Brazilian rapper Emicida is winning the hip hop game, and he’s also building a media empire on the side. The winner of multiple Brazilian MTV awards co-produced the video that snagged him Artist and video of the year, and he currently hosts his own TV segment called “A Rua É Noiz,” (“The Streets are Noize” or “The Streets are Ourz”), where he visits the homes of Brazilian music legends like MPB genius Tom Ze, chats with them, and and freestyles with them too, natch.

Emicida also gives an intimate interview. On Brazilian show TV Cultura, he shared the origin story for “Sorrisos e Lagrimas” (“Smiles and Cries”) a song off his latest mixtape, before performing it. The title references a scene in the film “Training Day,” about the trials of ghetto life. But Emicida used the phrase as a jump-off point to discuss the melancholia of African slaves in the New World, a colonial medical condition with a name: banzo. This young MC drops history of the African diaspora, while still managing to keep it street.

Check his interview and performance (in Portuguese):

Photo Credit: Ênio César