Rhyming artist - Carol Dall Farra
"It's my sound that shows very well who I am," declares rapper Marcelo D2, in his search for the perfect beat. D2 is considered one of the biggest names in Rio's rap scene. He began his career in Planet Hemp and stood out for his ability to improvise, creating rhymes on the spot, in the best style of partido-alto samba. BNegão, another former member of the group, warns "the sound's on the stove and the fire's lit."
In Rio de Janeiro, rap blends with the sound of samba, with the groove of funk artists. DJs sample excerpts from well-known songs, creating mashups and mixes in their ambition to be music and, at the same time, more than music. A sound that changes the city and is changed by it. As MV Bill states: "it opens the paths (...) sound of Black people, sound of the morro, sound of the ghetto, hitting you".
Rap, however, is a famous face of a movement that goes far beyond the ins and outs of the mainstream. In different neighborhoods of Rio, so-called "cultural circles" have been emerging — community gatherings for the free expression of hip hop culture, held in public spaces, in which the MC battle is the highlight. These circles have grown so much that a League of Cultural Circles of the State of Rio de Janeiro has already been created.
Another strand that blends literary creation, music, improvisation, and urban culture is slam poetry, a kind of poetry battle. Slams have grown, especially, in communities and the suburbs, standing out for their political content. Moreover, the massive presence of young women in these poetry battles is striking, as they often emphasize the feminist edge of their verses — as is the case with Slam das Minas, which began in Brasília and São Paulo, but already has a very representative group in Rio.
