Marcelo D2 Releases Anti-Violence Album and Short Film

Marcelo D2 is speaking out about the violence in Rio de Janeiro through new music…

The 50-year-old Brazilian rapper has released a new album accompanied by a short film. Amar é para os Fortes premiered Friday exclusively on Apple Music.

Marcelo D2

The album was produced by Mario Caldaro Jr. of Beastie Boys fame, while the film was produced, written and directed by Marcelo D2.

The project is described as “a musical chronicle of Rio de Janeiro’s reality: violence, drugs, friends and enemies, family, art, hope, love.”

The nearly-wordless half-hour movie features eight of the record’s ten tracks. Stephan Peixoto, Marcelo D2’s son, plays Sinistro, who discovers a world away from the gangs and guns in the favela when he finds work in an art gallery and is embraced by artists and musicians.

Described by the artist as “an album to watch,” the story, based on his own, is a stylish street opera that illustrates arts role in social change.

The film includes the information that there were 300,000 violent deaths in Brazil in the last ten years, and 71 percent of the victims were young and black.

Gilberto Gil and Seu Jorge are among the real-life Brazilian artists who make cameos in the film, which counted on Nike, Pernod Ricard and Casio as sponsors.

Click here for the video on Apple Music.

 

Correy Perform’s Coca-Cola’s 2014 FIFA World Cup Anthem

It appears that the world is David Correy’s…

The 26-year-old Brazilian American singer and former The X Factor contestant has been chosen to record Coca-Cola‘s global 2014 FIFA World Cup anthem.

David Correy

Correy performs the song, entitled “The World is Ours,” with the Brazilian percussion troupe Monobloco.

The soccer-themed track features a pumped up pop melody tethered by the Brazilian roots rhythms commonly identified with carnival, as well as inspirational lyrics readymade for stadium sing-alongs.

“The World is Ours” will be the theme of the brand’s international “World’s Cup” campaign. The tournament year anthem was written by song-writing team Rock Mafia (Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez) and produced by Brazilian-born Mario Caldato Jr., who has worked with the Beastie Boys, Jack Johnson, and Brazilian artists including Seu Jorge and Bebel Gilberto.

“We always try to bring to light our campaign ideas through music and in 2014 we’re talking about the World Cup and bringing the world together,” says Joe Belliotti, Director of Global Entertainment Marketing at Coca-Cola. “That is what the song was meant to do from a lyric perspective. From a music perspective, we wanted the music to stay very authentic to Brazil, but in an original way that would resonate with an audience internationally…we’re taking that rhythm of Brazil and pairing it with just a great mainstream song.”

Correy, best known as a 2012 The X Factor finalist who re-connected with his Brazilian birth mother after appearing on the reality show, will debut the song live tomorrow on Corcovado Mountain above Rio de Janeiro.

“It’s such a feel-good song,” says Correy, whose tattoos include one on his back of a Brazilian flag covering a hand making the metal horns sign, which is spotlighted on the single’s cover photo. He opens the 2:38 minute track with a call to “kick it to the world.”

“I think with the rhythms, the song, the message, it’s going to touch a lot of people,” he says.

Tomorrow’s performance of the song will mark the opening of the Coke-sponsored World Cup Trophy tour, which takes the  tournament trophy to 88 countries.

Correy and Monobloco will perform the anthem at select stops on the tour, where fans’ voices will be recorded and added to future mixes. Artists from different countries will also collaborate with Correy on recordings of the song in different languages. A Portuguese version called “Tu Mundo,” with vocals by Brazilian singer Gaby Amarantos was released in June in Brazil. That song did not include Correy’s vocals.

“The World is Ours” will be immediately available for streaming on Coca-Cola partner Spotify, and will later be sold widely as a download at digital outlets. The song will be featured in Coke’s World Cup-themed TV ads and mobile campaigns.

“The World of Ours” is the first major anthem to be unveiled for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, which opens in Sao Paulo on June 12. FIFA has yet to announce the official World Cup anthem.