Brasilândia is not Disneyland

Negra Li, fable and hyper-reality

Abstract

The article engages in a reflection of Milton Santos’ “fable” (2001) and Jean Baudrillard’s “hyper-reality” (1991) – concepts interested in losses and hegemonies –, in order to analyze two songs written and performed by Brazilian rapper Negra Li: “Olha o menino” (2004) and “Brasilândia” (2019), as well as the latter’s music video. The first-person, creative voice of a black woman about the periphery in which she was brought up is a much-needed examination of models of social ascension and authenticity experienced in the late modernity. The article proposes that, by crossing more than a decade, the assertive verse “Brasilândia is not Disneyland” is a powerful tool to, first, critique the national, audiovisual representations of favelas, and second, to understand a world based on mere reality simulations.