ABSTRACT
When I arrived in Rio de Janeiro in 1997 to conduct ethnographic research on the slang of poor Black youth, politically conscious rap was getting a lot of play in Brazil’s favelas (shantytowns) and impoverished suburbs, even experiencing a brief period of crossover success. Th e São Paulo based group Racionais MC’s (Th e Rationals) was on the verge of going platinum with their album Sobrevivendo no Inferno (Surviving in Hell) and would take home awards for “Best Rap Group” and “Audience’s Choice” at the 1998 MTV Brazilian Music Video Awards. Signs of Hip Hop culture were all over the favela: large murals and graffi ti depicted album covers and song lyrics; U.S. sports teams and references to New York adorned the most coveted clothing items; and fans took on nicknames of popular rappers. Youth I met swapped, borrowed, and sometimes bought rap CDs to listen to on individual headphones and on boom boxes at nightly impromptu gatherings in the streets of their neighborhood. As I explore in this chapter, Hip Hop culture even infl uenced daily linguistic practice, as fans integrated particularly catchy refrains into conversations, singing rap songs together and quoting well-known lyrics.
