Brazil is the largest country in South America, touching Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. Hip Hop in Brazil, known as Hippy Hoppy, is firmly established, widely popular, and quite diverse, with numerous styles including gospel, gangster, underground, manguebeat, and rock fusion. São Paulo is the major Hip Hop hub of Brazil. Brazilian emcees generally rap in Portuguese. It was be impossible to give a comprehensive overview of Brazilian Hip Hop because there are so many artists.

DJing, graffiti-writing, break-dancing, and emceeing emerged in Brazil during the early 1980s. By the latter half of 1980s, Hip Hop records were dropping in Brazil. Thaíde & DJ Hum (Wikipedia in Portuguese, short bio) met in São Paulo, where they were one of the earliest recording Hip hop artists in Brazil. Racionais MCs (Myspace page, Wikipedia in English) are also pioneers of Brazilian Hip Hop. They began their careers in Zimbabwe in the late 1980s, before coming back to São Paulo in the mid 1990s. Themes that Racionais MCs rhyme about include the social injustice in Brazilian society, denouncing racism, and exposing the illegal drug trade.

In Rio de Janeiro, Gabriel o Pensador (Myspace page, Wikipedia) came onto the scene in the early 1990s and raps about everyday life and social injustice. Marcelo D2 (Myspace page, Wikipedia) came up with the group Planet Hemp and is now an international star.

other sites:

Review of the album "The Rough Guide to Brazilian Hip-Hop."

Article from 2003: Hip-hop in Brazil.

Article on Hip Hop in Brazil and Chile from 2000: South American Hip Hop.

An article from AllBrazilianMusic.com: Brazilian Rap.

Brazilian Hip Hop on Wikipedia.

An academic article: Brazilian Hip-Hop Material and Ideology.

other artists:

Sabotage, a talented emcee from São Paulo, was shot to death in 2003 (article on his death). RIP. videos: Um Bom Lugar and Respeito é Pra Quem Tem.

Black Alien & Speed (Wikipedia) were together from 1993-2001 and now both have solo careers.

Faces do Subúrbio (bio), from Recife, pioneers of Embolada-Rap.

Rappin Hood performs Samba Rap: video for Sou Negrao.

Slim Rimografia (Myspace page): videos for Poeticamente A Vida and Compre Meu Disco.

Filosofia de Rua (Myspace page), from São Paulo.