Hip-hop was born in New York but if you talk to most young people in São Paulo, Brazil they’ll tell you that they feel like it belongs to them.
No one will deny it is an American import, but after more than two decades of hip-hop, pronounced “hippy hoppy� in Portuguese, local hip-hop has developed explicitly Brazilian characteristics. For a self-proclaimed hip-hop head it was a bit embarrassing to be schooled by the Brazilian heads, but they know their stuff. Hip-hop history is serious business in Brazil; the four elements (DJs, Break Dancers Graffiti Writers, and MCs) are sacred and if you don’t give props to the pioneers, Brazilian and American alike, you will get played. Their b-boys and b-girls compete on an international level, DJs can scratch and mix with the best of them, graffiti is so big that Santo Andre — a city on the outskirts of São Paulo — hosted the first world show of graffiti last summer. Rap has developed so much that many heads don’t even listen to American rap and there are about seven different styles, including gospel, gangster, “futuristic,� underground and rock fusion.
In many ways Brazilian hip-hop started out under the same conditions as it did in the United States. Many in the hip-hop community relate to the social and economic conditions that hip-hop talks about within our own country. Drugs (especially crack) have taken over the favelas - Brazilian shantytowns – and extreme levels of economic inequality and poverty coupled with drug-related violence means that the majority of Brazilian youth live in precarious situations.
Unemployment rates in São Paulo (depending on the season) can top 20 percent and much higher in the favelas. Racism is a reality in Brazil and though both black and white Brazilians populate the most impoverished periphery zones of most major cities, there are a disproportionate number of black Brazilians who live in these zones and face dire poverty.
Hip-hop has become one of the central tools of social criticism for a marginalized youth with little prospects for employment and extremely limited access to education. For a lot of young people it is a classroom. Through rap they learn about Zumbi dos Palmares – a hero in the struggle against slavery – and other important Afro-Brazilian leaders; they learn about the history of Brazilian People’s struggle to end the military dictatorship; and for many, it’s where they are introduced to concepts of revolution, socialism and democracy.
While they learned a lot from American hip-hop and followed our lead on many things, there are quite a few lessons we could stand to learn from the Brazilian experience. The b-boys and -girls, DJs, rappers, and graffiti writers have traditionally organized themselves into what they call “crews� which not only dedicate themselves to their art forms but also perform community service and work to organize the young people in their neighborhoods to pass on both art and social consciousness.
Of course this doesn’t mean that they all share the same political analysis or that they even advocate a certain political ideology. Some will tell you that they don’t like politics but will incorporate themes of pride in their Afro-Brazilian roots into their graffiti or talk about how the police harass them in their rap songs.
In the past five years the left and progressive forces in Brazil have won significant victories, culminating in the election of Luis “Lula� da Silva, in a country that until 1985 was ruled by a military dictatorship. There is no doubt that the election of Workers Party candidates in many urban areas (including São Paulo) has meant an opening of resources and opportunities for the hip-hop community. Today in most neighborhoods there are hip-hop-centered community projects and there even exists a community center that was converted into a House of Hip-Hop Culture in Diadema – a city on the outskirts of metropolitan São Paulo. The House of Hip-Hop Culture, which has become a model for many other communities and cities throughout Brazil, is an entire community center dedicated to the four elements of hip-hop that offers workshops, classes, free concerts, and a library to anyone interested in learning about hip-hop. Many Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have also begun to incorporate hip-hop as a way to educate the public on issues of democracy and citizenship, sexuality and STDs, and even as a part of literacy campaigns.
This new wave of social projects incorporating hip-hop does not come without its shortcomings and challenges. In Brazil today the major discussion of the hip-hop community is whether hip-hop can be considered a culture (and thus, in some cases, a commercial product) or if it is a movement. Seemingly innocent questions on the elusive “fifth element� can lead to heated debate with answers ranging from beatbox to revolution. There are some who resist the move to make hip-hop a tool of politicians and NGOs while others insist that it be a space for organizing young people and raising consciousness. Many are concerned with the new interest of multinational recording companies, such as Sony, which they fear will destroy their hip-hop in much the same way that they feel happened to American hip-hop. Many opportunist politicians have also jumped on the bandwagon and the Brazilian hip-hop heads fear they too will try to hijack the movement and rob it of its autonomy and authenticity.
The struggle in the recent years has been to find a balance that allows them to improve as artists, while continuing to evolve without being exploited or used as political pawns. This year for the first time, during the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the hip-hop heads organized a National Hip-Hop Forum. Taking advantage of the World Social Forum, hip-hoppers from all over Brazil traveled to Porto Alegre to discuss the future of hip-hop in Brazil, the political landscape and situation of young people, and ways to organize themselves to better fight for the interests of their communities. They have vowed to continue to hold annual, national hip-hop forums and to organize them in their cities and states to respond to the changing situations facing their communities. In the recent months they have become particularly active in the movement against war in Iraq and participated in the historic day of worldwide protest on February 15.
In Brazil, hip-hop for most isn’t just something you do; it’s something you live and breathe. As the late rapper Sabotagem was often quoted as saying “rap é compromiso�- rap is a commitment. Hip-hop is the way that they express themselves, the way that they communicate with a society that often disregards them and most importantly it’s their way to contribute to the construction of a new Brazil..
Jessica Marshall is a YCL National Co-coordinator
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Dynamic Magazine
