ABSTRACT
In early 2012, I experienced a surprise in relation to the history of the Brazilian drum & bass (D&B) DJ Marky: I found a promotional video for the city of São Paulo in which he starred (São Paulo Tourism/City of São Paulo 2010a). In the video, Marky presents himself as a resident of the city where he has been acquiring his musical background for 37 years—his age. He repeats a refrain common among local DJs: You can combine D&B with house, techno, jazz, and bossa nova. He associates this possibility with the characteristics of São Paulo: a metropolis where people from different parts of Brazil and the world circulate. Marky shows how he made the mixes to compose the soundtrack of the promotional film Unimaginable (São Paulo Tourism/City of São Paulo 2010b), whose objective is the international promotion of tourism in the city, showing its positive aspects by featuring prestigious people in the areas of cinema, cuisine, design, graffiti, and music, who seek inspiration for their creations there. Marky was thus legitim -ized for a generic international audience as a contemporary representative of São Paulo in the field of music.
