by Felipe Tadeu
(Translated by Jana Pietroluongo)

The end of 2003 has brought us a pleasant surprise – the release of the album Enxugando Gelo (Drying Ice) by BNegão. For those of you who haven’t been within his striking distance yet, Bernardo is the most interesting member of the Band Planet Hemp; the one that demands the decriminalisation of cannabis sativa in Brazil.

BNegão is a musician who is capable of surprising Chico Buarque such is the dynamics of his message and the power of his lyrics. Now that his first solo album is on sale in Brazilian newsagents, once again, becomes clear that the rap produced in the country of carnival has vitality to spare to convince the most suspicious minds; those who insisted that hip-hop would be one extra imported trick from the United Bellicose States of America.

        Enxugando Gelo is an album that owes nothing to the implacable Sobrevivendo no Inferno (Surviving Hell), 1998, from the Racionais MCs from Sao Paulo. Curiously, the thirteen tracks that make Bernardo’s album haven’t got that strong smell of gunpowder that characterizes many albums of the genre. Instead of the monotonous angry ranting BNegão presents a coherent discourse that first of all induces the listener to self-criticism as in precious phrases such as: “somos atores que vestiram a carapuça e se confundiram com seus personagens/Auto-sabotagem/Esmagamos a nós mesmos com nossa auto-imagem/A tal da ego-esclorese, como diria o professor Hermogenes/Mas, veja bem, não tô aqui numa de inquisidor, pois como se diz: hoje pavão, amanhã espanador” (we are actors that dressed their hats and got mixed-up with their characters/self-sabotage/we self-crushed with our self-image/the so-called ego-sclerosis, as Professor Hermogenes would say/but pay attention, I’m not here as an inquisitor, as one says: today peacock, tomorrow feather duster) the text of Prioridades (Priorities) says.

BNegão’s lyrics imposed themselves by the lucidity and sincerity they are delivered, always as ironic jabs. They mean subversion and citizenship in pearls such as “ordem para o povo, progresso para a burguesia”(order to the people, progress to the bourgeoisie), from the track Enxugando Gelo; or as in “Rápido o mundo acelera a sua degradação/Lento, o novo pensamento vai dando sinais sutis da sua existência/Processo de justiça (lento), educação(lento).

Processo é lento de informação (lento)/Percepção(lento)/Processo é lento de evolução (lento)/Processo quase eterno de repetição, irmão/É por isso que eu digo,leva fé/A parada é essa, não tem outra/o negócio é seguir no melhor estilo conta-gotas” (Fast, the world accelerates its degradation/Slow, the new philosophy starts to give subtle signals of its existence/The process of justice (slow), education (slow)/The process is slow in information (slow)/Perception (slow)/The process is slow in evolution (slow)/The process is almost an endless repetition, brother/That’s why I say, faith/This is the game, there is no other/the thing is to follow in the style of a dropper) teaches us BNegão in The Process. These are truths that become even more sagacious if we remember that only in 2003 the left has managed to get to the power in Brazil for the first time in the country history. And the fight goes on.

        In order to give better moral and instrumental support to BNegão’s art you have Os seletores de Freqüência (Frequency Tuners), a group formed by Gabriel Muzak on guitar, on drums Pedro Garcia, Kalunga on Bass, the DJ Rodrigues, Paulão on vocals and the trumpet player Pedrão. The six are capable of melting the ingenious alchemy, the dub, the rap, the funk, the hardcore with the bossa and the samba.

They also count on the inventiveness of the producers Rica Amabis, Daniel Ganjman and Tejo Damasceno from the collective Instituto from São Paulo; BNegão has outdone himself in this first solo attempt as rapper; he had already gone through groups as Missed in Action, the Funk Fuckers and Planet Hemp, from which he is still a member.

        The Carioca Underground Conspiracies

        In order to send Enxugando Gelo to the newsagents in Brazil, BNegão has joined forces with Lobão, another bard from Rio de Janeiro music scene, and the record company Net Records. The album came with the first issue of the magazine OutraCoisa edited by Lobão and the journalists Silvio Essinger, Tom Cardoso and Roberta Monteiro in a very well received initiative. In only a few weeks, the initial printing of 20000 albums – meaningful number to the indie circuit – was sold, in another intelligent move by the musician Lobão who had released in 1999 an excellent album entitled A Vida é Doce (life is sweet), which had the same selling scheme in newsagents and was a huge success.


        Enxugando Gelo was considered by many as one of the best Brazilian CDs in 2003. The success achieved with his first solo album allows BNegão and his band to dream about releasing this work in other markets around the world, for instance in Portugal, England and who knows even in Japan. The fact that Portuguese is not a widely spoken language does not affect the good reception the album can have in other countries. The sound achieved by BNegão & Os Seletores de Freqüência is capable of making the dead get up and dance. This is nothing too abnormal for a nation known for its homeless kids. Isn’t it true that this is where the rap was born?

        To consider BNegão is a question of intelligence. And get in the groove!