Da Weasel
Encyclopedia
Da Weasel was a Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
hip-hop band from Almada
Almada
Almada is a municipality in Portugal, covering an area of 70.2 km² located on the southern margin of the Tagus River. Its municipal population in 2008 was 164,844 inhabitants; the urbanized center had a population of 102,357.The seat is the city of Almada....
, fronted by MCs Pacman and Virgul. They were one of the oldest hip-hop projects in Portugal, having been created in 1993 and terminated in 2010, and notorious for being a full session band, instead of relying on a DJ and samples. Their music uses elements from hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
, pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
and ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
.
Da Weasel's first release was the EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
More Than 30 Motherfuckers, featuring only six songs, all in English. The group featured Pacman as the MC, Pedro Quaresma, Jay Jay Neige and Guilherme Silva on live instruments, Yen Sung as backup vocalist and Armando Teixeira
Armando Teixeira (musician)
Armando Teixeira is a Portuguese musician and record producer. He has worked with a variety of projects within a wide scope of genres.Teixeira is a former member of indie rock bands Ik Mux and Boris Ex-Machina, as well as the hip hop group Da Weasel and industrial metal band Bizarra Locomotiva...
as DJ and producer. The following year, in 1994, the band rode the wave of the Rapública compilation
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
, which presented Portuguese hip-hop to the mainstream audience, by releasing their first full album, Dou-lhe Com A Alma. This time, the band wrote all the songs in Portuguese, incorporating influences derived from Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill is an American hip hop group from South Gate, California. Cypress Hill was the first Latino hip-hop group to have platinum and multi-platinum albums, selling over 18 million albums worldwide...
and Public Enemy.
Before production of their third release (3º Capítulo) in 1997, Yen Sung left the band to start a career as an acid jazz
Acid jazz
Acid jazz is a musical genre that combines elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop, particularly looped beats. It developed in the UK over the 1980s and 1990s and could be seen as tacking the sound of jazz-funk onto electronic dance: jazz-funk musicians such as Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd and Grant Green are...
producer, as well as DJing. She was replaced by Virgul, a rapper/singer which introduced a few ragga and afro elements to the band's sound, as was seen in the singles "Todagente" and "Duia", with Virgul imposing his personality without outshining main MC Pacman. Da Weasel also went on tour for the first time.
In 1999, after taking part in Mario Caldato Jr.
Mario Caldato Jr.
Mario Caldato, Jr. is a Brazilian record producer and studio engineer best known for his work with the Beastie Boys and Tone Loc. Born February 24, 1961 in São Paulo, Brazil, he and his family moved to Los Angeles in 1963...
's Tejo Beat compilation and the Xutos & Pontapés
Xutos & Pontapés
Xutos & Pontapés are a Portuguese rock band, who got together in Almada, Portugal in 1978, 4 years after the Carnation Revolution. They started off in the local punk rock scene and set the trend - singing rock tunes in Portuguese...
tribute album XX Anos - XX Bandas, Da Weasel went back to the studio to record their fourth album, Iniciação A Uma Vida Banal - O Manual. The critically acclaimed album was the band's first silver record, and helped increase their previous release sales enough to grant them a second silver. Da Weasel also served as a warm-up act to Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
' concert at the Atlantic Pavilion in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
.
Armando Teixeira then left the band to pursue a solo career, and experienced pop-rock producer Mário Barreiros helmed the recording of Podes Fugir Mas Não Te Podes Esconder in 2001. Da Weasel's work now blended influences from hip-hop, heavy metal, reggae and African music to produce a unique melange that was still undeniably Portuguese. Paris-based Cuban hip-hop trio Orishas
Orishas (band)
Orishas was a Cuban hip hop group The group was first called "Amenaza", "threat" or "menace" in Spanish, and appealed to the Cuban youth who were hungry for African-American culture consisting of hip hop and rap. Orishas delved into a realm of music that created a black identity to which some...
was featured on the album. Podes Fugir... soon rose up to gold and later platinum record sales.
In 2004, Mário Barreiros was replaced by João Martins as producer, and DJ Glue joined the band as live DJ, filling a spot vacant for three years. They helped Da Weasel reinvent themselves on their latest album, Re-Definições, a deeply thought-out piece of work which refined the sound heard in the previous album. Music fans responded enthusiastically, with over 80,000 copies sold, making it Da Weasel's best selling album.
In 2005 the band reached its peak with a sold-out concert in the Olympia
Paris Olympia
The Olympia is a music hall in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Located at No. 28, Boulevard des Capucines, its closest métro/RER stations are Madeleine, Opéra, Havre – Caumartin and Auber....
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, its first ever big international performance.
In 2006 Da Weasel publishes a Track named "Play Up" inspired by the statement of Bob Marley
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...
: "Football is Music" which expresses their passion for football. The track is found exclusively on the CD PlayUp, among 15 other football tracks written by various artists.
On April 2, 2007, Da Weasel released their latest album intitled Amor, Escárnio e Maldizer. It reached platinum status on the same day, with over 20,000 copies sold.
The band sang a song called Nigga
Nigga
Nigga is a term used in African American Vernacular English that began as an eye dialect form of the word nigger .- Use in language :In practice, its use and meaning are...
on Gato Fedorento
Gato Fedorento
Gato Fedorento is a Portuguese group of comic actors, who previously worked on SIC and RTP; they are currently signed to the Portugal Telecom group, with whom they have a contract of unspecified duration. The group is composed of the four actors José Diogo Quintela, Miguel Góis, Ricardo Araújo...
's last episode of the season Diz Que É Uma Espécie de Magazine. They were before presented with a Gato Fedorento's audio sketch, "Nigga, Tu És Nigga, Nigga?" ("Nigga, Are You Nigga, Nigga?"), and they quoted part of the sketch.
On December 9, 2010, Da Weasal announced the end of the band. No official explanation was given for the breakup.
Discography
- 1993: More Than 30 Motherf*****s
- 1994: Dou-lhe Com A Alma [Hit It With My Soul]
- 1997: 3º Capítulo [Third Chapter]
- 1999: Iniciação A Uma Vida Banal - O Manual [Initiation to an Ordinary Life - The Manual]
- 2001: Podes Fugir Mas Não Te Podes Esconder [You Can Run But You can't Hide]
- 2004: Re-Definições [Re-definitions]
- 2005: Ao Vivo Coliseus (Live Album) [Live At the Coliseums]
- 2007: Amor, Escárnio e Maldizer [Love, Contempt and Venomous Gossip]
Studio albums
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa |AFP certification |
|---|---|---|---|
| POR Portugal Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the... |
|||
| 2004 | Re-definições
|
2 |
|
| 2005 | Ao Vivo - Coliseus
|
13 |
|
| 2007 | Amor, Escárnio E Maldizer
|
1 |
|
Awards
After a nomination for Best Breakthrough Act in the "Blitz Music Awards" (organized by the BlitzBlitz (newspaper)
Blitz is a Portuguese music newspaper. It was founded in November 1984.In July 2002, the newspaper was acquired by Impresa, which gave the newspaper access to more advanced technology, like color treatment, starting a new phase in the life of the newspaper....
music newspaper) with their first album in 1993, Da Weasel won the newspapers' "Band of the Year" award with Dou-lhe Com A Alma in 1994. From their third album, 3º Capítulo, the single "Todagente" yielded a "Best Song" award in 1997.
At the 2004 MTV Europe Music Awards
MTV Europe Music Awards 2004
The 2004 MTV Europe Music Awards took to Rome with Xzibit as the host. Held at Tor di Valle, it was the most expensive MTV Europe Music Awards to date and the first time the Colosseum had been used for this type of event...
Da Weasel won the award for "Best Portuguese Act".
At the 2007 MTV Europe Music Awards
MTV Europe Music Awards 2007
2007 was the 14th MTV European Music Awards, taking place at the Olympiahalle in Munich with hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg as host. The show attracted 78 million votes, the biggest in MTV Europe Music Awards history....
Da Weasel won the award for "Best Portuguese Act".