Over nearly two decades of his career, Brazilian rapper Rashid has crossed many portals. He has stayed relevant in the Brazilian hip-hop scene, even as trap took over, bringing the fast and sharp lyricism characteristic of his music. He was embraced by pop fans thanks to radio-friendly hits like “Bilhete 2.0” (2017) and “Sobrou silêncio” (2020). He even added a few other skills and jobs under his belt: book author, advertising narrator.
Now, as he prepares for a performance at the Brazil Week, at Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City, in New York (July 16-20, 2025), Rashid takes a leap through yet another portal. As he arrives in one of music’s most iconic global stages, he embodies the concept of his latest project, Portal (2024).
“It’s an introspective album”, he tells PopMatters hours before his tour stop in Curitiba, in Southern Brazil. “My idea was to make a song about each portal that marked me, each threshold we must cross to meet updated versions of ourselves, new people, and new goals. Initially, this album was supposed to be a continuation of my previous work, Movimento Rápido dos Olhos (2022). But then Portal started to develop a life of its own, more immersed in the individual.”
Among the many experiences that shaped Rashid and the portals of his life, one track has prominence in Portal: “CAIRO”, dedicated to his son born in 2022. Recorded before the album production kicked off, the track was the initial key to the album’s conception.
“I had other things saved for my [upcoming] album, but I couldn’t help thinking: ‘This song belongs to this project.’ This is not an album about fatherhood, but it’s one that resonates as something very influenced by fatherhood, which is the loudest and most important portal I’ve ever crossed.”
The album release was preceded by Travessia, a short documentary series released on YouTube and Instagram Reels. In one of Travessia’s episodes, Rashid states: “Even though the portals we cross are personal, they provoke changes of global scale within us”. It’s a harbinger of the lyrics inspired by transformative experiences that would permeate the album. “Changing your world changes the world”, Rashid says. “Even if it’s just your perception of the world, that shift generates movement. And movement inspires crowds.”
He tells me that this sentiment connects with his 2020 song “Um Mundo de Cada Vez” [“One world at a time”], in which he raps about the collective impact of individual actions; but as he explains it, it brings to mind Fernando Pessoa, who wrote: “In the movement of the butterfly, it is the movement that moves.” As in the tradition of hip-hop, Rashid expresses himself in true lyricist-philosopher style, either when he’s rapping or talking.
The concept of portals also touches on vulnerability and emotional growth. “I’ve always been very quiet and dealt with things by remaining silent,” Rashid says. “Learning how to love is an important portal. So is fatherhood, spirituality, romantic relationships, friendships, our relationship with money… All these things drastically change our lives.” Rashid tends to explore these themes not in isolation, but as interconnected forces that shape a person’s evolution.
For example, in “CASTELOS DE PAPEL” [Paper Castles], one of the fans’ favorites in the album, Rashid explores the heartbreak of romantic disillusionment, but the song’s subtext goes deeper. It doubles as a farewell letter to the illusions of the music industry, echoing the stories of icons like Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, and Michael Jackson. “It’s inspired by my experiences, but also by what happened to these artists who reached tragic ends after being let down by the promises of art and fame.”
Yet Portal is not a solitary path. The album is rich with collaborations, from Brazilian music legends like Péricles and Lenine to gospel-like choir arrangements, which include his longtime backing vocalist Aya, a highlight of his live shows.
“I don’t usually premeditate these collaborations,” he explains. “The songs grow and tell me what they need. I usually feel when some songs are meant to be solo or when they demand voices that I can’t deliver with the same mastery as other artists. [These collaborations] represent the idea of crossing portals with someone, of not being alone.
In the case of Péricles and Lenine, they come not just as a company; they represent our masters. They are heroes of Brazilian music, so their participation in the album is also a metaphor about crossing portals led by people who have walked in our shoes.”
Lenine and Rashid will meet again at Brazil Week, organized by the Consulate General of Brazil in New York. Although many Brazilian fans are expected, Rashid also ponders the additional challenge of captivating foreign crowds through rap sung in Portuguese, without the melodic resources of other singers who are headline acts, such as Melly and Liniker.
“I’ll have to dance [to make up for the fact that people will understand the language]”, he jokes. “It’s actually a good challenge, though. There’s the language barrier, of course, but there are other things [to capture people’s attention]: the band, the DJ, the energy of my live performance, the emotions that my songs convey.
I also think of this as a reverse situation of what I experienced growing up, listening to rap in English. Back then, I didn’t know what those rappers were talking about, but I felt the music and could feel that the rappers were great at what they did.”
Language is a source of fascination for Rashid. It was rap music that aroused his writing, but his wordsmithship does not limit itself to music: in 2018, he published Ideias Que Rimam Mais Que Palavras, a book reflecting on his lyrics. Literature still interests him, but he admits it’s a field where he has more to prove.
“In music, I also have to constantly prove myself, but I already have a more polished style and audience. Making music is sometimes quicker, while a book requires months of work. My lyrical self is more blatant in my music, but when I write other things, even though there’s a lighter and more open-hearted approach, it demands more of me.
I see my music idols mastering words, and I want that for myself too. One of the ways to get closer to that is by writing anything and everything.”
Rashid’s proximity to spoken words has also earned him recognition for his voice, leading to a few additional opportunities. In 2025, he will narrate TV promotional campaigns for Conmebol’s Libertadores, South America’s most prestigious football tournament.
“This invitation made me so happy because I love being recognized by my voice, but I also love football, and I’d love to be closer to this universe.” To Rashid, the job is similar to music in how it allows him to reach people’s homes through his voice, and in how football, just like hip-hop, is for many poor Brazilian kids a refuge and a door to new opportunities. He even dreams of becoming a sports commentator.
“Some of Brazil’s greatest minds chose to work in sports journalism—like Chico Sá, who blends politics, poetry, and football. I admire that”, he says.
This reminds me of Nicki Minaj’s interview with Lyrical Genius in which she says: “Rappers are just very intelligent people who happen to rap”. For Rashid, great minds connect bridges through their talents, and he dreams of doing that in football as well.
Rashid also shared an ambition to record music in other languages, with a particular preference for Spanish. Brazil has a complicated relationship with its Latin American identity, in great part due to Brazilians speaking Portuguese, but Rashid feels inspired rather than intimidated by the linguistic challenge.
“We in hip-hop culture tend to have our worldviews much more dictated by North America than by our brothers [in Latin America]. Of course, rap’s roots are in North America, but we should also look around us. The Latin community is huge.”
Rashid’s perception of a Latin American identity was shaped by his travels abroad, where he found himself being seen as Latino but also as Arab, he says humorously, because of his stage name, Rashid. He’s come to embrace the complexity of being both Black and Latin.
“Traveling helped me realize how similar we [Brazilians] are to our Latin neighbors: our food, our warmth, our spontaneity. When I saw that, I started thinking: damn, we are Latin! Some of our artists, like Gilberto Gil, already embrace being Black and Latin.
Others feel torn, as if embracing Latinity makes them ‘less Black’. But it doesn’t! Black Latin identity is powerful, and embracing both only enriches our culture.”
He cites artists like Rappin Hood, Marcelo D2, Emicida, and Don L as examples of Brazilian rappers who helped build the sonic identity of hip-hop with Brazilian roots, and aspires to be acknowledged as an artist who also does that, too. As he prepares to step onto a stage where he once watched his idols like Rakim and Big Daddy Kane perform, he can only believe that being Brazilian for today’s hip-hop artists.
“Brazilian music is highly respected abroad. When I say I’m from Brazil, sometimes I immediately gain respect just because of that. [The “Brazil” brand] provides an entryway. Seeing myself as a representative of Brazilian music already demands that people pay a certain amount of attention, and I feel very special because of that.”