It is in the new frontiers of his projected vision that Rory gets excited.
He currently produces a zine with some compadres, namely Safari Al, called O Bruxo. I own the first two issues and they are sacred texts. In his written word and in his doodles and in interviews with his friends in the same room, but on different computers, does one come to understand Rory’s vulnerabilities (as a human not as an artist).
The content of these zines, though funny and insightful and poignant as fuck, are not presented in familiar modes like rap or hip hop, or anything else sitting on the mantle of pop culture. (Zines sit on the mantle too I GUESS but are a little dustier, get a little less attention.)
Rory is excited to cultivate the audience of the book mostly out of curiosity I think. He tells me he has no idea who the fuck would want to read it and it seems like an exciting task to find out.
I ask him finally what he hopes his legacy will be as a rapper or as an artist or if they are different or the same. He recognizes a subtle hesitation in my question, as if all too familiar with it, and it is then that he tells me that 'rapper' is not a derogatory term that needs to be separate from 'artist' and that he is a rapper through-and-through and proud of it.
He tells me stories of police stopping him on the road on tours and not caring that he is a rapper and not understanding that he is a small business owner that carries an economy around with him from city to city, trafficking thousands of dollars of his merchandise at any given moment.
He tells me stories of police stopping him on the road on tours and not caring that he is a rapper and not understanding that he is a small business owner that carries an economy around with him from city to city, trafficking thousands of dollars of his merchandise at any given moment.
He regularly experiences all kinds of shit, he tells me, and it becomes more and more exhausting. “As a black man to age is to become more threatening. I’m trying to protect myself from that shit by making music.”
He answers my question, though, about legacy. I think Rory’s words and music and poems are divine iterations, like, voice-of-a-generation kind of shit. He says, though, “To be even part of the conversation the way I am blows my mind.”
Before we go out for a stroll around his neighborhood, Rory, a rapper who makes a point of bringing up his Magic the Gathering skills (for those who don't know, this is an unpopular and super nerdy trading card game), assures me he is a pessimist. “I think life is more or less bad. But making art and experiencing art is holy, it’s really the best.”
I think there is a lot more we can say here about this little revolution he is leading but honestly it feels dirty and futile to have said anything at all about something that is so obviously and purely human expression.
Macho Zapp would like to thank Rory Ferreira for taking part and the excellent Kristina Pedersen.