Uni, Duni, Tê: Identity and Drama in the Songs of "Sobrevivendo no Inferno", By the Racionais MC’s

Abstract

The music of the Racionais MC’s, one of the most important Brazilian rap groups, draws its strength from a forceful discourse. Racionais’ rap is poetry made in the periphery and aimed at the periphery itself, where its members come from. However, their reach extends beyond this audience of equals to other social actors. This is because they have achieved so much success, but also for formal reasons characteristic of the structure of the compositions. Another even more significant feature is the characterization of the characters acting in the songs, which include broader actors and interlocutors. In this process, Racionais’ rap combines the construction of identities with a performance that stages and dramatizes narrative and social positions. From the album Sobrevivendo no Inferno (1997) onwards, the group’s music appealed to a wide audience and challenged the listener, who had to position themselves in relation to what they were hearing. The article sets out to investigate how the group’s lyrics have contributed to this broadening of the dialog with listeners. Two compositions, “Diário de um detento” (“Diary of a prisoner”) and “Capítulo 4, versículo 3” (“Chapter 4, verse 3”), are analyzed in order to understand how, by dramatizing situations in which different social actors find themselves, the songs force people to take up positions, to take part in the drama, a drama that is the drama of the peripheries, but which is also the drama of everyone, as these songs indicate, inviting people not only to reflect, but to take part in the game of action and enjoyment of the compositions.