This is the second major song of my project, Surfer Grrrls Brazil, during which I travelled up the coast of Brazil, meeting other girl surfers and musicians, surfing my heart out, and and creating original raps to celebrate my adventures and inspire other girls and women to live their own. (check out www.surfergrrrls.com) I made three music videos, one from the south of Brazil, one from Bahia, and this one from Rio de Janeiro.
In Rio, I was taken under the wing of Bocão the ever jovial founder of the local surf school, which has been providing “rehabilitated” surf boards, surf lessons, and a variety of arts and wellness programming to kids in Rocinha for over 15 years. This transformed my experience in the city as I became part of this loving surf school community, full of colorful characters of all ages. For almost a month, I went surfing with the kids in the afternoon, helped with English classes, and made music with them in the evenings. The kids loved my raps, and we had great times freestyling together. I asked them, and their talented music teacher Delão Allen of Projeto Maré Mansa, to collaborate with me on a song I was writing which was a particular favorite of the kids (they loved singing, “put your hands up!). In Rio, it rained almost every day, and the waves were either terrifyingly huge or frustratingly non-existent. But I learned from the kids and Bocão all the different ways you can have fun by the beach. The video reflects the real Rocinha I discovered – where more people body boarded than surfed, where there were still a lot of social barriers to girls surfing, but a few brave girls got out there and showed their mettle, where the time we spent on land, skateboarding, samba dancing, drumming, and kicking it around the neighborhood was just as meaningful as our time on the waves. Enjoy!
lyrics
Well the kids on the street run down like a storm
Like a swarm to the beach and they each got a board
And they strap on a leash when they reach, you’ll be floored
By they way that they ride, sing praise to the lord.
Rocinha is hoppin, jumping, surfing
Samba on Thursday get your body working
Slidin skatin got you booty shakin
Make you first world kids quit your belly achin.
Chorus
So put your hands up, if you love to ride
Put your hands up, if you follow the tide.
If you paddle for the outside giant set,
If you are looking for the best one yet.
If you got sand in your hair and sand on your feet
Sand in your underwear and sand in your sheets
If you dream of waves from the night before
And you wake at first light cuz you'd like some more.
Skinny little lanes and skinny little houses
Skinny little kids but they don’t think about it
When they catchin waves on overhead days
And surfin don’t pay but the beach is still crowded
Bocao’s got a room full of surfboards the worst boards
That you ever seen but soon they’ll be worth more
Put a little sheen, and soon they'll be worth more
Open the ocean to business, what you work for.
Chorus
Put your hands up si você gosta de surfar
Put your hands up, todos os caminos do mar
Put your hands up esse e geral da Rocinha,
A galera unida, surfe e nossa vida
Chorus in English
credits
from Surfer Grrrls Brazil,
released October 11, 2014
Produced by Mira Manickam, featuring the Rocinha Surfe Escola with Projeto Maré Mansa.
English verses by Mira Manickam
Vocals English: Mira Manickam
Portuguese verses: Delão Allen and Projeto Maré Mansa with the students of the Rocinha Surfe Escola
Vocals Portuguese: The students of the Rocinha Surfe Escola, with Delão Allen and Projeto Maré Mansa
Drum sample by the students of the Rocinha Surfe Escola, with Delão Allen and Projeto Maré Mansa
¡Mira Manic! I am Mira ¡Mira Mira! Looking at the world with eyes wide open. Manic, gulping up life with a ravenous
hunger. Honoring Manickam, the dazzling gem inside the head of a cobra, who could hunt at night by it's sparkling light, the name of my ancestors. 6 foot tall, nature-nerd, surfer, ninja, educator, author, ethnically complicated, M.C. Rooted in Oakland by way of Jerzzy....more
