Album closes the trilogy formed by Dolores Dala Guardião do Alívio (2021) and Fim das Tentativas (2022)
Irreverent, creative, innovative. We can try to describe Rico Dalasam in various ways. We’re unlikely to make it. Summarizing it to a single adjective would be like trying to simplify something so complex that it made the artist himself dive into himself to develop his latest works. Dolores Dala Guardian of Relief (2021) and End of Attempts (2022) were the beginning and middle of a trilogy that the rapper ends with Brilliant Dark, Last Day at Tia Guga Orphanage.

Between shows trying out new songs and an audition for fans, Rich proves himself — once again — to be one of the most powerful pens in Brazilian rap. The artist spoke with Rolling Stone Brasil not only about this moment, but also about the process that brought him here.
Bright Dark It is born, in a way, with its predecessors. The project began in 2018 and this is the element that completes the triad. The name may seem paradoxical, and it is. “There is always duality in my process, but this time there were other complexities,” he says. If in End of Attempts the artist tries to free himself from the painful exercise of naming things, here we see a very important movement: the step towards love.
The full name of the disc is Brilliant Dark, Last Day at Tia Guga Orphanage. He centralizes the idea that, if today I want to take a step in the field of love, the great symbolic act was for me to return and, at this point in life, look for myself at the orphanage.
“Maybe my greatest act is me carrying myself on my arm,” he says during the conversation, with a preview of the album’s opening poem, “Sweet.” Rich It plays with temporality to take more and more control of itself. He carries himself on his arm and, somehow, takes us with him.
A few months before the release, the artist used social media to talk about the album’s production process “Nobody has any idea what this album is about… I had to go leagues and leagues deeper than DDGA in narrative,” he wrote on the X profile — formerly Twitter. This comes from many years of elaboration, which began to reveal itself in the desire to speak.
Nobody even does
idea of what this album is about… I needed to go leagues and leagues deeper than DDGA in narrative💓— DALA’SUMMER (@ricodalasam) October 17, 2023
In this album, Rich talks about love in a different way than seen in previous works. Here, he talks about orphanhood, the relationship with waiting and themes that were not on the other albums, at least not in such an exposed way. He expresses that this is the “elaboration of what constitutes me.”
As an artist, the composer expresses that he has a different relationship with the community that surrounds him. “I don’t know how to express the need, I know how to thank you for your involvement. My journey is lonely. So when I enter the shelter, I enter with all my strength. When I talk about love, it is with all my strength. I move the world for something I’m right with, because it’s me and me.”
Musically, Bright Dark brings the use of strings in a way that we had not yet seen in the work of Rich. But musicality is directly linked to image. It is from this that he understands how this exploration of instruments will take place.
This, in fact, is one of the most striking aspects, since the beginning of his career: the aesthetic signature. To translate poetry visually, the artist avoids obviousness. This can be seen in the clips, covers and in the visual identity itself.
For him, this is an exercise in semiotics. When we talked, the cover of Bright Dark it had not yet been released, but it was already defined at that moment: “The material on this album is very much stored in archives, messing with all of this is very magical.”
The work of transforming experiences, feelings and sensations into compositions is an elaboration valued by the artist. “I spend a good part of my day with my head racing,” he says. “Now we are talking about a happy album for the first time in many years. Upbeat songs and everything. It was a very deep elaboration, because for me it also shows something I didn’t even know.”
Rich He confesses that he even questioned whether he should put his own ideas in a place of joy. He became a closed person. “People saw a sign of masculinization in the image, but, in reality, it was just because I closed myself off,” he explains. “It’s not a question for me, it’s who’s coming.”
Go Alone Group
Despite that, Rich has one of the most engaged fan communities. And he recognizes this. Recently, he organized a group for people who went to shows alone to meet and get to know each other. At the rapper’s performance in São Paulo on his birthday — which we’ll talk about later — they wore neon bracelets to identify themselves. In the community made on Instagram, the artist always shares news and thoughts, he even released a preview of the album there.
The rapper reports that it is difficult to describe what he attributes this connection to art itself to. “These are people who identify themselves in a very subjective place, which is not spatial or geographic. There may be an issue with sexuality, color. But it still doesn’t say. It’s from a very deep place that I connect with people.”
Which could be, perhaps, this orphanage thing. But it is from this place that develops, throughout life, a solitary but very fierce ability to be 10, to be 30, to be everyone. I am not one, I am the force of many things. I am a movement.
Birthday
On July 21, 2023, Rich did a show where he presented some songs from the new album. The event was also notable because the singer’s birthday is on the 22nd. At one point during the night, he confessed that he used to go away on this date. When asked what changed within him for this stance to change, the rapper explained how “time is passing. Since I started working, every week of July 22nd I was in New York.”
After a while, his refuge became a deserted beach in Marseille, France. “There came a time when I said ‘no, it’s wrong’, and then I had this party with two thousand people.” `Allowing all these people to celebrate another year with him was a good exercise.
After that day, in which some tracks from the new album were presented, he went back to working on them. “I do that with things. First, I ask people, even myself, to understand the plurality of it. Then I adjust,” he explains. Elements that “didn’t fit” were removed, others were added: “I gave a grade to a couple of songs, which was decisive! That was very important.”
We also talk about what inspires him and, surprisingly, he drinks little from the source of music. In addition to the image, as I said, Rich He is very interested in two forms of transport: planes and boats. “Whenever I want to feel good about myself, I go somewhere by boat. Because, on the boat, things happen, in my head.”
The finishing touches, however, are done at the bar. “Often alone,” he confesses. That’s how he ended up”Braille,” for example. “On a sidewalk in Taboão [da Serra], with some old friends, they had a bottle of fake whiskey. I drank there with them, it was beautiful,” she recalls. He has also composed in Marseille and Salvador, where he was born “Broken,” which on the album features the luxurious collaboration of Liniker.
Despite its importance in the Hip Hop scene, Rich he doesn’t pay much attention to the fact that he is a reference for other artists. He knows that he influenced a generation of artists, through his lyrics, by being one of the precursors of queer rap, but it is not an aspect that eludes him. “I try to make a poem that is always unattainable.”
On the other hand, an idol for many, Rich There’s also a fan side. Belgian singer and songwriter Stromae is someone he dreams of collaborating with. He spent his 2022 birthday at an artist concert in a medieval arena. “I danced, I cried a lot.”
For this new phase, with the release of Escuro Brilhante, we can expect happy songs, which tell episodes, situations of loving exchange. Rico is excited when asked about how this will translate to the stage. He reports how the work traces its own temporality.
When we talk about clips, however, the artist does not confirm. “I can bring more documentary productions about things. But I don’t watch the clip anymore, I think I’ve lost my shine on this aesthetic.” He is considering, however, something for “Quebrados.” The rapper released a video for “I still hope,” the album’s first single, which cannot be classified as a music video, but which brings his visual identity in a unique way.
I want to tell stories. Today, I sent the tapes from that period, from 1997 to 2001, to be digitized, and that’s it. I have no desire. My thing [é outra, ela tá se revelando assim.
Sobre os planos para o que vem após o lançamento, ele é categórico: “Vamos para a estrada.” Desde julho, quando apresentou a prévia, temos sido presenteados com algumas canções do álbum, agora, poderemos ver integralmente a obra tomando forma.
Escuro Brilhante é um registro de felicidade em meio a uma trajetória solitária, com a qual Rico permite que acompanhemos. Se ele quer contar histórias, queremos ouvi-las. Se ele se carrega pelo braço em direção ao amor, observamos o movimento e podemos afirmar como, mais uma vez, ele se supera artisticamente.
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Source: Rollingstone

Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.