Germans Love David Hasselhoff: According to The Other Wiki, his early album as "Mikimix" was a success in France only, while in his home country of Italy it was largely ignored.
Growing the Beard: Literally. As the young, clean-shaven "Mikimix", he only sang innocuous rap songs about trivial arguments... then he let his hair and beard grow and became Caparezza, who rejected his past persona since he disowned the mainstream of music and began singing about politics and society's problems, enjoying a LOT MORE success and critical acclaim.