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“I don’t want to\u00a0live this way, chewing disillusion \/ This social abyss needs to be attended \/ ‘Concentration, strength and faith’, my brother said that \/ Spoiled children cannot rule the nation”.<\/i> These sour lyrics are quietly pronounced over the sweet swinging instrumentation of the cavaquinho, the pandeiro, the\u00a0reco-reco, the\u00a0guitar and a few horns. Brazilian samba eventually rediscovers its political meaning through S\u00e3o Paulo-based rapper Criolo, with “Menino Mimado” (Spoiled child), the first single extracted from his new album\u00a0“Espiral de Ilus\u00e3o”<\/a>\u00a0(Spiral of illusion), available from today.<\/strong><\/p>\n Considered by\u00a0Caetano Veloso<\/strong>\u00a0as “probably the most important figure of today’s Brazilian pop music”<\/em>,\u00a0Kleber Cavalcante Gomes<\/strong> aka\u00a0Criolo<\/strong>, born to migrants from the Nordeste region – where most low-class people and slaves and native descendants are to be found – has had a special place in Brazilian hip-hop since 2006 and the album\u00a0Ainda H\u00e1 Tempo<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n A special place because he’s always stated his mixed origins loud and clear, thus\u00a0being a true representative of the Brazilian society’s cultural\u00a0wealth.\u00a0“Eu tenho orgulho da minha cor, \/ do meu cabelo e do meu nariz. \/ Sou assim e sou feliz. \/ \u00cdndio, caboclo, cafuso, criolo! Sou brasileiro!<\/i>“<\/i>, the rapper sings in\u00a0“Sucrilhos” in 2012. This would translate as “I’m proud of my colour, \/ of my hair and my nose. \/ This is the way I am and I’m happy with it. \/\u00a0Indigenous, caboclo, cafuso, creole! I’m Brazilian!”<\/em> This promotion and pride of the difference, and its associated anti-racist message is somewhat reminiscent of what Sandra de S\u00e1 was singing in<\/span>\u00a0“Olhos Coloridos” in\u00a01986:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Voc\u00ea ri da minha roupa<\/em> [translated by the author] A special place because in the past albums he musically quoted Caetano Veloso<\/strong> and Chico Buarque<\/strong>, cult artists of Brazilian popular music (MPB) ; his rap music blends with samba, boleros, forr\u00f3 and carimb\u00f3, some traditional genres that has existed long before hip hop ; but also with afrobeat, funk and soul. Again, this mix has been typical of S\u00e3o Paulo’s music scene for the last years, especially thanks to musician and producer\u00a0Marcelo Cabral<\/strong>, \u00a0a true omnipresent figure\u00a0(Elza Soares<\/strong>, Met\u00e1 Met\u00e1<\/strong>, Passo Torto<\/strong>, Thiago Fran\u00e7a<\/strong>, Rodrigo Campo<\/strong>, MarginaIS<\/strong>\u2026). Cabral had already produced Criolo’s last two albums,\u00a0N\u00f3 na Orelha<\/i> (2012) and\u00a0<\/span>Convoque Seu Buda<\/i> (2014), musical playgrounds for both the producer and the artist. As a true poet, Criolo\u00a0is keen on using intertextuality and references, and never forgets to invoke\u00a0rap, as here on this single, when he quotes his friend Projota’s lyrics<\/a>:\u00a0“Foco, for\u00e7a e f\u00e9, j\u00e1 falou meu irm\u00e3o”<\/em> (” With the song “Menino Mimado”, i.e. “spoiled child”, Criolo sends a cry from the heart\u00a0– and from the mind – but with the sweetness that characterizes samba music. This makes it a surprising and bold musical stance, maybe in order to better reach his target – the elitist group that runs the nation while satisfying their own interests, thus fostering a climate of social division. More precisely: Michel Temer’s corrupted government whose members are all exclusively 50\/60-year-old white heterosexual males (except\u00a0Luislinda Valois, the Secretary for the Promotion of Racial Equality, now Minister for Human Rights, eventually appointed one month after the presidential mandate, as a small concession to the criticisms). This homogeneous team\u00a0strongly contrasts with Dilma Rousseff’s previous government. Had the rapper delivered his message in a true hip-hop vocal style, sometimes aggressive, would the effect have been the same? This is a question Criolo does not even ask himself, he who does not need to prove his legitimacy anymore before a country and a population who is looking for\u00a0realistic, respectable and virtuous pathfinders, as opposed to today’s political class.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n “What happens today”<\/em>,<\/span> he declares in an interview he recently gave to BBC Brasil,\u00a0“is that some really clever persons hold the State power between their hands and know exactly what they’re doing. They know every single area and interstice, and this is how they build their empire. And they are likely to do anything only to protect and further their interests, including by paralysing\u00a0the country and ensure that people kill each other in the streets.”<\/em> Stupefied by the social crisis his country is facing, he also lamented the “mood of hatred and rancour so\u00a0absurd that people just don’t care about anything anymore. It seems like they don’t see the raise and strengthening of homophobia, xenophobia and racism that some people are promoting. They are not embarrassed by the social abyss people are living in.”<\/em> A social abyss created by the “spoiled children”<\/em>\u00a0– those who\u00a0took power but also the blinkered or blind citizens – and that social abyss\u00a0“needs to be attended”<\/em><\/span>, as he sings in “Menino Mimado”.<\/span><\/p>\n The artist is bothering people, and\u00a0not only the guardians of the system and the government, but his own fans, too. Some of them\u00a0already started to criticize Criolo’s\u00a0“caetanisation” (for Caetano Veloso) in his radical turn towards samba. The answer first came from his producer\u00a0Daniel Ganjaman<\/strong>, who peacefully answered on Twitter : “I’m just gonna cite\u00a0‘Haiti’, an amazing rap song by\u00a0Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil recorded at a time some of you didn’t even know what rap was.”<\/i><\/span><\/p>\nCreole pride \/ Proud to be creole<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\nVoc\u00ea ri do meu cabelo<\/em>
\nVoc\u00ea ri da minha pele<\/em>
\nVoc\u00ea ri do meu sorriso…
\n<\/em>A verdade \u00e9 que voc\u00ea<\/em>
\n(Todo brasileiro tem!)<\/em>
\nTem sangue crioulo<\/em>
\nTem cabelo duro”<\/em><\/p>\n
\n“You’re laughing at my outfit
\nYou’re laughing at my hair
\nYou’re laughing at my skin
\nYou’re laughing at my smile
\nBut the truth is that you
\n(and the whole Brazilian people)
\nYou have creole blood
\nYou have nappy\u00a0hair”<\/em><\/p>\nMusical nomadism<\/h3>\n
\n(“Concentration, force et foi, mon fr\u00e8re l’a dit”).<\/p>\nBiting irony against widespread cynicism<\/h3>\n
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\n\u00ab THROUGH JOY, HONESTY AND QUESTIONING, I DELIVER A PORTRAIT OF OUR CONDITION. IN A WAR FOR POWER AND FREEDOM, WHERE THE WELL-BEING OF EVERYONE IS FAR FROM BEING A PRIORITY, SAMBA PAVES THE WAY AND CLEARS THE PATH. \u00bb<\/h3>\n
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