Karol Conka [no longer playing the Fest]

Internet doesn't say why, but she is not listed on the schedule anymore.

One Liner:  Top flight beats for a Brazilian rapper spitting all Portuguese

Wikipedia Genre: Hip hop, pop, MPB (which is Popular Brazilian Music)
Home: Curitiba, Brazil

Poster Position: 19

Weekend Two Only

Thoughts: It is a funny thing.  At first, I thought this was another pointless listen, with all of these tunes in some foreign language (Portuguese, as it turns out).  But rap is actually a good style to cross over despite languages.  I mean, it's not like Migos actually makes sense, even though the words are in English.  So long as the beat and delivery are good, then sometimes it can be just as fun regardless of what the rapper is saying, right?

Example - do you get much of a special message from this section of Migo's "Slippery" (which I just grabbed at random): 

Iced out watch (ice), ridin' round ten o' clock (ten)
Ridin' round, geeked up, damn, think it's three o' clock (three)
Four o' clock (four), five o' clock, six o' clock (five)
I'm gon pop, if I don't I'm back to the pot (whip)

I mean, what is the everloving hell does any of that shit even mean?  The guy can tell time?  And he can't rhyme unless he uses the exact same word over and over?  Freaking morons.  But, so why would it matter if the lyrics in Conka's banger are in Portuguese?  I vote that it doesn't, because this next track kind of bangs. "E o Poder" with 7.9 million streams.

Hell yeah.  When that bass kicks in, and then the dancehall takes over, and then back to the ominous snaps?  I have no clue what she is talking about, but it doesn't mean I don't want to brush dirt off my shoulders and bob my head.  Transcends language.  "Olhe-se" has a similar feel, dope beat and cool delivery, no clue what she means, but I can jam it.

She's got three albums (well, four if you include one that is all instrumentals), starting with 2001's Karol Conka (which sounds more like a Lauryn Hill-type, soul-heavy rap), then 2013's Batuk Freak and 2018's Ambulante.  The opening track from that first album is laaaaiiiiid back and I dig it, "Melhor Que Se Faz."  But nothing from that album makes her current top ten.  Her more recent two albums make me think of MIA, that kind of international mash of sounds to go with a cool flow.  

Her top song is "Tombei," with 16.8 million streams, which is not actually on any of her albums, and features something called Tropkillaz.

 Goes for a more EDM - dance vibe.  Not nearly as good as the other tracks in here.

More importantly, what is the story here?  How is a Brazilian, female rapper on the 18th line of the ACL poster?  She won a best new artist award in Brazil in 2013, and she had a song on FIFA 14.  Let's see that one, I've seen it mentioned a few times now - "Boa Noite."

Man, that goes hard like the "6 foot 7 foot" beat from Lil Wayne.  And the raps probably make about as much sense to an English speaker.  Good.

I probably won't be there second weekend to see her, but sure, I'd go bounce along to the beats regardless of the lyrics.  Don't hurt 'em, Karol.