Melodigging logoMelodigging name
laboratorio

Laboratorio

Brazil · 2010s
DancingDarkHappyChillSentimental

Your digging level for this genre

0/8
🏆
Sign in, then listen to this genre to level up

Description

Laboratorio is a Brazilian micro‑scene within contemporary hip hop that coalesced around artist‑run collectives and label ecosystems (most visibly Laboratório Fantasma). It blends boom‑bap and modern trap sensibilities with MPB, samba, and neo‑soul harmony, placing lyricism and social commentary at the core.

The sound is defined by sample‑friendly, groove‑rich beats, live percussion drawn from Afro‑Brazilian traditions, and melodic hooks that often nod to MPB and samba‑soul. Artists use Portuguese lyricism to address race, class, identity, and everyday life, pairing incisive bars with warm, humanized production and frequent collaborations across rap, R&B, and pop.

History

Origins (late 2000s–early 2010s)

The "laboratorio" current emerged in São Paulo’s independent rap networks at the turn of the 2010s, crystallizing around artist‑led operations such as Laboratório Fantasma. As streaming lowered barriers and DIY infrastructure matured, Brazilian MCs and producers began to fuse classic hip hop craft (boom‑bap drums, crate‑digging) with MPB harmony, samba grooves, and live instrumentation. This yielded a warmer, community‑centric aesthetic distinct from both U.S. mainstream rap and older, rawer Brazilian street rap.

Consolidation and crossover (mid–late 2010s)

Through acclaimed albums, tours, and collaborations with singers, percussionists, and jazz players, the scene reached broader audiences. Releases paired sharpened social commentary—on racism, inequality, and Afro‑Brazilian identity—with uplifting, melodically rich arrangements. The collective model (shared producers, house bands, and guest features) reinforced a recognizable sound: soulful chords, syncopated Brazilian percussion, and introspective, poetic Portuguese lyricism.

2020s and cultural footprint

By the 2020s, the laboratorio palette had become a trusted bridge between hip hop, MPB, and pop/R&B in Brazil. Its artists influenced festival lineups, TV and documentary storytelling, and cross‑genre collaborations, while continuing to mentor younger MCs and singer‑songwriters. The result is a sustainable pathway for socially engaged rap that is musically sophisticated and broadly accessible.

How to make a track in this genre

Rhythm and groove
•   Start around 86–98 BPM if aiming for boom‑bap warmth; 70–78 or 130–140 BPM double‑time for modern trap swing. •   Layer classic hip hop drums (kicks/snares with vinyl character) over Brazilian percussion: pandeiro, surdo, agogô, cuíca, tamborim. Use samba and partido‑alto syncopations to create forward motion.
Harmony and melody
•   Draw on MPB/neo‑soul harmony: extended chords (maj7, m9, 11s, 13s), secondary dominants, and modal interchange for color. •   Combine sampled chords (rhodes, guitar, strings) with live overdubs (nylon‑string guitar, cavaquinho, horns) to humanize loops. •   Write sung hooks with memorable, singable contours; alternate sung choruses and rapped verses.
Sound design and sampling
•   Blend dusty samples (records, radio, street ambience) with clean, modern R&B textures. Side‑chain subtly to keep percussion breathing. •   Use call‑and‑response ad‑libs and crowd vocals to evoke cypher/collective energy.
Lyrics and delivery
•   Prioritize Portuguese lyricism with vivid imagery and social insight (race, community, resilience, everyday poetry). Balance critique with hope. •   Vary flows: conversational cadences, double‑time bursts, and laid‑back storytelling. Leave space for musical fills and hook refrains.
Arrangement and collaboration
•   Structure: intro (spoken word or texture) → verse → pre‑chorus → hook → verse → bridge (instrumental break or featured vocal) → hook. •   Invite features from singers, percussionists, or jazz players to underline the hybrid identity. Keep mastering warm, dynamic, and not over‑limited.

Main artists

Top tracks

Locked
Share your favorite track to unlock other users’ top tracks
Influenced by
Hip Hop
Hip hop is a cultural and musical movement that emerged from Black, Latino, and Caribbean communities, centering around rapping (MCing), DJing/turntablism, sampling-based production, and rhythmic speech over beats. It prioritizes groove, wordplay, and storytelling, often reflecting the social realities of urban life. Musically, hip hop is built on drum-centric rhythms (from breakbeats to 808 patterns), looped samples, and bass-forward mixes. Lyrically, it ranges from party anthems and braggadocio to political commentary and intricate poetic forms, with flow, cadence, and rhyme density as core expressive tools. Beyond music, hip hop encompasses a broader culture, historically intertwined with graffiti, b-boying/b-girling (breakdance), fashion, and street entrepreneurship, making it both an art form and a global social language.
Brazilian Hip Hop
Brazilian hip hop (often called "rap nacional") adapts the core aesthetics of U.S. hip hop—MC-led storytelling, sample-based beats, and DJ culture—to Brazilian realities, accents, and rhythms. It balances gritty street reportage with poetic social critique, frequently referencing life in the periferias (urban outskirts), racism, police violence, and everyday resilience. Musically it ranges from classic boom-bap to trap-inflected productions and occasional fusions with samba, MPB, and funk carioca, creating a distinctly local cadence and swing. Over time, it has grown from a grassroots movement centered on breakdance circles and DIY shows to a mainstream force, launching influential albums, cyphers, and festival circuits while nurturing powerful scenes in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, and beyond.
Boom Bap
Boom bap is a foundational East Coast hip hop style defined by hard, punchy drums—“boom” for the kick and “bap” for the snare—laid under sample-based loops from jazz, soul, and funk records. It typically runs around 85–96 BPM, favors gritty, minimally processed textures (often associated with SP‑1200 and early Akai MPC samplers), and foregrounds lyrical skill: multisyllabic rhyme schemes, internal rhymes, storytelling, street reportage, and battle bars. DJ techniques such as scratching and cut‑choruses are common, and arrangements emphasize head‑nod grooves, sparse basslines, and tight bar structures that give MCs room to “sit in the pocket.”
Trap
Trap is a subgenre of hip hop that emerged from the Southern United States, defined by half-time grooves, ominous minor-key melodies, and the heavy use of 808 sub-bass. The style is characterized by rapid, syncopated hi-hat rolls, crisp rimshot/clap on the backbeat, and cinematic textures that convey tension and grit. Lyrically, it centers on street economies, survival, ambition, and introspection, with ad-libs used as percussive punctuation. Production is typically minimal but hard-hitting: layered 808s, sparse piano or bell motifs, dark pads, and occasional orchestral or choir samples. Vocals range from gravelly, staccato deliveries to melodic, Auto-Tuned flows, often using triplet cadences.
Mpb
MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) is a broad Brazilian popular music movement that crystallized in the mid-1960s after bossa nova. It blends samba and other regional rhythms with jazz harmony, singer‑songwriter craft, and elements of contemporary pop and rock. The style is marked by sophisticated melodies, extended harmonies, inventive arrangements, and lyrically rich songs that often use poetry and metaphor. Many classic MPB works balance intimacy (voice and violão/nylon‑string guitar) with lush studio orchestration, drawing from samba‑canção, choro, baião, and frevo while engaging modern influences. Historically, MPB provided a platform for social commentary during Brazil’s military dictatorship, with artists employing allegory to navigate censorship. It remains a living tradition that continually renews itself through new generations (“nova MPB”).
Samba
Samba is an Afro‑Brazilian musical and dance tradition that crystallized in Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century, rooted in the rhythms, rituals, and communal celebrations of the Afro‑diasporic population. It is typically in 2/4 meter with characteristic syncopations, off‑beat accents, and call‑and‑response refrains. The groove is carried by a bateria (percussion ensemble) featuring surdo, pandeiro, tamborim, cuíca, agogô, reco‑reco, and repinique, while chordal instruments such as violão (6‑ and 7‑string guitars) and cavaquinho provide rich, swinging harmonies. Melodies often draw on Portuguese lyric traditions, African rhythmic phrasing, and the expressive poetics of everyday urban life—love, neighborhood pride, carnival, devotion, and saudade. Across the 20th century, samba diversified into many substyles (samba‑canção, samba‑enredo, partido‑alto, samba de roda, samba de gafieira), and later catalyzed entire currents like bossa nova, MPB, and samba‑rock, remaining Brazil’s most globally recognizable sound.
Soul
Soul is a genre of popular music that blends the spiritual fervor and vocal techniques of African‑American gospel with the grooves and song forms of rhythm & blues and the harmonic palette of jazz and blues. It is defined by impassioned, melismatic lead vocals; call‑and‑response with backing singers; handclaps and a strong backbeat; syncopated bass lines; and memorable horn or string riffs. Typical instrumentation includes drum kit, electric bass, electric guitar, piano or Hammond organ, horns (trumpet, saxophone, trombone), and sometimes orchestral strings. Lyrically, soul ranges from love and heartbreak to pride, social commentary, and spiritual yearning. Regionally distinct scenes—such as Detroit’s Motown, Memphis/Stax, Muscle Shoals, Chicago, New Orleans, and Philadelphia—shaped different flavors of soul, while the style’s emotional directness and rhythmic drive made it a cornerstone of later funk, disco, contemporary R&B, and hip hop.
R&b
R&B (Rhythm and Blues) is a vocal- and groove-centered popular music tradition that blends blues tonality, jazz harmony, and gospel-inflected singing with a steady backbeat. It emphasizes expressive lead vocals, call-and-response, lush harmonies, and danceable rhythms. From its 1940s roots in African American communities to its later evolutions, R&B has continually absorbed and reshaped surrounding sounds—from jump blues and swing in the early days to soul, funk, hip hop, and electronic production in the contemporary era. Today, R&B ranges from intimate, slow-burning ballads to club-ready tracks, all tied together by a focus on feel, melody, and vocal performance.
Afrobeat
Afrobeat is a horn-driven, polyrhythmic, and politically charged style that emerged in Nigeria, spearheaded by bandleader Fela Kuti and drummer Tony Allen. It fuses West African highlife and juju with American funk, jazz, and soul to create extended, hypnotic grooves. Typical tracks revolve around interlocking guitar and keyboard ostinatos, elastic bass vamps, dense percussion (shekere, congas, agogô, cowbell), and tightly arranged horn riffs that punctuate the beat. Vocals often use call-and-response and socially conscious lyrics, delivered in English, Nigerian Pidgin, or Yoruba. Harmonically sparse but rhythmically intricate, Afrobeat prioritizes feel: long, evolving arrangements, richly syncopated drum patterns, and sectional dynamics that spotlight solos and collective interplay.
Has influenced
New Mpb
New MPB (Nova Música Popular Brasileira in English usage) is a 2010s–2020s wave that refreshes classic MPB’s songwriting craft with indie, R&B, hip‑hop, and electronic production. It keeps the genre’s hallmark: sophisticated harmony, intimate vocals, and poetry‑forward lyrics in Portuguese. Sonically, you’ll hear nylon‑string guitars and Rhodes pianos beside drum machines, 808s, and warm synths. Rhythms nod to samba, bossa nova, baião, and funk carioca while embracing modern pop swing and hip‑hop backbeats. The result is stylish, urban, and contemporary—romantic and reflective, yet danceable and groove‑savvy.
Challenges
Digger Battle
Let's see who can find the best track in this genre
© 2025 Melodigging
Legal
Melodding was created as a tribute to Every Noise at Once, which inspired us to help curious minds keep digging into music's ever-evolving genres.
Buy me a coffee for Melodigging