Duel of MCs, freestyle rap battles, at Viaduto Santa Tereza. Belo Horizonte, Brazil

#rap #rapper #belo horizon
Duel of MCs, freestyle rap battles, at Viaduto Santa Tereza. Belo Horizonte, Brazil
"Duel of MCs is one of the main freestyle rap battles in Brazil. Located in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, at Viaduto Santa Tereza. It was created in 2007, by Família de Rua.
...
Battle Format
Normally, in the first two rounds each MC has 45 seconds to formulate their respective attack and response. If there is a tie, there will be a third round in a "round-robin" format. Before the battle starts, the two MCs draw lots (odd or even) to decide who will start the battle. The first MC starts with a 45 second attack. Therefore, the second MC defends the attack with 45 seconds of response. Then, the second MC attacks with 45 seconds of time, thus adding up to 1m and 30s. Finally, the first MC (who started the battle) responds with 45 seconds of time. The “back-and-forth” format is a modality where an MC has the right to input 4/8 (four octaves) composing four rhymes, and the other MC responds at the same time. Thus, totaling two entries and answers for each round."- pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duelo_d...
"PDR says that before occupying the Santa Tereza Viaduct, the MCs Duel began at Praça da Estação, on the sidewalk where the Youth Reference Center (CRJ) now operates, on August 24, 2007, with approximately 20 people.
“The intention was to do a battle of MCs, with the aim of bringing together people from hip hop in BH, this scene and the city's urban culture, in a place that was easily accessible for everyone coming from the outskirts, such as most of us”, says Valentim.
This beginning was inspired by a moment they had experienced a week before, the qualifier of the fifth edition of the ‘Liga dos MCs’, the first official championship of improvised rhymes in Brazil. The event toured some of the country's capitals, such as Rio de Janeiro, Recife, Porto Alegre, São Paulo and Belo Horizonte.
In the capital of Minas Gerais, the battle took place in the property that hosted the Lapa Multshow nightclub and PDR reports that it was a very special day for hip hop in BH. He recalls that his companion from the ‘Família de Rua’, Léo (Leonardo Cezário), wanted that energy experienced to continue and the Duel of MCs was born in that context.
The first meetings took place on the side of Praça da Estação, in a scenario very different from the current one, as the MC notes, as they did not have this perspective of the right to the city and the occupation of urban spaces. The intention was for the battles to take place in front of the Monument to Terra Mineira, but the Municipal Guard ordered, in the first meeting, that they go to the corner of the square.
Viaduct
They stayed there for around three months, until one day it rained, they had a borrowed speaker and someone had the idea of going under the Santa Tereza Viaduct.
“We ended up on the viaduct by chance, because of the rain and, from then on, we understood that the Santa Tereza Viaduct would be the home of the Duel of MCs”, comments Pedro Valetim.
The Santa Tereza Viaduct has a history with hip hop and the city's urban and peripheral cultures even before it was occupied by Duel de MCs. When the movement reached the viaduct it was “kind of forgotten”, recalls the journalist.
“The memory we have is that people were even afraid of crossing those stairs, of going there, of living in that space”, he says. “After this occupation of Duelo, the city began to connect in a different way, a series of other actions began to take place and the viaduct was periodically occupied in the most diverse ways”, he adds.
The Duel of MCs undeniably contributed to this change, as people began to perceive that territory in a different way, feeling like they belonged to the place and encouraged to visit it. PDR says that the space became so powerful because of this, that people started to see each other there.
“It was an occupation based on horizontality, the city itself, conflicts, diversity, and we started organizing ourselves there, and often not organizing ourselves either, and the cultural life of the Santa Tereza Viaduct took place based on that” , he says." -www.ufmg.br/centrocultural/du... -podcast-episode/
Video: Frederico Machado