This week’s South American City focuses on a fire spitting female. Straight out of Rio, Deize Tigrona brings the intensity, power, and beauty you’d expect from a Brazilian lady emcee with her own raw signature style crafted in the hood and delivered via her Berlin record label.
She has collaborated with Portugal’s Buraka Som Sistema, with Diplo, MIA and Bonde do Rolê. First time I heard her was on the track below, as the heavy hitting vocalist on Buraka’s “Aqui para Voces” (Here for You). First time I saw her live was in Buenos Aires, playing Man Recordings’ visit to Zizek Club during the Baile Funk versus Cumbia throwdown. Deize is definitely the real Brazil deal coming straight out of the infamous City of God in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s dynamic and dramatic version of NYC.
Her verbal presence is not to be tested but her delivery comes with the loveliest smile and though you don’t understand the language, Deize manages to get a lot across through her talent as a performer. She tells some of her story on this video made by an Australian film company “visiting the favela” on some dastardly tourism expose.
Seeing her live was amazing in a town that doesn’t get many raw female vocalists. (Which could be any town, really.) She won the crowd over despite the language barrier with her charisma and impressive flow. She sang a nasty song at one point that seemed to imply c**chie power and it was an instant classic, one for girlfriends to reference long after Deize came to town.
