Racionais Mc's: Sobrevivendo no inferno

Released in 1997, the album Surviving in Hell reached the sales mark of over 1.5 million copies and it is considered the most important Brazilian rap album. The huge success of “Diário de um detento” put the record at the top of the charts. This is an emblematic album of turn of the century in Brazil and includes classics such as “Tô ouvindo alguém me chamar” and “Capítulo IV, versículo 3”. Amidst strong biblical references, the album brings impressive lyrics about the violent routine of São Paulo peripheries and poor neighborhoods, the abuse of police force, the crime path, imprisonment, racism and prejudice. Dantas’ essay is an original and unprecedented critical reading on the acclaimed album, highlighting the critique of necropolitics and the poetics of precarity and monstrosity, as well as from discussing it’s critical fortune. In 2018, the record’s lyric became a mandatory reading for 2020’s vestibular, Brazil’s SATs.

About the band
Founded in 1988 and formed by Mano Brown, Edi Rock, Ice Blue and KL Jay, the Racionais MC’s are the most important Brazilian rap group. Their songs made mainstream look at vulnerability, racism and prejudice suffered by young black and poor population, showing periphery as place of culture and strength. The police’s brutality, the violence, crime, social inequality are recurring themes of their pungent lyrics. Twelve years after releasing Nada como um dia após o outro (Everyday Is A New Day) – that included classics such as “Vida loka I”, “Vida loka II” and “Negro drama” –, in 2014 Racionais reappeared with the unprecedented album Cores e valores (Colors and Values).

About the author
Arthur Dantas Rocha is a journalist, a reporter, a redactor and a screenwriter with a degree in Literature from USP. He is passionate about books, records and films. In the 1990s, Dantas edited the fanzine Velotrol. He was a part of Centro de Mídia Independente and Instituto de Ação Libertária. At USP’s Radio Livre he hosted the show Funilaria do som alongside Silvio “Rahtto” Ricardo. He was editor in chief at Conrad Editora, redactor at MTV Brasil, and website editor at NOIZ and Cooperifa magazine.

About the collection
Editora Cobogó has been publishing books on music since 2014. In the collection The Book of the Album import records are dissected revealing stories behind the creation of the album, recordings, composing, concerts, production. Each book presents a different great album with a singular perspective written by writers, journalists and music lovers.

Specifications
Collection The Book of the Album
Band Racionais MC’s
Author Arthur Dantas Rocha
Language Portuguese
Page count 176
ISBN 9786556910338
Cover Radiográfico
Format Softcover
Size 13 x 19 cm
Year 2021