fejao & Samtheman – Brasil da Capoeira

fejao and Samtheman team up on “Brasil da Capoeira”, out now via Brownswood Recordings. fejao grew up in Brazil’s favelas, moving between samba circles, baile funk nights, and capoeira rodas, and that background is the whole engine of this track.

The song is basically an argument: capoeira isn’t a dance, it’s a fight dressed up as one. The lyrics move through actual capoeira vocabulary, the berimbau’s rhythm, the meia lua kick, the aú cartwheel, framing them less as dance steps than as warnings to an opponent. There’s a line about police cavalry showing up if things get too heated, a nod to capoeira’s history of being pushed underground and criminalized in Brazil.