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Gionata Boschetti (; born 7 December 1992), known professionally as Sfera Ebbasta (), is an Italian rapper. He rose to prominence after the release of XDVR (2015), recorded with the collaboration of producer Charlie Charles and DEACC, which achieved commercial success in Italy. This success was replicated with Sfera Ebbasta (2016), Rockstar (2018) and its re-issue Popstar Edition (2018), and Famoso (2020). He was the best-selling artist in Italy of the 2010s and currently holds the record for most songs reaching #1 in the country (24).
On 11 June 2015 he made his debut with the first studio album, XDVR (standing for "per davvero", "for real" in English), made up by some of the singles published in the previous months, as well as other unpublished ones. Initially released as a free download, the album was reissued in a reloaded version on 23 November through Roccia Music, an independent record label of Marracash and Shablo, and distributed in the national sales circuits; in addition to the songs already present in the original, the tracklist included the unreleased "XDVRMX" (with Marracash and Luchè), "Ciny" (referring to his hometown Cinisello, of which a video clip was also shot) and "Trap Kings". The album had success in the underground musical scene and greatly increased the popularity of trap music in Italy, also receiving excellent feedback from the specialized critics; however it was also the subject of numerous criticisms as various songs spoke of life in neighborhoods (mainly inspired by the street reality of his city, Cinisello Balsamo), including criminal activities and consumption of such as codeine and marijuana.
On 20 January 2016 the video of the unreleased track "Blunt & Sprite" was published on YouTube, while during the same year Sfera Ebbasta featured in a track of the album Anarchie by the French rapper SCH, positively impressed by listening to the rapper's pieces during a stay in Italy: he also made the track "Cartine Cartier", produced by Charlie Charles and DJ Kore, extracted as a promotional single of the album.
On 22 September of the same year Gué Pequeno released the single "Lamborghini" from his album entitled Gentleman, which featured the vocal participation of Sfera Ebbasta;
On 3 January 2018 the rapper announced his third studio album, Rockstar, produced again by Charlie Charles and released on the 19th of the same month. The album was commercialized in Italian and international editions, the latter characterized by collaborations with various artists such as Tinie Tempah, Rich the Kid and Quavo; the album debuted at the top of the FIMI Album Ranking. At the same time, all 11 tracks have conquered the top twelve positions of Top Single (with the sole exception of Ed Sheeran's Perfect single, in sixth place). Also, thanks to the success of his album, the rapper became the first Italian artist to position himself among the first hundred of the world ranking compiled by Spotify.
On 13 March 2018 the rapper, along with Charlie Charles, announced the establishment of the record label Billion Headz Music Group, while on 4 May the unpublished single "Peace & Love" was released, which also involved the rapper Ghali.
On 7 December 2018 the re-edition of Rockstar, subtitled Popstar Edition, was published, including a second disc containing some remixes and the unreleased tracks "Popstar", "Uh Ah Hey" and "Happy Birthday" (the latter extracted as a single).
On the night of 7 to 8 December 2018, Sfera Ebbasta was due to perform in a nightclub in Corinaldo, near Ancona; during the wait for his appearance, at around 1 am, a panic induced stampede caused six deaths and dozens of injuries.
His first featured appearance was on 22 May 2020 when Italian rapper DrefGold released his second album Elo, in which Sfera Ebbasta was featured in the single "Elegante". On 5 June the single "Miami" was released; it is the result of a collaboration with US rapper Ronny J and Argentinian rapper Duki, while a week later it was the turn of "M' manc", a single recorded with the producer Shablo and the Neapolitan rapper Geolier.
On 26 June Italian rapper Gué Pequeno released his seventh album, Mr. Fini, in which Sfera Ebbasta duets with him on the track "Immortale". Another collaboration occurs on 10 July when Mahmood released the single "Dorado", realized with Sfera Ebbasta himself and Colombian rapper Feid. The last collaboration was on 11 September, when Padre, figlio e spirito, the second studio album of the trap group FSK Satellite, was released and Sfera Ebbasta appeared in the track "Soldi sulla carta".
At the beginning of October 2020 Sfera Ebbasta released on Instagram a teaser to announce his third studio album. On the 13th of that month it announced the title, FAMO$O (Italian word for FAMOU$, with the S stylized as dollar symbol), and its tracklist, characterized for the first time ever by several important and relevant collaborations, with names which are worldwide known as Offset, Future, Steve Aoki, Diplo and J Balvin. Curiously, the only Italian collaboration is with Marracash and Gué Pequeno in a track; the publication of the project is scheduled for 20 November 2020. Also involved in the project are some important producers as Steve Aoki, Diplo and London on da Track. Moreover, another curiosity will be represented in the last track "$€ Freestyle", because it will be the first track produced by Sfera Ebbasta himself.
Alongside the musical project Sfera Ebbasta released the documentary of the same name, exclusively on Prime Video, which shows some anecdotes of his musical growth and the making-of the new album.
On 28 October, he released the first single "Bottiglie Privè", the unique which is produced by his producer Charlie Charles, who is executive producer of the entire album.
With the release of Famoso, a collaboration with the famous American fast food restaurant chain KFC was announced.
In July 2021, his collaboration with Italian rapper Blanco titled "Mi fai impazzire" ("You drive me crazy") peaked at #1 on the Italian singles chart, giving him his 18th number one single, and is certified seventh platinum by FIMI.
| + List of studio albums, with chart positions and certifications ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Title ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Album details ! scope="col" colspan="5" | Peak chart positions ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Certifications |
| + List of singles as lead artist, with chart positions, album name and certifications ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Single ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Year ! scope="col" colspan="5" | Peak chart positions ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Certifications ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Album |
| + List of singles as featured artist, with chart positions, album name and certifications ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Title ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Year ! scope="col" colspan="2" | Peak chart positions ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Certifications ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Album |
| + List of other charted songs, with chart positions, album name ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Title ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Year ! scope="col" colspan="1" | Peak chart positions ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Certifications ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Album |
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