They embrace reggae and hip-hop on "Periferia de Jah", and outer space groove on "Realidade," and it's not hard to see what Zunz saw in them that inspired him.Īt its core, this is all music born of struggle, even if its sunny disposition doesn't always let on. Their "Soldados Nunca Mais" flips back and forth between funk and rock, balancing intricate vocal arrangements on the funky verses with flat-out riffing on the chorus. That brings us back to the band most responsible for this compilation's existence: Movimento Na Rua. The mix of harmony singing, rapping, live, acoustic instrumentation, and programming has few genuine parallels anywhere. This sound's time has clearly arrived, and it deserves a prominent place on our hip-hop planet.
NEGA SONG SAMBA MEANING FULL
That couldn't be more different from the two Digitaldubs tracks, one of which features deep, gravelly vocals from baile funk rapper Mister Catra, while the other is straight-up roots reggae with dub production and pounding, modern reggae rhythm tracks full of programmed drums and electronic bass lines.īnegao e os Seletores de Frequencia offer an electro-acoustic pop/hip-hop hybrid that makes it clear how far ahead of his time Tom Zé has been throughout his career- he's anticipated this sound for decades. "O Perfume da Nega" is more closely related to Bebeto's late-70s MPB records. "Brasis", with its big brass arrangement, frenetic rhythm and frantic vocal, reminds me of Wilson Simonal's late-60s pilantragem phase and, more distantly, the carnavál music of Agostinho dos Santos. Gabriel Moura, who once played in a band called Farofa Carioca with Seu Jorge, turns in two wildly divergent tracks that recall Brazil's musical past. On "Cartilha", he trades verses with a jazzy, muted trumpet, while "Camila" is more fractured, with motor-mouthed verses traded back and forth by multiple MCs- at one point, it sounds like they're trading verses over the phone.
Lead MC Edu Lopes seems to have picked up some of his technique from De La Soul. The band that opens and closes the disc, A Filial, is tough to describe- they have a chilled-out vibe to their sound, with casual guitar riffs, funky rhythms and an overall feel that recalls classic Brazilian popular music updated for the hip-hop era. The ultimate goal is to build a state-of-the-art recording studio in Rio with the specific mission of developing new artists. Verge records founder Emmanuel Zunz founded the label after hearing the funky rock group Movimento Na Rua while working in a Rio favela for a Canadian NGO called Schools Without Borders, and a portion of sales benefit the organization. The disc's 13 songs are split between five different artists, and they range all over the map from twitching hip-hop to sunny funk-rock, crazed dub, and driving neo-samba. Verge Records' Inspiring New Sounds of Rio de Janeiro compilation, while burdened with a pretty lousy title, nevertheless does a fine job of collecting a handful of interesting artists and showcasing some excellent tracks. The favelas of Brazil have produced huge quantities of music, and the recent baile funk craze is just a part of the story. Rio de Janeiro isn't the largest Brazilian city, but it's the most mythical, with its dramatic harbor, imposing mountains, massive statue of Christ, and white, curving beaches, but its modern realities are like those of any other city, with crime and poverty a part of the landscape. The mansions of the country's great cities are balanced by teeming, violent slums where opportunity can seem like a very distant dream. Today, Brazilian society is marked by a disparity in living standards easily as bad as at any point in history. There's just a certain Brazilian edge, a distinctive melodic warmth that's unmistakable. Brazil's music industry is very nearly as large as that of the U.S., and extremely diverse- the country has produced many unique styles of its own, from batucada and samba to bossa nova, MPB and Tropicália- and it's usually pretty easy to pick a Brazilian record out of the crowd regardless of its genre.
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