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We now move on to another universe:
non-stop music.
They're young, really young and make dance tracks in their bedrooms
but you can now listen to them all over the world. Some say it's
suburban music, ghetto music from the greater Lisbon area. Hmm, maybe.
Kuduro
Afrohouse, Batida,
Tarraxinha or Funaná, but the truth is this Portuguese label is rescuing
the nobility of these creators from anonimity. It's two years old this week,
its name is
Príncipe.
I'd say this brick
is roughly 19, 18 years old,
when magic markers appeared here.
I decided to write my name,
my so-called artistic name, what i dreamed i could be today,
and what i actually am now. It was a childhood dream come true
and i first wrote it in this brick.
This brick kept my hopes alive. Every time i came home,
I opened the door and there it was.
I always looked at it, it kept reminding me "I wrote that
for a reason, so I've got to keep going, keep fighting
I've got to get ahead, i've got to become Marfox, a real DJ
and producer"...
He was born in Portugal but his family comes from São Tomé e Príncipe.
He always lived here at Quinta da Vitória, Portela, until the neighbourhood
was demolished.
Nowadays it's in his bedroom at Quinta Do Mocho that he produces all the music that's been admired throughout Lisbon's suburbs
and conquered dancefloors all over the world.
Marfox started making beats
at the tender age of 13.
I've got a cousin who deejays.
He borrowed my father's system whenever he needed to play
and my father asked me to watch over the system.
I went and saw him play,
that's where my taste for music comes from. He played the tracks and i tried to figure out
how he managed to mix two tracks without...
...without letting them reach their end.
It's at his friend and colleague N.K.'s home studio in Paço de Arcos that Marfox
arranges and pre-masters his new record.
He was also the first artist released by Príncipe. The label was born
2 years ago. It proposes to make available on a wider scale music originated in Lisbon's ghettos.
It was founded by four people. Pedro Gomes is one of them.
The music was already well known.
Marfox...
was a star in the projects.
For us it was, still is and shall be
fascinating.
This culture...
flourished
autonomously
beyond the reach
of white Portuguese media.
We really wanted to understand how the music worked in its own environment.
We didn't wish to mutilate it, we basically wanted...
to expose it to a different context.
I was a bit suspicious, because Nelson appeared with a big beard, he looked a bit...
like a rocker, and i was a bit afraid... "What does this guy want to do with my music?
Is he going to mug me? Will he rob me?"
That's the general idea guys from the ghetto have. They were trying to understand
what Angolan Kuduro was. They were unfamiliar with the style but loved the beats
and then we moved forward.
Kuduro from Lisbon but also Batida,
Funaná, Kizomba,
Tarraxinha or Afrohouse.
This is urban dance music produced in Lisbon and which Príncipe wishes
to project globally.
We are not doing charity,
there are already many people doing that stuff.
It is vital
to show that...
the natural
identity...
the cultural matrix of these people...
That it can be turned into a profession by way of...
an artistic, creative vessel like music production.
I can say that people who are now involved in this journey
told us that, were it not for our contact,
they would already have given up music, some of them would have been retired by now. We are talking about retirement
at 18.
I'm DJ Perigoso. I'm DJ Kolt.
I'm DJ Noronha. And we are Blacksea Não Maya.
Príncipe has really young youngsters in its artist roster.
From Blacksea Não Maya from the Cucena neighbourhood in Seixal
to Piquenos DJs Do Guetto from Quinta Do Mocho, the Portuguese label is representing eight DJs.
We first started playing
at a few block parties and so on. Before that we were actually more into dancing.
Now we have to go along for the ride. As a matter of fact, for us, Príncipe
is better than what we asked for.
We thought about progressing as DJs and play bigger venues and so on
but not with our own music.
We didn't see that coming.
But now the opportunity came knocking and it feels much better.
We try to produce different styles than other people are doing.
We don't want our music...
to sound the same as other people's.
That's no fun.
Helping the underground get exposed in the mainstream, Marfox has been
one of Príncipe's greatest allies. It is he who often introduces the label to young producers
from around Lisbon.
I can't be alone in a place and expect to make History, i think History is made with many more people.
So i started calling kids who were making incredible music in their bedrooms,
many of whom had absolutely no idea of what meant to play for a dancefloor.
Many of them were locked in their bedrooms, in the afro community, in the ghettos, locked up.
They play their music in the ghettos but with constraints.
Praise for the music by Príncipe's youngsters have come from everywhere.
Prestigious British magazine Wire, for example, highlighted
DJ *** Fox's EP on their Top Critical beats of 2013,
and even Thom Yorke, vocalist with Radiohead, has charted a track by *** Fox. 2014 also looks promising.
*** Fox has been announced as one of the names for the Sónar festival
in Barcelona. On his part, Marfox has a new record coming soon
on american label Lit City Trax.
Not to mention scheduled gigs in several capitals throughout the world.
Now...
There are thousands
of producers in the Lisbon area,
One doesn't really have an idea...
There are kids making extraordinary music. They are still kids.
We have already released a track
by a producer who is currently 16
and he did it when he was 12.
The meeting between the surroundings and the centre of Lisbon is happening
in Musicbox's dancefloor every month.
It's also there that Príncipe's second anniversary is being celebrated this week.
What Musicbox and the Príncipe nights
give us
is that our music
can play during an hour,
an hour and a half, freely, uncut, without people telling you
"look, play this now, take this one out and play what we like". We play music we want to play,
what makes us produce in our bedrooms.