Brazilian rapper Criolo has released a new video for ‘Pretos Ganhando Dinheiro Incomoda Demais’, taken from his most recent album, Sobre Viver. The video tells the fable of an ‘Árvore da Riqueza’ (Money Tree), which was conceived by a group of young Black Brazilians from the SOMA+ project, which is focused on teaching young Blacks from Brazil’s peripheries professional skills that can be used in the marketing and publicity industry.

The title of this new single is telling – ‘Pretos Ganhando Dinheiro Incomoda Demais’ translates as ‘Black People Making Money Is Too Uncomfortable’ – and it’s this issue that forms the nucleus for the fable, which looks at how young Black Brazilians need to come together to plant ‘money seeds’ that will then benefit the entire community. The video release is accompanied by a webapp, entitled Árvore da Riqueza, which furthers this fable by showing how brotherhood, education and an awareness of one’s ancestry (especially in relation to the history of slavery) are intrinsic in ensuring that this prosperity can grow and benefit everyone in the community. These themes crossover to the song’s lyrics, with lines such as, ‘…real revolução, sei que um dia virá com arte e educação’ (‘real revolution, I know will come with art and education’) across a song that speaks of the obstacles that many young Brazilians face, with crime and gun violence a constant threat.

The Árvore da Vida webapp (in Portuguese) is available here and more information on SOMA+’s work (also in Portuguese) is available here.​