It’s been more than two decades since the last time it was possible to break the news of a Planet Hemp launch.
The band led by Marcelo D2 and BNegão – which marked the national rock of the 1990s and had not released an album since 2000 – launches, this Friday (21), an album with 15 unreleased tracks.
“Gardeners” is available on all streaming platforms. Listen below:
In a conversation with CNN for about half an hour via Zoom, BNegão, D2 and drummer Pedro Garcia reflected on the group’s creative comeback.
Creative return because the return to the stage had already happened. Separated in 2003 by internal conflicts, since 2012, when they got together for a presentation celebrating the anniversary of the carioca show house Circo Voador, Planet Hemp never stopped playing.
“It was always in that ‘greatests hits’ scheme, with songs from records that have already become historic for many people. We thought this would be the place on the Planet. Everything was already built there. We were going to make our stops in solo careers”, said BNegão.
With the engagement for sociopolitical causes ingrained in the band’s DNA, they felt compelled to produce due to the turbulent moment of national politics.
A lot of people told us that they created interest to be socially aware because of Planet Hemp’s first lyrics. So the crowd demanded a lot: Where are you in the midst of all this confusion that Brazil is going through? The political moment took our turn
BNegão, lead singer of Planet Hemp

With individual artistic careers consolidated and the maturity of age, the internal discussions on the band dynamics lost weight.
“This comeback came at a fucking ripe time for everyone. That only age and the road brought. We put on the axis that this record would be a band, and we would have to leave our own desires a little aside”, said D2.
“Unless it was a very blatant thing, but we listened and trusted each other a lot in this process,” he added.
In fact, the name of the album, “Jardineiros”, in addition to the obvious reference to the group’s historical activism in favor of legalizing marijuana, is also a reference to the group’s current way of thinking.
“It’s the way we want to live our lives. The common good is not the good itself”, pointed out BNegão, who “planted” the idea of the name.
“I saw how we were taking care of each other. How much the record talks about sowing, planting, caring”, added Marcelo D2.

“Death Walked Alongside”
This album began to be produced in mid-2019, when the band took a 10-day retreat in the studio of a farm in the city of Santo Antônio, in the interior of Bahia.
Earlier that year, the members of Planet Hemp experienced the loss of a colleague and great influence on the band: Marcelo Yuka, founder of the band O Rappa, who died at age 53 from complications from a stroke.
“Jardineiros” opens with a posthumous tribute to the late musician, poet and activist, in a track entitled “Marcelo Yuka”, which features an excerpt from an interview he gave in 2016.
Their emotion is clear when remembering Yuka. “Having a track named after him really symbolizes what the record is about. The recognition of those who fight for important things and are for ‘we’, not for ‘I’. Yuka was a Planet Hemp,” said D2.
Another “Planet Hemp” that the album evokes is Skunk, the group’s lead singer and founder, who died in 1994 from complications from AIDS, before the band’s first album was released.

“Skunk is a very present person in my memory. He is a north who helped me a lot to recognize myself. His image, of Yuka, really represents the idea of what we believe. It is missed and it is our duty to shout Yuka, Skunk, Chico Science, Speedfreaks”, added D2.
In addition to the memory of former music partners, the production of the album was interrupted by the arrival of the pandemic, when the feeling of mourning became invariably present for Brazilians.
“Death walked beside [no processo de produção do disco]”, recalled D2, who, like BNegão, lost his mother last year.
Disc was produced in a collective process
In “Jardineiros”, Planet Hemp walks through different sound aspects, which also reflects the production process through which the album came about.
While drummer Pedro Garcia was the band’s producer in contact with the entire creation of the record, other people were also invited to build the project.
The first of them was Vinicius Leonard Moreira, from Santa Catarina, producer Nave Beatz, who had already worked with D2 in his solo career, and won a Latin Grammy by signing the album “AmarElo”, by Emicida.

“He has good taste and is eclectic enough to produce a Planet Hemp record, dialoguing together”, said Marcelo D2.
Then came the paulistano DJ Zegon (Zé Gonzáles), who took over the Planet Hemp pickup trucks in the second half of the 1990s, and since 2012 is recognized for the Tropkillaz project.
D2 said that these collaborations culminated in the return of Mário Caldato Jr. – Brazilian producer residing in the USA, who had already signed the production of two other Planet Hemp albums, and has also worked with international names such as Beastie Boys and Jack Johnson.
Sample by MC Carol and return of Black Alien
The result of this multi-handed production is noticeable when listening to the album, which uses more modern beats and samples, without abandoning the “rap-rock’n’roll-psychedelia-hardcore-and-ragga” sung 20 years ago.
While “Taca Fogo”, “Distopia” and “Fim do Fim”, for example, bring back heavy guitars, “Onda Forte”, “Ainda” and “Remedinho” open up more space for beats and samples to stand out – especially for the first, in a sampled partnership with “Bateu Uma Onda Forte”, by MC Carol.
Tracklist:
- 1 – Marcelo Yuka
- 2 – Dystopia (Feat. Criolo)
- 3 – Fire Fighter
- 4 – Smoke Pull
- 5 – Rhythm and Rage (Feat. Black Alien)
- 6 – Gardener
- 7 – Amnesia
- 8 – Meu Barrio (Feat. Trueno)
- 9 – End of the End
- 10 – They Feel Too
- 11 – Still (Feat. Tropkillaz)
- 12 – Medicine
- 13 – Open Veins
- 14 – Planet Marijuana
- 15 – Strong Wave
Another remarkable song is “O Ritmo e a Anger”, a kind of mini-biography in praise of the history of Planet Hemp, which marks the return of the rapper Black Alien to the group.
“We recorded two songs with him. One of them goes in this wave now. We imposed this partnership. [risos] We said: ‘We’ll come back and you have to be there, otherwise there won’t even be a record’. He is part of this range that we talk about, of people who are in the embryo of the band”, scored D2.
“His presence was very important for the fans, but also for us. To know that we are alive. We talked about it on his 50th birthday. We survived the Lapa of the 90s, the youth in a city like Rio”, he added.
With the final fine-tuning with just a few weeks to go before release, one song ended up being taken down in the last few days. “Never Fear”, which seemed to have been taken from “A Procura da Batida Perfeita”, by Marcelo D2, was left out.

BNegão revealed that the song, which featured a tribute in the verses to the Originals do Samba, did not have the authorization to use the samples released in time for the release. “Unfortunately it hasn’t arrived yet, but it needs to leave. An hour comes,” he said.
For now, Planet Hemp will let the album reverberate among the fans and continue fulfilling its touring schedule. The expectation is only to incorporate the new songs to the repertoire next year.
“The release of the album with a show is only available in March. Let’s change the whole show, play the new songs. The idea is to make a completely new stop starting in March, but we still have some shows until then”, concluded BNegão.
Source: CNN Brasil

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