One is often captivated by an unfamiliar lingo. Somehow hip-hop can be more gripping and enigmatic when the listener is unacquainted with the MC’s slang orientation. There’s a certain merriment involved in hearing a new slang term and attempting to decipher it. Chances are, you won’t know exactly what it means upon first hearing it, but that much usually takes care of itself, even if it takes years on end.

I’m sure plenty of locals in Dama Bete’s hometown of Lisboa, Portugal go through a similar decoding process when hearing verses of “O Que Esperas.” However, my own decoding process runs a bit deeper: I don’t know Portuguese. All I can really do is wonder exactly how much street slang, if any, Dama injects into this track. Judging from her cadence, a soft-but-punctual scheme casting her into an Iberian equivalency to Apani B. or Jean Grae, she probably keeps things rather tame as far as the slang goes. No complaints here; even if Dama is on some Paul Barman, the joint knocks hard. She goes out of her way to throw in an “oh yeah” here and there to boot, making me feel slightly more at home. And as far as I’m concerned, her “o que” could pass as “okay” any day, and that keeps my head from spinning to fast.

It sounds less akin to happenings in urban Brazil and more akin to the UK-coined bashment sound. The slow digital strut of producer Maca Sima recalls recent Big Dada catalog entries. Despite that the track is in Portuguese, funk carioca isn’t really touched upon. Video footage implies that Dama and Maca are more geared toward the old boom bap and less interested in the here-today-gone-tomorrow trends in international urban music. However, despite its Rio unreadiness, “O Que Esperas” is as trendy as they come, and I’m all for pardoning that much.

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