Reggae in São Paulo!

São Paulo is a city where everything must be approached with a certain degree of suspicion. Here, everyone is very complacent. If the paulistano swallows esfiha from Grupo Sérgio and cover band shows without asking for a gallon of fruit salt, it's because the stomach already comes factory-lined against heartburn. Be that as it may, reggae bands here reproduce like hamsters. Two hands are already insufficient to count them: Nomad, Walking Lions, Jai Mahal and os Pacíficos da Ilha, Radical Roots, Luís Vagner e Amigos Leais, Cacau Gamb e Otrabanda, Nova Jóya, TC, Banda Luanda, Lumumba, Simsemilla, etc.

If where there's smoke there's fire (oops!), SP doesn't just have bands, but an audience. Establishing a milestone in the growing ebullition of reggae here is to run over a long history, but it can be said that the cauldron boiled when two radio hosts specialized in the genre took their pick-ups to the city's most talked-about nightclubs: Otávio Rodrigues planted his green-yellow-and-red flag at Aeroanta, Jai Mahal does the same at Dama Xoc. In a short time, Wednesdays began to turn more turnstiles than weekends.

Suddenly, each band had its faithful audience and its page written in the city's folkloric reggae cordel. Although most of these groups have been active for a long time, the crossing from the anonymous alley to the runway of fame happened in '90. That year, Dagô Miranda (Radical Roots) took the stage at Projeto SP to sing alongside Junior Marvin (Wailers), Luís Vagner also received the band that once belonged to Bob Marley for a guest appearance at Aeroanta, Sinsemilla toured as far as Caxambu (MG), and the compilation Reggae Vibrações (which brings together 5 of the bands mentioned above) began to become a reality. In short, '90 was the year of reggae's rebirth in Sampa.

Now things have taken on more enthusiastic contours than expected. In '91, Brazil entered full force into the route of the world's main reggae artists. Almost every weekend someone is announced as "the cream of Jamaica." Without a doubt, it's much better to be able to count on international shows than to live guided by the monotonous parade of São Paulo's pseudo-reggaemen. After all, save for rare exceptions, the bands here devoted to the genre are like home-delivery pizzerias: some worse, others better, many as indispensable as they are merely average. This article was published in Revista Bizz Super Especial Reggae in May 1991, and 11 years later I still consider it very current.