BUD Moment: Keynote with the legendary Fab 5 Freddy

As part of the Advisory Council of SIM São Paulo, I articulated and introduced a Keynote Speech by the legendary Fab 5 Freddy at SIM São Paulo’s 2019 edition.

“A key player on the growth and consolidation of hip hop in the 80s, a pioneer on grafitti, filmmaker and, for 10 years, host of the TV show YO! MTV Raps, Fab 5 Freddy was at SIM 2019 presenting a keynote about his trajectory and profound relationship with Brazil. It was the first time that one of the main characters of the black american culture publicly shared his experience and the full panel is available at SIM's YouTube channel.

Fab remembered his childhood in Brooklyn, the influence of the thinkers like Marcus Garvey and Mao Tsé-Tung, whom he discovered through his father, an activist on black civil rights at the end of the 60s; the birth of the hip hop movement with "block parties", its relations with the punk scene that also emerged in the 70s; the appearance of music video culture and the space for black music on MTV; and his curiosity and research for brazilian culture.

From the dazzle with the bossa nova in the franco-brazilian movie Black Orpheus (1959) to the brilliant article talking about the music in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro for Vibe magazine, on the beginning of the 2000s, Fab taught about politics, culture and resistance, going through structural differences on the racism at USA and Brazil and reinforcing the importance of music to make a change in the world.”

Photo: Hannah Carvalho