music
With a lot to say and a beat to say it on, prétu gives voice to the pan-Africanist manifesto of Nuno Santos, better known as xullaji or Chullage. More than a new pseudonym, prétu is an afronaut who navigates African origins and aesthetics, combining them with electronic music influences to express his thoughts on decolonisation, inequalities and the political context of Africa and its diaspora.
The son of Cape Verdean parents, xullaji is an inescapable figure in Lusophone hip hop, acclaimed not only for his razor-sharp lyrics but also for his interventional vein and political activism. prétu 1 – xei di kor is the musician’s latest work and one of the discs of the year for the vast majority of national publications. It’s also an openly political work. In the samples we find Cape Verdean, Guinean and Angolan intervention music, things that Santos discovered on discs he bought or stole from his uncles. We hear Os Tubarões, Bonga, Tcheka, Vadú, David Zé and Princezito. We listened to Amílcar Cabral. And African music, batuku and quilapanga are joined by sounds such as dub and hip hop, in an Afro-futurist abundance in which we talk about pan-Africanism, decolonisation and love.
All these influences have always had a place in xullaji’s art, but they take centre stage in xei de kor. An incessant work that began to be outlined in the 2010s and of which we heard the first song in 2019. In a dedication to the women who made him understand the feminine struggle, “Fidju Maria“, with Dino D’Santiago, was the calling card for this manifesto that finally arrived in 2023 with the promise that Prétu wouldn’t “let it get stuck in his larynx”.
support portuguese republic – culture / directorate-general for the arts. rtcp – network of portuguese theatres and cinemas
