Nelson Triunfo remembers prejudice and celebrates breaking at the Olympics

Entering the Olympic program symbolizes a victory against prejudice for breaking, as it was for the also marginalized skateboarding and surfing.

​And no one better to tell this trajectory of struggle and visibility of a sport than its precursor in Brazil, Nelson Triunfo, 67. “It’s a story that goes far beyond hip-hop”, he tells sheet.

He was born in Triunfo (PE), on the border with Paraíba, where the farm where, as a child, he worked as a farmer with his father was located.

Adolescence spent in Paulo Afonso (BA) and went to the capital, Salvador. As a surveyor, he worked in Brasília. Several times he traveled to Rio de Janeiro. From the 1970s onwards, mainly in São Paulo, he made his living as an artist.

“I suffered prejudice in every way,” he recalls.

He says, for example, that in São Paulo they looked askance because he liked coriander. Her dear flour was hidden on restaurant counters so that customers wouldn’t see her. He was called a monkey and his hair was attacked.

In the family, they called him a tramp, a clown—”I consider myself a street clown.” He even knew the police officers at the police station so many times that the military dictatorship arrested him for “vagrancy”.

There are two passages that even today it pains him to remember.

Once, at the Artists Club, he heard he was a great dancer, but it was better not to talk. When in 1984 he was called to record at Warner, he heard he had a language problem.

“The ‘language problem’ was a very strong accent. They didn’t record the first national rap in the style of the outside world for that reason,” he says. “They don’t know how much they set my life back.”

Proud, he claims to be a militant of the black movement, of street artists, of Brazilian culture. During the interview, he cites as many stars as the ones on his coat.

“My whole life has been in black culture, since maracatu. Forró is black. Luiz Gonzaga was not blonde, Jackson do Pandeiro was not blonde. Pixinguinha. And the samba guys? If you look at our songs, they are Capoeira too,” he says.

He met James Brown, of whom he is a fan, when he came to Brazil. He was friends with choreographer Ismael Ivo (who died by Covid). He also admires Michael Jackson and Marvin Gaye. Black Sabbath, Tim Maia, Chico Science, Roberto Carlos and Pavarotti are in his repertoire.

His father was an accordion player, an instrument he also plays. She disobeyed her mother to stay up late dancing frevo at Carnival. He loved São João. He danced forró and samba. Through movies and radio, he learned about songs from the United States.

At each rhythm he quotes, he imitates the beats with his mouth and explains his interlocutions.

“Brother, we lose a lot of things in this country. For example, Bob Marley is the king of reggae, but for me, Luiz Gonzaga was the one who created reggae”, and he explains how the rhythmic divisions intertwine. “The coconut embolada [semelhante ao repente], the first flow I heard in my life, is the first rap in the world.”

The artistic name came to crown its identity. Before, in Brasília, Nelson was called Baiano. In São Paulo, it was Black Salvador. Spider and Hair have also been used. In Rio de Janeiro, he was nicknamed by Tony Tornado the Man-Tree.

He then decided on Nelson Triunfo, for the city where he was born — to the despair of Paulo Afonso’s friends, where he created his first dance group, the Invertebrados. Later, already on the Rio-São Paulo circuit, he founded Black Soul Brothers and Funk & Cia.

At the same time that he starred in the video for “Funk-se Quem Puder” (1983), by Gilberto Gil, he began taking dances, previously restricted to closed dances, to the streets of São Paulo.

In the beginning, dismantled cardboard boxes served as a surface for the dance. Until he discovered the pedestrian street on 24 de Maio Street, in the center of São Paulo, with its large concrete blocks.

In 1984, he and his group opened the Globo soap opera “Partido Alto”. The dance rolê began to migrate to the São Bento station. “Burst.” Names such as Racionais MC’s and Thaíde emerged.

Triumph received the sheet at Casa do Hip Hop, in Diadema, founded by him in 1999 (and now managed by his son). The place marks his foray into social projects, inspired by Paulo Freire. Your adress? Also on a street 24 de Maio.

But even Nelson Triunfo himself finds it difficult to be precise when he got to know breaking. It was sometime around the turn of the 1970s to 1980s.

“But I was already, unintentionally, inside the thing, we were already dancing it without knowing it, we created the name for the steps. It’s no joke, no, it’s a total vanguard!”

It had the head spin, back spin, turtle, windmill. The “grand écart” of classical dance, which is the same as the jazz split, was street spaghetti. I imitated soul funk dancers from the United States and enjoyed the steps of capoeira and frevo.

Until the internet made hip-hop and hip-hop gain worldwide prominence and standardized the nomenclatures in English. Today, he says that Brazil influences the steps of the world, just as it was with football.

What does he think of breaking breaking into the Olympic program? “Delayed!” On the one hand, thanks for the inclusion. On the other hand, it says it is just a remedy for a historically marginalized practice.

“It’s very good, even to give a boost to kids who kill themselves all day, train like crazy. The guy can say, now, that it’s an Olympic sport.”

A sheet he also walked with Triunfo through the center of São Paulo. It’s hard to go more than ten steps without him greeting an acquaintance or being approached by someone. It features the owners of hair salons, record stores and clothing.

But, on 24 de Maio, he points out that part of the sidewalk has turned into an asphalt street and realizes that a street vendor is mounted on Hip-Hop Ground Zero, a marble plaque on the floor that pays homage to him and his colleagues for their pioneering spirit.

Finally, he asks that national and world breaking not forget those who, like him, were responsible for raising it to the level it is today. And that the practice is professionalized, taking care of the athletes’ mental health from an early age, so that they do not suffer the consequences that high-performance sport can bring.

“The big move, checkmate, is to take advantage of the Olympics to promote big events in the states, holding big breaking championships in Brazil.”