Roll up your sleeves and do it. Fighting and raising awareness. Living, thinking and practising what you rhyme. Bruno Furtado, better known as Ghoya in the artistic world and in the anti-racist struggle, has become a reference in Creole rap with the strength and ingenuity of someone who sings about what he experiences in the first person, directly impacting names like Landim, Julinho KSD or Real Guns, stars of the Creole pen with different spotlights (from the most underground to the most mainstream) on them.
Born in the former Bairro das Fontainhas, on the border between Amadora and Lisbon, and the son of a mother from São Tomé and a father from Cape Verde, the rapper and activist (who has often been, and is, compared to the American 2Pac) has put his voice at the service of all immigrants and people of African descent who suffer from police violence in their neighbourhoods, abuse in the prison system and structural racism resulting from a Portuguese colonial past that still needs to be reviewed and resolved. Classics such as ‘Di Otu Ladu Lei’, ‘Mama Mesten’ or ‘Bu Cre Merda Cu Mi’ show his combative and reflective side, a voice with authority and proven experience in the issues he has addressed in his verses since the turn of the millennium.
Live (on stage and elsewhere fighting for a better world) is the ideal way to capture their vision for a fairer country for all. However, his music can (and should) be found (in fragmented form, between official and pirated versions) in the digital world: the album Di Otu Ladu Lei was never officially released, due to disagreements with the label Sonoterapia Records, but the tracks, which were recorded between 2007 and 2008, end up being available anyway; Mundu Infernal, an album by Mentis Afro, a collective of which he is one of the founders, comes out in 2008; then 1 Vida So Ka Ta Tchiga makes his solo debut in long-play format official. Even with various detours and interruptions, his message has never been held back, circulating and serving those who need it most. Alexandre Ribeiro
