Brazilian rapper Laíz & The New Love Experience releases a remarkably self-assured debut, Ela Partíu on Agogo Records, combining tropicalia and samba with her languid flow to produce a lively modern Latin American take on hip-hop.
Glowing with Pan-African collaborations, and rooted in Laiz’s love and appreciation of magical realism, tropicália and Brazilian music old and new - think Tom Zé and Marcelo D2 - Ela Partiu features Sudanese trap-rapper Zeyo Mann, Ghanian percussionist and singer Eric Owusu (Jembaa Groove, Pat Thomas) and produced by young.vishnu & Pachakuti, from the up and coming crew, and Laiz’s label mates, The New Love Experience.
There’s little doubt Ela Partiu offers new bridges between tropicalia, Brazilian MPB and hip hop, lighting up Brazilian musical traditions in similar ways that Marcelo D2 or Criolo attempted. Its joyful, yet poses serious questions, and with a highly talented group of emigrant musicians from every corner of the globe, it’s so much more than a Brazilian record, brought to life by a talent and traveller who thrives on the off-beat path, and is clearly still finding her way.
Lyrically ruminating on emigration, the songs are drawn from Laiz’s experiences, some complex, since leaving her Sao Paulo home at just 14 years old, going to the States, and relocating to Germany in 2018 as well as those experiences of the international guest musicians, many who are global south artists, emigrants, who call Germany their home.
The recording was brought to life in Laiz’s relaxed city of Hildesheim in 2023, at a studio that became a sort of creative-community drop-in centre, where artists stayed for a few hours or a few days, living side by side, eating ice cream and helping craft a record that discuss topics concerning colonisation, exodus and diaspora. The roll-call of artists from Germany’s nascent hip-hop, soul, jazz and global music scenes is impressive, with musical identities and expressions plugged in, from Cuba, Algeria, Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Australia, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Sudan, Peru, USA and Madagascar.
In Portuguese, Ela Partiu is the name of a classic Tim Maia track, the ‘70s tortured soul-boy from Brazil, one of Laiz’s heroes. It also translates to ‘she has gone’ referring to Laiz’s early-life decision to leave her family home, unable to adapt to a life as a Jehovah's Witness, from a city in the state of Sao Paulo.
With the album release taking a alternative path in its release strategy with a new single from the 14 track album reaching digital platforms every fortnight, the first song to be given a full radio release is Carcará, with tongue in cheek, a samba swag, and a story of the ‘Brazilian smile’. Laiz explains, “this mystical place that cannot be found on a map, but in the guts of a good lover”. But she turns that around insisting “we ain’t Disneyland. And reality always comes hurling back” and sings “the skin shows you the price of Brazilian smiles”, signalling to “one of the most brutal and structurally racist systems in the world”.