São Paulo – At first he’d rap in English and Arabic with his group in Tunisia. Now, he also writes lyrics in Portuguese, which he is new to and has been learning since arriving in Brazil some two years ago. Bilel Kefi used to live in Gafsa, Tunisia. He relocated to São Paulo to marry and work, carrying along his will to sing.
It all began when Kefi lived in Tunisia amid the volatile social climate in the wake of the revolution that overthrew former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who had ruled since 1987. The kid began writing raps about what was happening in the country, and upon hearing him, a musician friend of his said he was a good singer. Unassumingly, he recorded his first raps. “You weren’t allowed to talk about anything at all,” he says about his country during the Ben Ali era.
Towards the end of 2011, in a dictator-free Tunisia, Kefi put together a small group with some friends. They wrote a few songs and uploaded them on YouTube. Each of them would convey their messages in raps. “If you’re silent too long, the moment you explode, everything comes out,” he told ANBA, adding that he writes and sings about things that he’s not always able to talk about. Kefi’s raps address societal issues.
The move to Brazil came after Kefi met his wife Gizeli Pedroso Kefi on the internet. They dated online for seven months and he began to learn Portuguese. In late 2012, when the Tunisian set foot in São Paulo, he knew ten words in the local language. He married the Brazilian-born Gizeli six months later. Away from his friends, he kept on rapping by himself, at home.
Now Kefi also sings in Portuguese, which he combines with English and Arabic over the course of his songs. He’s written about ten raps total, two of which feature lines in Portuguese. He explains that he doesn’t write and sing only about Tunisia. “It applies to the whole world. There are problems that are common around the world, like unemployment, war, and people’s struggles to get to where they want to be,” he asserts.
But rapping is a hobby to him right now. As soon as he arrived in Brazil, Kefi set out finding a way to earn a living. He worked as a bartender at a barbecue restaurant and then he learned that a group of Syrians had opened a restaurant, Damascus, in the Pinheiros district of São Paulo. Kefi works there as a waiter. He also helps out by translating the owners’ Arabic into the patrons’ native Portuguese. He currently lives in the Vila Sônia neighborhood. In Tunisia, Kefi worked in the tourism industry, as a waiter, entertainer and bartender.
The 28-year-old Tunisian also has other plans for Brazil besides waiting tables and going on rapping online. In Tunisia, his father is an olive oil producer, and he plans on eventually selling the product around these parts. The olive oil consumed in Brazil is of very poor quality to his taste. Kefi is pretty optimistic about his father’s olive oil being successful. He believes it’s just a matter of bringing the product in and offering it. Making it as a rapper? Yes, that’s another of his dreams. As is remaining in Brazil. “It’s a peaceful country, there’s peace here,” he says.
Check out some of Bilel Kefi’s raps:
https://www.facebook.com/977554098978340/videos/977557358978014/
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
