Crack: the Brazilian nightmare

Crack is probably the biggest health and social issue Brazil is facing currently. Thousands of people get addicted each day and that sad trend is becoming more visible in many parts of the country. For instance, downtown Sao Paulo has an area called “Cracolândia” (“Crackland”) that is both an embarrassment and a danger. 

City Hall has tried to throw these people out several times with no success. They endure living on the streets and roaming around, robbing to get more money to buy more crack. No consistent social policy has ever been planned for that area and the only way the city and state governments have dealt with the issue was through the use of the police force. The main worry is that the Cracolândia will ruin the reviving plans that the real estate companies have for downtown SP. People that go to the classical music concerts at the Sala São Paulo or that visit the Portuguese Language Museum get upset about running into addicts while parking the car or taking the Metro.

In this video made by Folha de S.Paulo, the most read newspaper in Brazil, you can see how the crack addicts have been living for decades.



 
This last tuesday, Jan 3rd, a new attempt to “clean” the area is being spearheaded by the state and municipal governments. Gilberto Kassab (mayor) and Geraldo Alckmin (governor) claim that scaring people and drug dealers away is the best strategy to solve this problem. Doing away with the availability of drugs will make the addicts seek treatment, they say. Meanwhile, there is not an adequate clinic in the sorroundings that can take care of these potential patients. The only medicine so far has been hosing down their tents and the garbage on the streets.

Crack in Brazil
1.2 million users
13 is the average age for the first experience
(source: IBGE)

Free Brazilian Music

Give yourself a (cheap) Christmas gift and download this selection of free albums that we made. They are all free and good! Merry Christmas!


Click on the covers for the download links

1. Criolo - "Nó na orelha"

He's the hottest thing since bread came sliced. Maybe not, but Criolo is sure the artist that created empathy and controversy at the same time. Some accused him and the mainstream media of "hyping" too much. Others thought he is God. I'll say his sensitive and mellow rap is worth the listen.


2. Bixiga 70 - "Bixiga 70"

You don't have to know any Portuguese to appreciate this pearl. Jamming like it was 1973, Bixiga 70 made one of the best albums in 2011. They have the technique, the soul and the power to make a powerful mix between Fela Kuti's afrobeat and Jorge Ben's afrosamba, throwing some big band-style jazz along the way. This record is equally suited for a cool party or a moment of inner thought. Brilliant.


3. Karina Buhr - "Longe de onde"

I admit it: Buhr's music does not please me. She has not made it to my "Best of 2011" iPod playlist, but she is good. In fact, a lot better than all of the singers that seem to appear every week in Sao Paulo. From Pernanbuco, Karina Buhr sounds a lot better live. She has managed to get herself a pretty nice band and her presence onstage is great.

It's only rock'n'roll. And I really like it.

“I don't think I even really knew what "music" was though, you know? I didn't really get it. My parents didn't play Beatles or any other records around the house. I always get jealous when other songwriters say that.” This is what Ted Billings, frontman for Age Rings said in a brief e-mail interview for Brazilian. That is the first clue that this Massachussetts-based band is not your regular indie rock band.

“Black Honey” is their sophomore album, to be released next Saturday (11/5) by Midriff Records. The fourteen tracks go way beyond the “new rock” wave that has been flooding the internet (and advertising, movies, the world!) for the past 11 years.

The kind of rock made by Age Rings has a feature that is becoming rare nowadays: it is “only” rock’n’roll. The fashionable thing to do is to come with a label that seems fresh, but is actually referring to a “retro” trend: “vintage garage”, “freak folk”, “disco punk”. Well, sir, that ain’t the case with these people. No, they don’t sound like Bill Halley. O Zepellin. Or Beatles. They sound like themselves.

Ted Billings didn’t grow up listening to Beach Boys, but he surely got it right when it comes to making great music. “Black Honey” has two of the most important features for a musician: identitiy and (generates) empathy.

You can read the interview with Ted Billings below.

And here, you can listen to three tracks from “Black Honey”, that will be available in many formats. Don’t forget to go to www.midriffrecords.com and check it out.

  Rock and Roll Is Dead by Age Rings

  Big Black Hole by Age Rings

   Important Guy by Age Rings

How did Age Rings start? What’s the story, in a nutshell?

As a solo project in 2006, I think. Recorded most of the first album with a drummer and a piano player. After that I just asked people to join to play shows. We've had a bunch of different lineups since then – I’m the only original member.

Where do your inspirations come from? Which bands? Books? Movies? Art?

Books and movies mostly. For me, the things that affect the musical part of the brain the most are not music. "The rules of attraction" by Bret Easton Ellis, and the movie "Magnolia" by Paul Thomas Anderson informed the lyrics and tone on "Black Honey" quite a bit.

Who writes the songs? How is the band’s dynamics: are the arrangements
made by the whole band? By one person? Two?

I write on an acoustic guitar before bringing anything to the band. It's pretty rare that I'll bring something in when we're all there, usually it's me and Steve (drums) sorting out an arrangement and feel.
Things happen in the studio as well. I’m also editing lyrics pretty much until the time we record a song.

What did you listen to when you were a kid?

My first cassettes were Wrex-n-Fx and the “Ghostbusters” soundtrack. I don't think I even really knew what "music" was though, you know? I didn't really get it. My parents didn't play Beatles or any other records around the house. I always get jealous when other songwriters say that. I just thought that it was something you put into this little machine with headphones and noise came out and you sat there and listened to it. I was an odd child. I was more interested in reading. It wasn't until middle school that I started actually liking or know what music was - Nirvana, Green Day, Weezer etc. But again, I didn't understand music, I just heard noise and saw bright colors and interesting outfits on the bands, and jumping around, and everyone looking like they were on drugs or insane. It wasn't until high school that I heard the beatles and the Beach Boys - that changed the way I looked at things a lot.

What record/band made you want to be a musician?

MTV initially - Green Day and Nirvana videos.100% superficial. It wasn't until I heard "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" by Wilco that I really really started to understand what was magical and interesting about writing songs and making records.

If you could jam with anyone, alive or dead, who would that be?
I don't really jam, but I would have loved to see Jimi Hendrix.

Wikileaks says "no" to Dilma's opponents

Vera Magalhães' blog on Folha has informed that Julian Assange refused an invitation to participate in the PSBD (Social-Democratic Party of Brazil, center right-wing) youth convention in December. He not only said "no" but also asked that his name be removed of any material involving the event. Smart move, I would say, considering that PSDB, the main opposition party in Brazil today, is going through rough times. Even thought president Dilma Rousseff (of PT, the Workers Party, center left-wing) is facing problems with her Ministers being accused of corruption, the social-democrats are not gaining any political momentum and taking advantage.

Also, when Wikileaks started to publish cables last year and Assange got arrested, Dilma's predecessor and mentor Lula spoke out in defense of the australian journalist:

(Click on "CC" to switch to English subtitles)





If I were Assange, I'd stay away from the PSDB too.

Listen to Gilberto Gil's new album

Gilberto Gil is back! The former Minister (secretary) of the Culture during part of Lula's term as president and former tropicalia member, Gil releases a live album (and DVD) filled with special guests. Playing his greatest hits (such as "Aquele Abraço", "Palco"), he has samba superstar Zeca Pagodinho, 80's rockers Paralamas and Brazilian Popular Music (MPB) legend Milton Nascimento by his side.

"Gil + 10" will not blow your mind but it will do what Gil does best: entertain with great music. And you can listen to all 12 tracks for free at Radio UOL. Just click on the link below.

Listen to "Gil + 10"

Jobs in Brazil

We don't have an official Apple Store in Brazil nor we can purchase music through iTunes, but Steve Jobs and his products are highly popular here. The news about his death started popping at major news sites right after the New York Times announced Jobs' death. And the major paid newspaper in the country, Folha, dedicated its (blunt) headline to these news, as well as two whole pages:

"Steve Jobs, of Apple, dies at 56"

Brazilian Twitter users respondend immediately and much praise has been given to the "genious", "innovator" and so on. There is some hate-posting as well, but that's the minority of the people, at least on the social networks.

What do I think? He died early and that's sad. But it's all capitalism, not a religion.

Is there love in Brazilian rap?

Criolo, as one might think, does not mean “creole” in Portuguese, although it seems to have the same Spanish origin as the word “criollo”. If you call an African-Brazilian a “criolo”, you might end up in the police station (accused of being a racist) or worse, getting into a fight. That Kleber Cavalcante Gomes, a 36-year-old MC and schoolteacher chose that word as a stage name is a significant fact.

Let us put his name aside for a moment to focus on the repercussion that “Nó na orelha” (something like “knotted ear”, a state of musical confusion) has created in the music industry. Some people praise his album as the salvation of Brazilian music (and Brazilian rap), and him as a prophet of the times to come. Criolo mixes the rhymes so characteristic to ghetto artists like Racionais MC’s and puts a modern vibe to his straightforward verses: “There is no love in Sao Paulo”. Nothing similar to the seven-minute prison songs the Racionais became famous for.

If “Sobrevivendo no Inferno” sold 500,000 copies purely out of chance and good music, Criolo is by no means an isolated event. He has been on the road for years, since 1989, but only with the rap revival of the last 3 years, could surface out in the mainstream and be heard by the rich kids paying 35 reais to hear him sing at the hyped up Studio SP, on the pseudo-decadent Augusta Street in Sao Paulo. Accompanying him are Emicida (the “murderer” of MCs), Flora Mattos, Lurdez da Luz and a handful of young and talented MCs who seem to please more fans than the ordinary suburban audiences that Racionais used to sing to back in the day.

But Criolo is no mistake, although some critics claim that he was fabricated by the hype industry. In fact he quickly swerved into the spotlight, getting good reviews in the culture section of the largest paper in Brazil (Folha de S.Paulo) and has been on the covers of many magazines. And he achieved that in a matter of months, since “Nó na Orelha” was released earlier this year and has been publicized in (most) vehicles in the mainstream media.

Listen to "Não existe amor em SP":

We have to be fair, though: it not as if he is a major record seller or concert-hall “filler”. He is managing to catch the eye of the paulistana bourgeoisie by performing at the same places they go to listen to samba-rock and MPB (the infamous Brazilian Popular Music) bands. Something that was unthinkable to happen with the Racionais in 1997 – now Mano Brown (their frontman) is seen rapping at clubs that charge more 100 reais just to enter.

Criolo is well-respected by his suburban peers and, at the same time, is being closely watched by the godfather of innovation in Brazilian music, Caetano Veloso. “Nó na Orelha” mixes samba-rock, funk and indie music without letting the listener be mistaken about what genre he is listening to: Criolo is rapper. And a good one.

Maybe this ambiguity bothers people who would like the rappers to stay out of the central part of the town, either because they feel threatened by poverty or because they expect the MCs to “keep it real”. Maybe Brazil is ready to be taken over by the cultural traits of the class that did not exist until a few years ago, the “C class”. And maybe Criolo is the first step towards a cultural change led by the MCs. What is the future for rap music, anyways? To grow into a powerful market, like what happened in the U.S., or to forever stay in the margins of the mainstream?

The country is changing and rap is growing stronger, no doubt about that. Now let us see if Criolo is fed by the hype or if he is the real thing.

More about Criolo:
You can download “Nó na orelha” for free on his website. 

Watch the video for "Subirodoistiozin"