Não Existe Amor em SP

Lyrics from “Não Existe Amor em SP” by Criolo

Album: Nó na Orelha

—

Love doesn’t exist in SP

A mystical labyrinth

Where the graffiti screams

It’s impossible to describe

In a beautiful phrase on a sweet postcard

Be careful with sweets

São Paulo is a bouquet

Bouquets are dead flowers

In a beautiful arrangement,

A beautiful arrangement made for you

Love doesn’t exist in SP

The bars are full of souls so empty

Profits pulsate, vanity excites

Return my life and die drowned in your own sea of bitterness

Here, nobody goes to heaven

It’s not necessary to die to see god

It’s not necessary to suffer to know what’s best for you

I find two clouds in each pile of debris, in each corner

Give me a sip of life

It’s not necessary to die to see god

Love doesn’t exist in SP…

–Interpretation–

Criolo broke ground on the São Paulo rap/hip hop scene with his second album, Nó na Orelha (Knot in the ear), which was released for free download on the internet  in early 2011. Nó na Orelha was chosen as Album of the Year at Brazil’s MTV Music Awards and “Não Existe Amor em SP” won Song of the Year.  This song, like many of Criolo’s, portrays the gritty nature of life in São Paulo, where the poor neighborhoods are riddled with drugs and violence and the city is overwhelmed by vanity and greed.

Criolo earned widespread praise for Nó na Orelha in particular because of the unusual diversity of sounds, musical styles and socially conscious themes in the lyrics.  As  Russ Slater put it, Criolo and his collaborators on this album have found “a way in which hip-hop can still be from the streets but can also include elements of Afro-Brazilian rhythms, dub, samba, Amazonian percussion, avant-garde jazz, and whatever other element seem fit to join the mix.”

Criolo was born Kleber Cavalcante Gomes in 1975 in São Paulo’s south zone, son of a metal worker and a teacher. He spent time working as a shoe salesman, a street vendor, and selling clothes from door to door. He began to study Pedagogy but left the university and entered the public school system as a teacher at the age of 18.  But he had already begun rapping a few years earlier, using the name Criolo Doido (the Crazy Creole – Criolo dropped the “Crazy” in 2011, explaining that he would have to do a lot more to be truly “doido” – in the good sense of the word). He released his first album, Ainda Há Tempo, in 2006, and founded Rinha dos MCs (MCs Cockpit), where MCs in São Paulo face off with each other (eg. 

Lyrics in Portuguese

Não existe amor em SP
Um labirinto místico
Onde os grafites gritam
Não dá pra descrever
Numa linda frase
De um postal tão doce
Cuidado com doce
São Paulo é um buquê
Buquês são flores mortas
Num lindo arranjo
Arranjo lindo feito pra você

Não existe amor em SP
Os bares estão cheios de almas tão vazias
A ganância vibra, a vaidade excita
Devolva minha vida e morra afogada em seu próprio mar de fel
Aqui ninguém vai pro céu

Não precisa morrer pra ver Deus
Não precisa sofrer pra saber o que é melhor pra você
Encontro duas nuvens em cada escombro, em cada esquina
Me dê um gole de vida
Não precisa morrer pra ver Deus

Post by Victoria Broadus (About)