This is different territory, but this rap song from Brazil was sent to me in Australia to help me pronounce the ‘R’ in Latin Spanish even though this song is sung in Portuguese. The Latin pronunciation is with a palpitating tongue, which for years I couldn’t achieve and even now my ‘R”s sound sound like a Gringo ‘R’. When Latinos vocalise, their tongues are very fluid and soft unlike native English-speaking.
I came to reflect on this song Rap Das Armas more for nostalgic reasons and I do like listening to this version presented below in the article:
Rap Das Armas (Rap of Weapons) was used in the soundtrack of the Brasilian film Elite Squad – In 1997 Rio de Janeiro, Captain Nascimento has to find a substitute for his position while trying to take down drug dealers and criminals before the Pope visits. The film soon became the highest-grossing film of 2007 in Brazil. The film version of the song as interpreted by Cidinho and Doca became very popular as a result.
This song made an international hit when I was first introduced to it in 2009. The duo who sing it are two prominent proibidão rappers in Brazil, proibidão which refers to songs prohibited airplay by order of the Brazilian courts due to alleged crime apology. The song is considered as part of the funk carioca movement that started with the release of the album Funk Brasil in 1989 produced by DJ Marlboro, a compilation which is considered the milestone of the funk movement.
The song started as a praise to Rio’s beauties, but eventually became a protest on urban violence. Although the text called for peace and was against violence, it was still prohibited for mentioning names of a great number of weapons. Leonardo said he picked the names of the weapons in his day job as a newsstand attendant.
Despite its popularity, “Rap das Armas” was never played on the Brazilian radio due to its controversial nature and it was abruptly removed from the Elite Squad soundtrack album two weeks after its release, because it allegedly praises drug consumption, and defends the drug dealers and criminal factions side in Rio de Janeiro’s war on crime.
I don’t know which version appears below to defend or scrutinise, but it’s the version I received to help me roll my ‘Rrrrrs’ and that’s that.
Reference:
1. Rap Das Armas – wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
I normally run a mile when it comes to rap, but I ended up listening to this and can see why it could be helpful in learning to roll ones Rs in a Latin Spanish way!
Same here. Rap and Hip – hop are probably my least favourite music genres. Thanks for taking the time to listen to it and commenting.