Don Joe

Blending '80s electro and Italo house influences alongside pop, hip-hop, rock, and soul textures, Don Joe—beatmaker, rapper, producer, and DJ—stands among the foremost voices in Italy's present-day urban landscape. Luigi Florio entered the world in Bresso, a modest community bordering Milan, during 1975. His path into music opened after R&B singer Irene Lamedica enlisted him as her designated tour MC; following a brief period with the collective Le Sacre Scuole, he joined two fellow members, Gue Pequeno and Jake La Furia, to establish Club Dogo. The group issued its first album, Mi Fist, in 2003, then united with numerous additional rappers and DJs to assemble the seventeen-member Dogo Gang crew. Don Joe kept shuttling between these endeavors while crafting tracks for fellow artists Marracash and Vincenzo da Via Anfossi, alongside American veterans Cassidy and Styles P; he also partnered with Grand Agent on the 2005 release Regular and issued multiple Dogoinfamous mixtapes. His greatest commercial breakthrough arrived in 2011 via Thori e Rocce, the collaborative studio album created with Italian-Argentine producer DJ Shabla and boasting an all-star roster of Italy's premier hip-hop talents.