Portal: Rashid addresses fatherhood to talk ‘more about the totality of my self’

Over a career spanning almost 20 years, Michel Dias Costabetter known as Rashidhas presented several artistic facets, whether in rap, battle rhymes, R&B, among others. Now, with Portal, released on August 8, 2024 on music streaming platforms, the singer presents us with a more intimate and reflective side, Rashid daddy.

“And who would have thought that now I’m a dad”

In 2022, Rashid and the wife, Dani Rodriguesbecame parents of Cairohonored in the second track of the rapper’s new album, in a song with more Lo-fi beats, with lyrics that recall the process of fatherhood, from the first pregnancy test to ultrasounds and birth. Becoming a father changed his entire perspective, both in his personal and professional life.

“Fatherhood makes us look at things from a new perspective, [como] time, money, work, family,” said the artist during an interview with Rolling Stone Brazil. As the singer explained, “becoming a father is very different from becoming a mother, which is a physical thing.”

The father waits for that key, that ‘click.’ It’s something that happens and at some point you realize that you look at everything differently.

Now father of Cairo, Rashid He spends more time at home with his family and has had to adjust the dynamics of his routine, whether it’s the music playing in the background, the movies and series he watches, etc. So, his artistic side absorbs this new phase, with new perspectives “on things and obviously on my art, music and profession. I was forced to rethink everything and I’m loving it!”

Successor of Rapid Eye Movement (2022), Portal came out just over a year before its release in mid-2023, and the creative process was very different from his previous work. In this one, he worked with fewer producers and his creativity was based on emotions.

Instead of thinking of a lyric and sending it to a producer in another corner of the city or even the country, Rashid I searched for the sound on my own, through piano loops or guitar chords, for example, that suggested the emotion I was looking for.

“I would send the producers this tempo and that loop that served as a guide for the arrangement, for the harmony, not necessarily for us to follow,” he recalled. “Many songs started with a piano that I looped and ended up without having a piano note in the current song.”

For the artist, Portal was created from what he felt primarily, to then pass it on in the chain of producing a rap album. “That was very good for the project, because it took it to different places.”

We didn’t start with something pre-determined, we started with an empty plot of land. And we built from there.

A more intimate Rashid

Different from Rapid Eye Movementwhich has a complex narrative with a period journey and influenced by literature, Portal comes with a side that moves us from the identification with the lyrics. Not only for those who are or will become fathers, but the topics discussed bring a great reflection on which steps we will follow, love, money, spirituality, frustrations and the beauty of life.

“As the album came together, I started to realize that it was getting so personal, so focused on the individual and talking about so many details of my own life that it actually felt like I was talking about everyone,” he said. “These are things that everyone goes through, or most people go through.”

I began to realize that I was dealing with portals that we will all go through at some point, whether we like it or not. And not necessarily just parenthood.

Already in the last studio albums, Rashid began to approach sound in a different way, with genres that merged with rap in his discography, such as R&B, pop, soul, among others. One of the main motivations for this to happen is to contribute to culture, whether hip hop or Brazilian.

“It’s these things that inspire, motivate and make me want to cross this portal into a musicality that speaks more to the totality of my self,” he said. “I’m not just the MC who wants to make some punchlines, ok connected? I’m not just a guy who made some romantic songs that got played on the radio too.”

One of the strengths of Portal are the illustrious collaborations that appear throughout the nine tracks. Each artist brings their own characteristic to make each song unique. Melly sings in “Rise,” Lenin appears in “After the After,” Lagum participates in “No North” and Pericles excites in “A Shade of Blue.”

Of course, Rashid was more than satisfied and happy with this magical quartet, responsible for bringing learning by understanding how other people make art and deal with a creative process, “even more so us rap people, who learned everything by ourselves, banging our heads against the wall.”

As the singer explained to Rolling Stone Brazilhis team sought to make in-person recordings with each participation in the tracklistwith the exception of Lenine, who sent the vocals and instrumentals remotely. “Watching people work is something I really enjoy,” he commented. “We were the Pericles And what am I going to say? It’s a master’s degree to watch him working, the way he records and all his energy in the music.”

He’s a very respectful guy, with a huge heart, very generous, very kind-hearted, probably in the top three most kind-hearted people I’ve ever met! With all that experience, all that career he’s had, and he’s an extremely humble guy. And then when he opens his mouth, you fall backwards. When he started to speak, everyone started crying, the rap guys had tears in their eyes.

On Mellydescribed as a super young artist and a bet on Brazilian music, surprised everyone by creating verses on the spot, while the rapper passed on the idea he wanted for “Rise.” “The studio session with her was simply absurd, because she is a talent that is coming and is overflowing. She released her first album [intitulado Amaríssima]so the impulse and art are just coming out through the ears and eyes.”

With Lagum, Rashid was also surprised by Peter Calaisthe band’s vocalist, suggesting a completely different chorus than the one originally proposed: “He made the song even greater.” Unfortunately, with Lenine, he was unable to follow the recording process, but he was very grateful for having the opportunity to produce and write something “that a legend like that could sing.”

And I agree that these are great strengths of the portal. It always tends to be like this, because they add value, because they sometimes give rest to the ears of the person, of the main artist, who is singing there. [há] a thousand years, but especially when we feel that there was a synergy there.

Now, where will this portal take Rashid?

Not only with a new sound, this new portal in the career of Rashid can take him to new heights. The album may also appeal to other music audiences, in addition to those who have followed the singer since the rhyme battles.

I believe this album has the potential to go far beyond rap, because it has a lot of rap in it. Rashid there, but with many other things that the instrumentation does, that the participations themselves do, but that the Rashid in itself it also did, precisely in this search to get closer to my references, the search to make music that is truly Brazilian. In a genuine and authentic way.