His father spent time in jail before leaving the family to return to Tunisia. Ghali’s mother, Amel, worked many different jobs when he was growing up. “My mother was also very much into fashion, despite our limited resources.” “I’ve always been theatrical,” he said, adding that he would change outfits four times a day as a child. In videos and stage appearances, his many outfit changes range from jumpsuits reminiscent of Guantánamo Bay detainees to pink double-breasted suits. Now Ghali has embraced his status as a pop celebrity and fashion icon. He imitated Michael Jackson’s dance moves as he and his mother watched music videos on VHS cassettes. “Music is my therapy."Īs a teenager, Ghali used the moniker “Fobia” around Baggio, the suburb in western Milan where he grew up, and freestyled against classmates during school breaks to impress girls and ward off bullies.Īt home, he listened to American trap, Nirvana and The Gipsy Kings, he said. “I don’t want to be political, I just sing about what I see around me,” he said. Ghali said he had no interest in taking on the mantle of Italy’s political opposition. “What kind of politics is this? What’s the difference between left and right?” Ghali raps in “Cara Italia.” “When they tell me, ‘Go home,’ I answer, ‘Here I am.’” Ghali’s trap hits, poppy though they may be, speak to troubled times in Italy, in which migrants are demonized, birthright citizenship is a liberal pipe dream, and leading politicians repeat on a loop that Italians come first.