Another guest post by Wolfram Lange, co-founder of Kafundó Records, DJ, and blogger at the Soundgoods website. In this edition he gives us a little background on DaGanja. His track “Tá No Ar” appears on the Kafundó Vol. 1 Compilation:

The MC DaGanja (Alan dos Santos) is one of the biggest names in Hip Hop from Salvador (capital of Bahia State.) In his music he merges his experiences participating in samba-reggae and samba bands with sonic elements of soul, dub, Musica Popular Brasilera and Caribbean rhythms. However, the unifying feature of his music is always rap and hip hop. This meeting of the past and the present, drums and amplifiers, is the perfect vehicle for him to develop his rhymes with lyrics that speak about the street, spirituality, battles, victories, achievements, pain and love and other subjects transformed into rhythm and poetry.

Starting as drummer and singer in samba-reggae bands in the eighties and nineties, DaGanja became an MC in the 2000s. From 2008 to 2010 he was one of the first to bring rap to a trio elétrico, the massive truck sound systems that drive through the streets in carnival of Salvador.

On his first solo CD “Entre Versos e Prosa” the influence of Samba is still strong:

…while later he raps more over reggae and soul beats which are performed live by his own band:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfdED3Gi5Cw[/youtube]

His latest clip was partly filmed at the demonstrations of June 2013 in Salvador as the lyrics of the song have certain similarity with the manifestations where people have shown their insatisfaction with politics:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/rf_GcCR933I[/youtube]