Charlotte Hadden for The New York Times

Just a few years ago, the baby-faced son of Tunisian immigrants was making videos of his trap-influenced flows about smoking weed in Milan’s outskirts, showing up rivals with just about every teenage-rap trope.

“Rage was my interest,” Ghali, whose full name is Ghali Amdouni, said in an interview. “But then I discovered that I can do other things with my music.”

Italy’s corporate giants also realized that they could do things with Ghali’s music. Last year, the phone company Vodafone used his single “Cara Italia” (“Dear Italy”) in a commercial. The song took off, getting more than 100 million views on YouTube. It went triple platinum. In 2017, Ghali released his debut, “Album.” It became the fifth best-selling album that year in Italy.

Now, the 26-year-old is selling out arenas across Italy with a European tour scheduled to start this summer.

“He is more pop now,” said Cosimo Fini, the Milan rapper better known as Gué Pequeno, who promoted a teenage Ghali.

Charlotte Hadden for The New York Times

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.

“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 said he had no interest in taking on the mantle of Italy’s political opposition. “I don’t want to be political, I just sing about what I see around me,” he said. “Music is my therapy."

As 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.

At home, he listened to American trap, Nirvana and The Gipsy Kings, he said. He imitated Michael Jackson’s dance moves as he and his mother watched music videos on VHS cassettes.

Now Ghali has embraced his status as a pop celebrity and fashion icon. In videos and stage appearances, his many outfit changes range from jumpsuits reminiscent of Guantánamo Bay detainees to pink double-breasted suits.

“I’ve always been theatrical,” he said, adding that he would change outfits four times a day as a child. “My mother was also very much into fashion, despite our limited resources.”

Ghali’s mother, Amel, worked many different jobs when he was growing up. His father spent time in jail before leaving the family to return to Tunisia. Ghali took inspiration from that time in his life and from inmates at a Milan prison for his latest single, “I Love You.”

“We die alone, we live together,” he sings. “Yeah yeah yeah, I feel you as if there were no walls.”