In Brazil, the country with the biggest black population outside Africa, racism is institutionalized. Black Brazilians earn 42% less than white Brazilians, have more than twice the chance of being killed, make up 64% of the prison population and are less than 5% of business executives. And in the year where recently elected president, Jair Bolsonaro, legitimizes racial behavior, a young breakthrough artist – Baco Exu do Blues – dropped his second album “Bluesman” through a manifest against oppression.

The idea consisted in making a visual interpretation of the powerful message the album brought. It turned out into a 8 minute short film and a photo still for each song clicked by a black female photographer.

More than a music video, “Bluesman” became an 8 minute short-film that revealed the unconscious racism within the spectators by showing a black man running, not from the police, but simple because he was late for class, rupturing the popular racist Brazilian saying “A white man running is an athlete, a black man running is a thief.”

Every detail was crafted with significance: scenes were shot at a local symbol of black resistance, casting was predominantly made of African immigrants, visuals re-interpret historical white dominance symbols and provocative details, like a silver monolith represented change and human evolution.

The album launch strategy put black man and woman as protagonists of a non-violent plot, breaking the stereotypes of blackness imposed by society and sparking an important debate on institutional racism, rocketing Baco from the underground of rap to the mainstream of music. It resignified black culture and empowered a nation of discriminated with pride, assuming themselves as “Bluesman” owners of their own identity, life and art.

Numbers: more than 20 million organic album views on youtube with 99% positive sentiment, #8 on Youtube's trending list, +495% of monthly listeners on Spotify.