A juventude negra eleva sua voz: Racionais MC’s e o negro drama da periferia brasileira

Abstract

As a research object, I chose the work of the Brazilian rap group Racionais MC’s for my thesis. Formed in the region known as Capão Redondo, on the outskirts of the city of São Paulo, his songs bring the weight and the need to denounce the hardships faced by black and poor young people, also residents of communities, slums and ghettos – extending to Brazil, not settling only in that city – such as racial prejudice manifested in the almost complete absence of opportunities for work, study, etc.; the quartet exposes the various types of violence to which their community is subject – with the police being the outstretched arm of the State to mark their flesh. The lack of assistance from the State also overflows through the relationship of that population with drugs, their yearning for consumption, licit and illicit paths also configure themes for their songs. The rappers, in essence, maintain an umbilical relationship with their people, singing them, always aiming to raise the morale of their peers. Their songs are born intrinsically linked to the place where their authors live, carrying, in themselves, marks of that urban space – “communities”, “favelas”, “quebradas”. The rapper's singing is close to speech, and his songs, most of which are long and aimed both at interlocutors who do not belong to his universe – rulers, police, bourgeoisie, etc. – and at the black youth that he cares so much about: they’re narratives which are intended to shatter the status quo of those considered responsible for the situation of precariousness in which individuals “belonging” to such places left aside by the State pass/live.