Fritz Da Cat

Fritz da Cat, the stage name of Alessandro Civitelli, is an Italian producer originally from Genoa who became a key architect of Italian hip hop's sound while based in Milan. His stage name, given to him by Philippe Renault Jr, references Fritz the Cat, the underground comic-book character created by Robert Crumb and later adapted into an animated film by Ralph Bakshi.

He debuted in 1998 with a self-titled album, but it was 1999's «Novecinquanta» that became a landmark record in Italian rap history. In 2001 he released «Basley Click – The Album» alongside Fabri Fibra and Fede. He then stepped away from music for roughly a decade to run a business selling graffiti spray paint, before returning in 2011 to produce beats for artists including Guè Pequeno and Fedez, culminating in his fourth album «Fritz», released in 2013.

Fritz da Cat's production is closely associated with the boom-bap and street-oriented sound that defined the golden era of Italian rap in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and his return in the 2010s helped bridge that era with the newer generation of Italian trap and hip hop producers.