stated that he was an introverted child growing up. After completing high school in 1992, he spent a year working for AT&T Corporation and another year as a data analyst for the U.S. Department of Justice. His interest in computers and the Internet led him to study computer science at DeKalb College in Atlanta.

paragraph: Section::::Music career.

paragraph: Section::::Music career.:Early career (1992–1996).

paragraph: He began rhyming in the early '90s and by 1992 under the name "Canibus Sativa", and formed a duo called T.H.E.M. (The Heralds of Extreme Metaphors) with Atlanta rapper Webb (now called C.I., also known as Central Intelligence). In 1996, T.H.E.M. split and Canibus teamed with businessman Charles Suitt. That same year Charles Suitt introduced Canibus to platinum producer Frankie Cutlass and the two collaborated on a song. Canibus also appeared on the Music Makes Me High remix by the Lost Boyz featuring Tha Dogg Pound making it Canibus' first official appearance on a record.

paragraph: In December 1997, Canibus first publicly discussed a verbal confrontation with LL Cool J in an interview with Tourè for "The Village Voice". Also attending the interview was John Forté, DMX, Big Pun, Mos Def and Mic Geronimo. The roundtable discussion was recorded by Kurt Nice and featured in Shades of Hip Hop compilation "Hot 2 Def" in 1998 and re-released in 2004 on "Shades of Hip Hop: The Cypher".

paragraph: Section::::Music career.:Debut album (1997–1998).

paragraph: Canibus' debut album "Can-I-Bus" was released on September 8, 1998. The song "Second Round K.O.", produced by Wyclef Jean, was a success, with the video featuring Wyclef and a cameo appearance by boxer Mike Tyson. Despite eventually being certified Gold, critics panned the album, criticizing both Canibus's subject matter and Wyclef's beats, most of which were considered inferior to both "Second Round K.O." and the artists' previous collaborations.

paragraph: The album contained a lot of socially-conscious material, such as corruption within the U.S. government, AIDS, and violence in modern America.

paragraph: Canibus had a feud with LL Cool J over a verse that Canibus gave on LL's track "4,3,2,1" from his album "Phenomenon". The track featured Canibus, Method Man, Redman, and DMX. Canibus's verse began with the line "Yo LL, is that a mic on your arm? Let me borrow that," referring to the microphone tattoo on LL Cool J's arm which LL Cool J interpreted as Canibus insulting him. When the final cut of the song came out it featured LL Cool J's verse after Canibus's, mocking an unspecified person believed to be Canibus.

paragraph: Section::::Music career.:Wyclef feud, second album (1999–2000).

paragraph: Because Wyclef produced the majority of the tracks on "Can-I-Bus", Williams blamed him for the general dissatisfaction with "Can-I-Bus" and cut ties with him, going as far as to diss Wyclef, most notably on the title track of his second album ("You mad at the last album? I apologize for it / Yo, I can't call it, motherfucking Wyclef spoiled it!"). Said album, "2000 B.C.", was also released to mixed feelings and reviews—the latter once more focusing on the lack of topical variety and uninspired production—and also suffered from very little promotion by Universal Records.

paragraph: "2000 B.C." featured the first collaboration between Canibus and Kurupt, Ras Kass and Killah Priest, a rap supergroup collectively known as The HRSMN (referring to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse), on the track "Horsementality". Though following "2000 B.C."'s release it had been announced that the group would be releasing an album, these plans never materialized, with only an EP of outtakes from 2001 entitled "The Horsemen Project" released by Killah Priest's management in 2003. Since 2000, however, the members of the group have worked together on various songs and rumors of a full-length HRSMN album have persisted and include speculation about collaborations with Pharoahe Monch, Common and Rakim, among others.

paragraph: Wyclef Jean would respond to Canibus's earlier remark on the track "However You Want It" from his album, "".

paragraph: Though much bitterness between Canibus and Wyclef Jean remained for a period of time, the two artists finally settled their differences at the end of 2004; they have since worked together on two remixes of the Machel Montano song "Carnival Survivors". In an interview with HipHopsite.com conducted in November 2005, Williams revealed that he had recorded five songs with Wyclef and Jerry 'Wonder' Duplessis at Platinum Studios in New York for the upcoming Fugees reunion album. Whether or not those recordings will appear on the album has not been determined yet.

paragraph: Section::::Music career.:"C True Hollywood Stories" (2001).

paragraph: In 2001, Canibus released his third album, "C True Hollywood Stories", the title and some of the content deriving from the television show "E! True Hollywood Story". It was released on Archives Music, an independent label owned by Williams' future business partner, Louis Lombard III. It was a controversial release due to the album's overall concept, which to this day remains quite unclear to some. Many listeners interpreted it as Canibus' botched attempt at becoming a commercial and mainstream artist and wrote him off as a one-hit wonder, while others have called it a concept album in which the rapper satirized the mainstream hip-hop scene. Most explanations since the album's release seem to lean towards the latter; when Canibus' new official website, MicClub.net, appeared online towards the end of 2002, the summary of "C True Hollywood Stories" in the "Merchandise" section called it "an introspective look into the ultimate fan "Stan's" take on the current state of hip hop".

paragraph: In an interview conducted in 2005, Williams' former promoter, Pak-Man, who worked on over half of the album with the rapper, spoke on the record, with his explanation leaning toward the album being intended as satire: "At that time Canibus was in the studio recording a lot of songs and [I] mean a lot, but he didn't want to make the fans wait no more so he did" C True Hollywood Stories "and he wanted to have fun wit, so thats what we did we had fun wit". In an interview on AllHipHop.com posted on April 8, 2005, Williams was asked what direction he was trying to take with that album; in his response, he stated "That album depicts the state of affairs in my life at the time – nothing more, nothing less".

paragraph: Section::::Music career.:"Mic Club: The Curriculum" and "Rip the Jacker" (2002–2003).

paragraph: After the critical failure of "C True Hollywood Stories", Canibus was subject to criticism and ridicule from the rap industry until the release of "", his fourth full-length album, towards the end of 2002. Although the production was handled almost entirely by little-known producers, some of them from Europe, the record proved to be a greater critical success than the previous year's release. "Mic Club" also saw Canibus return to a more complex rapping style, with a number of concept tracks and few songs with a chorus. The album was released on Mic Club Music, Canibus' own label, but failed to chart, selling relatively few copies.

paragraph: Following the release of "Mic Club: The Curriculum", it was announced that Williams decided to join the United States Army. Before commencing his work with the military, however, he recorded a number of tracks which he intended to be released on his next album, entitled "Rip the Jacker". Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind was given the task of producing the entire record, equipped solely with Canibus' pre-recorded vocals. Due to his military obligations, Canibus himself only managed to review the album after having acquired a copy.

paragraph: Upon release, "Rip the Jacker" received rave reviews from the majority of critics, who noted that Williams' largely scientific lyrics and distinctive, rough delivery was finally matched by equally fine production, as Canibus had a history of working with badly selected producers. Unlike "Mic Club", "Rip the Jacker" charted on both "Billboard"'s R&B/hip-hop charts and the "Billboard" 200, peaking at #34 and #197, respectively, although commercially, it retained the tendency to sell few copies.

paragraph: Critics highlighted various aspects of "Rip the Jacker"'s originality, both in terms of beats and lyrics; Stoupe had employed a large number of samples from often obscure compositions, while Canibus himself undertook a variety of topics from various perspectives. Of note was the inclusion of "Poet Laureate II", a song exceeding seven minutes in length and lacking a chorus, with several changes of beat throughout; the track was frequently singled out as one of the strongest in Canibus' career and the album as a whole convinced listeners and the industry alike that the rapper had not lost his potential.

paragraph: His very next album, Mind Control, would receive him no acclaim whatsoever and was seen as a huge step backwards for the rapper, and would be the start of what is considered to be a downward slope for him.

paragraph: Section::::Music career.:"Mind Control", Cloak n Dagga and "Hip-Hop for Sale" (2005–2006).

paragraph: Following "Rip the Jacker" and Canibus' subsequent discharge from the army, an album entitled "Mind Control" (2005) was released to negative reviews. Canibus had never planned for it to be compiled as a separate record, but agreed to release it through the independent Gladiator Music label as part of a contractual agreement; most of the vocals for "Mind Control" had been recorded prior to the release of "C True Hollywood Stories". A collection of previously recorded material (with only three of the songs being unreleased) produced entirely by Mark Sparks, the album failed to chart and is rarely considered an official Canibus release by the rapper's fans.

paragraph: Also in 2005, a collaboration between Williams and underground rapper Phoenix Orion, who had also been known for scientific lyrics, yielded the album "", released on the independent Head Trauma Records label, owned by K-1 kickboxer Dewey Cooper. The record featured guest appearances from Kool G Rap, K-Solo, and former 106 & Park host Free, among others. As Cloak N Dagga, the duo briefly toured the United States promoting the release.

paragraph: The following month, after numerous delays, Canibus' seventh solo album, "Hip-Hop for Sale", was released, but was panned by critics, who dismissed it as yet another failed attempt to gain mainstream recognition. Additionally, due to the earlier release of "Mind Control" and the leaking of most of the material in the form of a mixtape entitled "The Vitruvian Man", the release date had been pushed back to November, the original date having been May. The production on "Hip-Hop for Sale" was handled in part by Virginia-based producer Nottz, with several relatively unknown producers handling the remaining tracks after Nottz had cut ties with Canibus due to the appearance of "The Vitruvian Man".The day of "Hip-Hop for Sale"'s release, "Mic Club Master Volume One", a separate mixtape, appeared in stores, many of the songs receiving more praise than those present on the full-length album.

paragraph: Section::::Music career.:"For Whom the Beat Tolls" (2007).

paragraph: In January 2007, it was announced that Canibus would release new material in 2007 exclusively on his own imprint, Mic Club Music, in a joint venture with Legion Entertainment and distributed via his former major label, Universal Music Group. A pair of mixtapes, titled "Nothing to Prove" and "Nothing to Lose", were slated for release in March 2007, but were eventually scrapped; instead, Canibus decided to use the best material from each mixtape to create a new full-length album entitled "For Whom the Beat Tolls".

paragraph: When the record was originally announced in March, there was only one confirmed track – the third installment in Canibus' "Poet Laureate" series, "Poet Laureate Infinity". The track has 1,000 bars, in the form of five 200 bar verses, and is layered in such a way that "when you mix it and spread it throughout five channels, [you have the ability] to mix the track differently every time". On April 8, 2007, the track was uploaded, by Canibus himself, to a website where the listener could mix the track differently on a digital mixing board. The website is now down, but the fansite Canibus-Central.com provided a backup.

paragraph: "For Whom the Beat Tolls" was originally set for release in May 2007, but was pushed back one month, and a released on June 12, 2007 (though it was not distributed by Universal as previously reported). The album has 16 tracks and includes contributions from Killah Priest and Vinnie Paz, among others, and featured two personally made mixes of the "Poet Laureate Infinity" track ("Poet Laureate Infinity v003" and "Poet Laureate Infinity v004").

paragraph: Following the release of "For Whom the Beat Tolls", Canibus went on a sporadic tour in the U.S. to promote the record. In August 2007, Canibus made an announcement on his Myspace page that he had cut ties with his business partner Louis Lombard: ""To my friends, family and fans, Just wanted everybody to know I no longer do business with Louis Lombard, III & Mic Club Music".

paragraph: Section::::Music career.:"Melatonin Magik" (2010).

paragraph: In December 2009, it was announced that Canibus was in the process of releasing his 9th studio album "Melatonin Magik". "Melatonin Magik" was released on February 09, 2010, to relatively positive reviews, being regarded as one of his most focused efforts yet. The album included several guest appearances (DZK~PR~ & Warbux), a marked contrast to many of his previous albums in which he kept features at a minimum.

paragraph: Section::::Music career.:"C of Tranquility" (2010).

paragraph: "C of Tranquility" was released on Oct. 5, 2010. Producers include DJ Premier, Irv Gotti, Jake One, Scram Jones, Tha Bizness and J-Zone. Originally recorded in 2008, it was sent to Interdependent Media for track mastery and release. Many of the beats were changed, and a few of the tracks were shortened.

paragraph: Section::::Music career.:"Lyrical Law" (2011).

paragraph: Originally intended to be a Melatonin Magik remix album, as more and more guests were invited to feature, Canibus decided to also record new material for the album, and it quickly evolved into an official solo album. In April 2011, it was announced that he would be selling the album through his new website, canibuscatalogue.com in order to have more control over promotion and sale.

paragraph: An allegedly fraudulent Twitter account posing to be Canibus began posting inflammatory comments towards Royce da 5'9" and the Shady Records camp in early 2011, inciting verbal rebuttals from Royce, believing that the account had been him. Royce's fulmination continued, even after it had been announced that the account was faked by Canibus himself. This caused Canibus to release snippets from a track in which he has lines directed toward Royce. Royce responded simply by saying that Canibus had "fallen off" and could no longer rap well. Similar comments regarding the track were made by affiliate Joe Budden. Insulted, Canibus decided to release two audio snippets. One titled "Lyrical Law VS Joey Cupcakes" in which he harshly insults Budden; poking fun at his personal life and taking smaller shots at Royce da 5'9". the other, titled "Lyrical Law VS Royce da 5'9"" was a length of audio in which he goes in depth about his perception of the situation and further insults Royce da 5'9".

paragraph: A track entitled "Spring Training" was released by Joe Budden two days after "Lyrical Law VS Joey Cupcakes" containing lines directed towards Canibus. To many, the track appears to be a response. This is untrue however, as the track was recorded prior to having a conflict with Canibus. As of June 2011, an official response from either Royce or Budden (aside from brief messages on Twitter) has yet to surface.

paragraph: Section::::Music career.:Canibus vs Dizaster (2012).

paragraph: Canibus completed his first rap battle for King of the Dot on June 9, 2012. Canibus participated in the first two rounds and controversially resorted to pulling out a notepad to read his bars during the third round, after admitting defeat and wishing to recite what he said were "30 pages of rhymes" that he had failed to memorize. The battle was part of King of the Dot's Fresh Coast division in L.A.

paragraph: An open letter, originally thought to have been written by Canibus on Tumblr, explaining his performance about the battle surfaced online, though it was later debunked by his manager as fake, saying that Canibus will make an official statement when the time is right. Canibus later released an official statement on his Facebook page. About the battle itself, Canibus commented that "Sometimes people need laughter and entertainment at the expense of others embarrassment but hip hop means so much to me I don't care."

paragraph: Section::::Military career.

paragraph: In 2002, Canibus signed up for the United States Army. In a 2005 interview, Canibus stated "I enlisted because I wanted to get away from the music... I wanted to do something that gave me a separate definition from what I had done all through my teens and twenties. I was 28 when I enlisted." In 2004, he was caught smoking cannabis and was subsequently discharged.

paragraph: Section::::Discography.

paragraph: Canibus

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Can-I-Bus" (1998)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "2000 B.C. (Before Can-I-Bus)" (2000)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "C! True Hollywood Stories" (2001)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "" (2002)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Rip the Jacker" (2003)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Mind Control" (2005)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Hip-Hop for Sale" (2005)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "For Whom the Beat Tolls" (2007)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Melatonin Magik" (2010)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "C of Tranquility" (2010)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Lyrical Law" (2011)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Fait Accompli" (2014)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Time Flys, Life Dies... Phoenix Rise" (2015)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Full Spectrum Dominance" [EP] (2018)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Full Spectrum Dominance 2" [EP] (2018)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Full Spectrum Dominance 3" [EP] (2019)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Full Spectrum Dominance: Repolarization" [EP] (2019)

paragraph: HRSMN

paragraph: BULLET::::- "The Horsemen Project" (2003)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Historic EP" (2014)

paragraph: The Undergods

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Canibus & Keith Murray are The Undergods" (2009)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "In Gods We Trust – Crush Microphones to Dust" (2011)

paragraph: Other collaborations

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Def Con Zero" (2005)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Lyrical Warfare" (2011) (Recorded from 1993–1995)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "The 2nd Coming" (2013)

paragraph: Section::::Filmography.

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2000: "Bamboozled"

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2004: "Beef II"

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2004: "The MC: Why We Do It"

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Epic Canibus Interview (CWR Radio)

description: American rapper

wikidata_label: Canibus

wikipedia_title: Canibus