RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Diverging from the current trend of “anti-establishment” Brazilian rap music spitting angry rhymes against the system (as he knows how to do), in his new album Amarelo, Emicida takes a more philosophical stance; with measured responses, offering a warm hug to his fans.
“I wanted to create a message to share with the whole world….we need to look for human connections” he tells The Rio Times. He uses the universal symbols of love, connection and tolerance – all represented by the colour yellow – as a fight against depression and suicide to pave a new path.
Much more mature and profound than his previous material, here he utilises more subtle, lucid and intelligent criticisms against the institution to focus on the unchallenged conditions and difficulties of the lives of black people.
It’s 2020 and as one of the most progressive black voices of Brazil, Emicida’s Amarelo couldn’t have come at a more crucial time. The relevance of Amarelo to the chaotic political times Brazil is currently undergoing is “immense, immense!” says Emicida.
“We are living in a very dangerous situation, and there is a tendency for the situation to get worse, precisely because we did not make the reconciliations that we needed to make” (referring to the speeches that are gaining strength in Brazil, 300 years of slavery and a indigenous genocide that are almost being ignored).
Amarelo was born in this context. “It’s an attempt to establish a meeting. And from that relationship we can establish compassion and give people (specifically of colour and in the favelas) the courage to flourish so that people struggle with pains that aren’t primarily theirs”, explains Emicida.
During the rapper’s creative process, he informs The Rio Times that he is always thinking about the kind of story he wishes to tell. “I needed to ask what feeling I could bring to people”. In light of the worrying times that Brazil is currently undergoing, he informs us “we don’t know how we’re going to do it, but if I have the opportunity to do something for someone, where my music can act as an embrace for them because we are very tired”.
Emicida believes that we need to step back and search for simple things: symbols of hope and faith that should be at the forefront of our collective consciousness but with the awareness that we are living now. He tells us “I managed to talk to people on very dark nights, the sun will come later”.
It’s this collective culture that he wishes to instill upon his fans and paves a way for the colourful collaborations featured so heavily in the album. As in the title-track, Amarelo, Emicida brings together non-binary forces Majuc and Pabblo Vittar not because they come from the LGBTQ scene but because they are “two forces of nature” that each bring their own strength and energy and help illuminate his story.
For Emicida, the single Amarelo “appears as if it were a very beautiful, strong fortress sun”. Despite all the darkness and uncertainty, the sun will always rise tomorrow. Amerelo is “like the light at the end of the tunnel,” he insists.
In regard to his entries in the album which each have a profound and significant role, the rapper further affirms the importance of a relationship: “if I’m talking about a meeting, I want to take two very extreme ends and connect them”. He continues, “what is the relationship when we take a protestant pastor and a pastor linked to popular Catholicism, which is very close to Candomblé, then take a group of Candomblé instrumentalists and put everything together to sing a message of love and say that the only thing that we have is each other?!”
“I really wanted each one of these people to bring a lot of meaning, a lot of depth, but when they enter, they would not only find wonderful things in music but also in history.” It’s this universal connection that music offers, coupled with the purpose to “make everyone meet” which makes Emicida’s statement in Amarelo his most profound yet.