{"id":41158,"date":"2019-11-29T19:18:57","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T18:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/principe-discos-the-highway-to-royalty\/"},"modified":"2020-10-07T13:02:24","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T11:02:24","slug":"principe-discos-the-highway-to-royalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/principe-discos-the-highway-to-royalty\/","title":{"rendered":"Pr\u00edncipe Discos: the highway to royalty"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Since its inception in 2011, Lisbon-based label Pr\u00edncipe Discos has set out to conquer international dancefloors with an irresistible sound signature: the \u201cbatida\u201d. Beats, emancipation, roots, pride and identity… We meet up with producers Marfox and N\u00eddia at Le Guess Who? Festival.<\/span><\/h4>\n

Photo: N\u00eddia<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Portugal, 2004. A quiet revolution, and one that is here to stay, begins in Portela, one of the many derelict neighborhoods \u2013 sometimes slums \u2013 on the outskirts of Lisbon. By blending kuduro, kizomba, funan\u00e1 and tarraxinha with house and techno beats, the pioneers of batida<\/i> discovered what came to be the sound, signature and success of the label Pr\u00edncipe Discos \u2013 with a similar DIY approach to how Boy Better Know and Skepta shaped their grime sound in London. \u201cBatida\u201d<\/i> is a Portuguese term that defines both the musical beats, and  how the heart beats following a surprise. A fitting description!<\/p>\n

\u201dThere was this guy mixing in a corner. I was just a DJ then, and at that time, it was always the same music every night \u2013 always the same pap. But that thing was so fresh! I had never heard anything like that before! I went to talk to him and he told me he played his own tracks. This guy was Nervoso, the father of the batida. I immediately wanted to do the same thing,\u201d<\/i> recalls Marlon Silva aka Marfox, one of the pillars of Pr\u00edncipe Discos, along with Nervoso and Firmeza. Launched in 2011 with Marfox\u2019s first EP, Eu Sei Quem Sou<\/i> (\u201cI know who I am\u201d, in Portuguese), the label achieved something special: to open up the music of the ghettos of Lisbon in record time. Invading the clubs of the city center \u2013 in particular MusicBox and its renowned \u201cNoite Pr\u00edncipe\u201d, Lisbon nightlife\u2019s unmissable monthly gathering as well as a showcase of the label\u2019s permanently mutating sound \u2013 Pr\u00edncipe Discos has offered its artists a highway to royalty, i.e. to international venues and clubs. A place that the second generation of producers \u2013 including the only female talent N\u00eddia \u2013 intends to defend at all costs. \u201cThe philosophy of Pr\u00edncipe?\u201d<\/i> she asks, \u201callow each of us to live their own dreams.”<\/i> <\/i><\/p>\n

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First spotted by Marfox, the young female producer has evolved rapidly: after N\u00eddia \u00c9 M\u00e1, N\u00eddia \u00c9 Fudida<\/i> (\u201cN\u00eddia is nasty, N\u00eddia is (the) shit\u201d, a two-meaning title) in 2017, the debut-LP that impressed audiences as far reaching as Fever Ray and The New York Times, she would then go on to performing at Sonar the following year. Likewise, Maboku, Nigga Fox, Lilocox, Karfox, LioFox, Dadifox and Famifox continue to follow the path of the pioneers \u2013 all their gratitude put into the suffix, \u201c-fox\u201d. \u201dNone of us make the same batida, but it\u2019s a visceral process for everyone,\u201d<\/i> says N\u00eddia, who favors the R&B curvature where Lilocox prefers the syncopations of trap music. Although the colors vary \u2013 each producer has their own \u2013 the ethos of Pr\u00edncipe Discos remains the same: to prioritise authenticity and a sense of the collective. \u201dIt\u2019s together, as a tight music scene, that we were able to conquer spaces that we could not even dare to dream of,\u201d<\/i> adds Marfox, whom we meet at Le Guess Who? Festival in the Netherlands, playing in the stroboscopic smoke of the Basis club. There, far from Lisbon, another revelation: the dancing power of the batida<\/i> which, before being an upward social mobility tool, is festive music for non-alienated bodies.<\/p>\n