Brazil: Rapper Mano Brown says Lula is the 'Only Solution'

Mano Brown, co-founder of the legendary underground Brazilian hip-hop collective Racionais MCs, has told Estadao newspaper that Brazil's only hope for a brighter future “is if Lula is elected president. That way, social advances will continue.”

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If Lula is not re-elected for a third term in office, Brown predicts that the country will “turn into Mad Max. I witnessed the transformation of people during Lula's government.”

Brown went on to say that he's worried about the loss of rights achieved during the Workers' party governments, which spanned Lula and Dilma Rousseff's presidencies encompassing over 13 years.

He also affirmed that in recent years the country has experienced a wave of low self-esteem and lack of hope. “Now, more than ever, people need to recoup their faith.”

Brown also weighed in on media outlets and politicians attempting to erase the enormous contribution in the struggle against racism and in favor of social inequality undertaken by the Workers' Party, according to Viomundo.

Earlier this year Brown stated "the mentality of periphery neighborhoods has changed...It's impossible to disassociate Racionais MCs from politics and where is the country politically now? The periphery has turned to the right. Rap has turned to the conservative right...The type of rap music produced back in the day has become moralistic religious rap, which doesn't tap into the revolution that needs to happen now."

Brown – along with fellow rappers Ice Blue, Edi Rock and DJ KL Jay – formed the Racionais MCs in 1988. The collective, all of whom hailed from Capao Redondo, a periphery neighborhood on Sao Paulo's south side, referred to themselves as "the four most dangerous black men in Brazil."