Felipe Maia is a GRAMMY.com contributor.
Hip-hop in Brazil has always been women's turf. From pioneers like Dina Di to mainstays such as Chris SNJ, Kmila CDD, and Negra Li, female rappers have never put the mic down since first grabbing it in the early 1990s. Yet, despite the steady growth of Brazilian hip-hop in the last decade, women are often overlooked compared to their male…
"Going downtown back then was like going to NY with all the lights, the buildings," said Brazilian artist Mano Brown in the 2022 documentary Racionais MC's: From the Streets of São Paulo. In the 1970s, Brown was only known as Paulo, a teenager from one of the harshest favelas at the outskirts of the 20 million person Brazilian metropolis. Then…
Born and raised in Harlem, New York, Tito Puente follows a lineage of musicians who have pushed Latin American sounds to the future while holding onto traditional forms and century-old rhythms. There aren't many who could handle the burden of moving forward with an eye on the rearview mirror, but Puente, a son of immigrants, did it gracefully. Whether playing…
