Over almost twenty years of his profession, Brazilian rapper Rashid has crossed many portals. He has stayed related within the Brazilian hip-hop scene, whilst entice took over, bringing the quick and sharp lyricism attribute of his music. He was embraced by pop followers due to radio-friendly hits like “Bilhete 2.0” (2017) and “Sobrou silêncio” (2020). He even added a couple of different expertise and jobs underneath his belt: e-book creator, promoting narrator.

Now, as he prepares for a efficiency on the Brazil Week, at Lincoln Heart’s Summer time for the Metropolis, in New York  (July 16-20, 2025), Rashid takes a leap by means of one more portal. As he arrives in certainly one of music’s most iconic world levels, he embodies the idea of his newest venture, Portal (2024).

“It’s an introspective album”, he tells PopMatters hours earlier than his tour cease in Curitiba, in Southern Brazil. “My concept was to make a music about every portal that marked me, every threshold we should cross to fulfill up to date variations of ourselves, new folks, and new objectives. Initially, this album was speculated to be a continuation of my earlier work, Movimento Rápido dos Olhos (2022). However then Portal began to develop a lifetime of its personal, extra immersed within the particular person.”

Among the many many experiences that formed Rashid and the portals of his life, one monitor has prominence in Portal: “CAIRO”, devoted to his son born in 2022. Recorded earlier than the album manufacturing kicked off, the monitor was the preliminary key to the album’s conception.

“I had different issues saved for my [upcoming] album, however I couldn’t assist considering: ‘This music belongs to this venture.’ This isn’t an album about fatherhood, however it’s one which resonates as one thing very influenced by fatherhood, which is the loudest and most necessary portal I’ve ever crossed.”

The album launch was preceded by Travessia, a brief documentary sequence launched on YouTube and Instagram Reels. In certainly one of Travessia’s episodes, Rashid states: “Though the portals we cross are private, they provoke modifications of worldwide scale inside us”. It’s a harbinger of the lyrics impressed by transformative experiences that may permeate the album. “Altering your world modifications the world”, Rashid says. “Even when it’s simply your notion of the world, that shift generates motion. And motion evokes crowds.”

He tells me that this sentiment connects along with his 2020 music “Um Mundo de Cada Vez” [“One world at a time”], during which he raps concerning the collective impression of particular person actions; however as he explains it, it brings to thoughts Fernando Pessoa, who wrote: “Within the motion of the butterfly, it’s the motion that strikes.” As within the custom of hip-hop, Rashid expresses himself in true lyricist-philosopher fashion, both when he’s rapping or speaking.

The idea of portals additionally touches on vulnerability and emotional development. “I’ve at all times been very quiet and handled issues by remaining silent,” Rashid says. “Studying tips on how to love is a vital portal. So is fatherhood, spirituality, romantic relationships, friendships, our relationship with cash… All these items drastically change our lives.” Rashid tends to discover these themes not in isolation, however as interconnected forces that form an individual’s evolution.

For instance, in “CASTELOS DE PAPEL” [Paper Castles], one of many followers’ favorites within the album, Rashid explores the heartbreak of romantic disillusionment, however the music’s subtext goes deeper. It doubles as a farewell letter to the illusions of the music trade, echoing the tales of icons like Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, and Michael Jackson. “It’s impressed by my experiences, but in addition by what occurred to those artists who reached tragic ends after being let down by the guarantees of artwork and fame.”

But Portal will not be a solitary path. The album is wealthy with collaborations, from Brazilian music legends like Péricles and Lenine to gospel-like choir preparations, which embody his longtime backing vocalist Aya, a spotlight of his stay reveals.

“I don’t normally premeditate these collaborations,” he explains. “The songs develop and inform me what they want. I normally really feel when some songs are supposed to be solo or after they demand voices that I can’t ship with the identical mastery as different artists. [These collaborations] characterize the thought of crossing portals with somebody, of not being alone.

Within the case of Péricles and Lenine, they arrive not simply as an organization; they characterize our masters. They’re heroes of Brazilian music, so their participation within the album can be a metaphor about crossing portals led by individuals who have walked in our sneakers.” 

Lenine and Rashid will meet once more at Brazil Week, organized by the Consulate Basic of Brazil in New York. Though many Brazilian followers are anticipated, Rashid additionally ponders the extra problem of charming overseas crowds by means of rap sung in Portuguese, with out the melodic sources of different singers who’re headline acts, akin to Melly and Liniker.

“I’ll have to bop [to make up for the fact that people will understand the language]”, he jokes. “It’s truly a great problem, although. There’s the language barrier, after all, however there are different issues [to capture people’s attention]: the band, the DJ, the vitality of my stay efficiency, the feelings that my songs convey.

I additionally consider this as a reverse state of affairs of what I skilled rising up, listening to rap in English. Again then, I didn’t know what these rappers had been speaking about, however I felt the music and will really feel that the rappers had been nice at what they did.”

Language is a supply of fascination for Rashid. It was rap music that aroused his writing, however his wordsmithship doesn’t restrict itself to music: in 2018, he printed Ideias Que Rimam Mais Que Palavras, a e-book reflecting on his lyrics. Literature nonetheless pursuits him, however he admits it’s a area the place he has extra to show.

“In music, I additionally need to continuously show myself, however I have already got a extra polished fashion and viewers. Making music is typically faster, whereas a e-book requires months of labor. My lyrical self is extra blatant in my music, however after I write different issues, though there’s a lighter and extra open-hearted strategy, it calls for extra of me.

I see my music idols mastering phrases, and I would like that for myself too. One of many methods to get nearer to that’s by writing something and the whole lot.”

Rashid’s proximity to spoken phrases has additionally earned him recognition for his voice, main to some extra alternatives. In 2025, he’ll narrate TV promotional campaigns for Conmebol’s Libertadores, South America’s most prestigious soccer match.

“This invitation made me so completely satisfied as a result of I like being acknowledged by my voice, however I additionally love soccer, and I’d like to be nearer to this universe.” To Rashid, the job is much like music in the way it permits him to succeed in folks’s properties by means of his voice, and in how soccer, similar to hip-hop, is for a lot of poor Brazilian youngsters a refuge and a door to new alternatives. He even desires of changing into a sports activities commentator.

“A few of Brazil’s biggest minds selected to work in sports activities journalism—like Chico Sá, who blends politics, poetry, and soccer. I like that”, he says.

This jogs my memory of Nicki Minaj’s interview with Lyrical Genius during which she says: “Rappers are simply very clever individuals who occur to rap”. For Rashid, nice minds join bridges by means of their skills, and he desires of doing that in soccer as properly. 

Rashid additionally shared an ambition to file music in different languages, with a specific desire for Spanish. Brazil has an advanced relationship with its Latin American id, in nice half on account of Brazilians talking Portuguese, however Rashid feels impressed reasonably than intimidated by the linguistic problem.

“We in hip-hop tradition are likely to have our worldviews rather more dictated by North America than by our brothers [in Latin America]. In fact, rap’s roots are in North America, however we must also go searching us. The Latin group is big.” 

Rashid’s notion of a Latin American id was formed by his travels overseas, the place he discovered himself being seen as Latino but in addition as Arab, he says humorously, due to his stage title, Rashid. He’s come to embrace the complexity of being each Black and Latin.

“Touring helped me understand how related we [Brazilians] are to our Latin neighbors: our meals, our heat, our spontaneity. Once I noticed that, I began considering: rattling, we are Latin! A few of our artists, like Gilberto Gil, already embrace being Black and Latin.

Others really feel torn, as if embracing Latinity makes them ‘much less Black’. But it surely doesn’t! Black Latin id is highly effective, and embracing each solely enriches our tradition.”

He cites artists like Rappin Hood, Marcelo D2, Emicida, and Don L as examples of Brazilian rappers who helped construct the sonic id of hip-hop with Brazilian roots, and aspires to be acknowledged as an artist who additionally does that, too. As he prepares to step onto a stage the place he as soon as watched his idols like Rakim and Large Daddy Kane carry out, he can solely imagine that being Brazilian for right now’s hip-hop artists.

“Brazilian music is very revered overseas. Once I say I’m from Brazil, typically I instantly achieve respect simply due to that. [The “Brazil” brand] gives an entryway. Seeing myself as a consultant of Brazilian music already calls for that individuals pay a specific amount of consideration, and I really feel very particular due to that.”