AmarElo is a renaissance, or at least that’s how Emicida describes his latest endeavour. The show organized in the São Paulo Municipal Theater in 2019 went down in history as it was released on Netflix for people still bearing the brunt of the pandemic.
In his melodies in front of an audience, the São Paulo-conceived artist attempts to address that slanted telling, recalling the lives and seasons of dark Brazilian scholastics, artisans and activists in the expectation of changing Brazil’s future.
When Brazilian rapper Emicida envisions his nation’s whitewashed history, he sees reading material missing a progression of crucial elements.
Emicida, aka Leandro Roque de Oliveira, has been making music for over ten years, recording three collections and building a foothold as one of Brazil’s top emcees. In the previous year, he has also risen as one of the country’s most influential social figures.
Emicidia’s AmarElo is a Manifesto-Soundtrack of a Generation
His new narrative, AmarElo, delivered on Netflix as a documentary last year, has obtained rave surveys for its stunning, however moving portrayal of the many years-old battles against bigoted brutality and disparity in a nation grappling with the malevolent tradition of bondage.
The success of AmarElo as a live performance is so big end-to-end. Leandro Roque de Oliveira is the rapper behind one of Brazil’s biggest indie rap albums. AmarElo is also a movement that expands beyond the performance. It is a multimedia project aimed at fostering debate among artists and citizens from different backgrounds.
The AmarElo endeavour puts forth questions about Brazilian society, culture and history.
The concert’s richness and the subsequent live performance is undeniable. Emicida’s AmarElo hits like a revelation. Brazilian rapper Emicida has been unapologetically making music for almost a decade. He has always spoken truth to power.
“AmarElo,” which translates roughly as “yellow,” continues the trajectory established by his documentary about the rapper that helped transform the musician into one of the most critical voices in Brazilian culture. It reveals hip-hop’s power to shatter stereotypes and make room for nonconformity within an artist’s body of work. It turns an music into art with no clear borders.
AmarElo Live Performance in Sao Paulo
Emicida burst onto the scene with his breakthrough concert, AmarElo. The live show came on the heels of a set of progressive music that introduced Emicida as a coming-of-age rapper to electronic music fans throughout Brazil. In its own right, it’s one of the essential albums in Brazilian music history. It was also a cultural landmark and touched on many hot button issues within Brazil over the past decade. Emicida has honed in on his zone of true artistry.
Melodic and jazzy, AmarElo offered an unapologetic critique of the quality of life of those living in favelas, a place of struggle that too often is seen as the sole domain of the less fortunate, which has nothing to do with Emicida’s own success. But in a country where opportunity is always on the lookout for who’s next, perhaps the most revolutionary act ever recorded by a Brazilian artist is how Emicida sees himself and his place in society.
He crafted an alternative hip-hop record with a vibrant Brazilian identity. The beats were warm, melodic and experimental, but always stayed true to his mission: to celebrate black Brazilians as they are, not as the world would like them to be.
Emicida’s album could have served as a case study for the kind of music — and the way it finds its audience — that typifies independent Brazilian rap, as well as the type of artist represented by an original voice with lyrics full of social and political critique.
Also Read: My Unorthodox Life Review
AmarElo – A lasting statement by Emicidia
With a voice that could be considered both traditional and cutting edge, he has attracted the sensibilities of both young punks and older civil rights activists.
The acclaimed album’s warm tones and sun-drenched imagery called to mind an idyllic view of Brazilian culture hailed as a refreshing break from the hood narratives dominating rap at the time. AmarElo was initially conceived as an album, but it took on a life of its own once it was finished. The same could be said about Emicida’s varied musical growth
His signature was all over it—a hyper-urban beat, a thought-provoking narrative, and clever wordplay. AmarElo is a robust collection of socio-politically aware tracks. Emicida’s music has always had a critique built into it, and the song’s political leanings were apparent from the start.
Stream it or Skip It?
Emicida’s AmarElo movement started as a new way of conveying how we experience and develop ourselves through various elements: painting, dance, music, photography, cinema and much more. In this day and age of social media overstimulation, rarified creative production and ever-changing consumption methods — all of which are potential threats to the idea of the album as an end product in itself — AmarElo provides listeners with a calm refuge to check their phone off for a while when listening to its songs.
Emicida: AmarElo – Live in Sao Paolo is streaming on Netflix.