In the quest for striking adjectives to describe unorthodox artists, terms like “unique” and “one-of-a-kind” get bandied round a lot in the music press, and their use is not always justified. In the case of Tigarah e Laura, however, they might just be. That is, of course, unless there any other Japanese MCs out there whose music is rooted in “funk carioca” – otherwise known as “baile funk” – a Brazilian style of dance music that originated in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.
Tigarah e Laura, then known simply as TIGARAH, first emerged in 2006, releasing music via Myspace and her own website. Her steadily rising popularity led to a record deal with Universal, and she made her major debut in 2009 with The Funkeira goes BANG!. She became Tigarah e Laura in February 2014. In case you were wondering, Laura isn’t some unseen collaborator or producer, but rather a manifestation of the “angelic” side of the MC’s personality, while Tigarah represents her “devilish” side. The “e” is the Portuguese word for “and”.
Far from being some superficial gimmick, Tigarah’s change of name has been accompanied by a major shakeup in her sound. Whereas most tracks on her 2009 debut followed the “funk carioca” formula of a patchwork of disparate samples overlaid with rap, just a handful of songs on This World Is My Playground fit this mould. The dominant style on this outing is electropop, with Tigarah e Laura making liberal use of synth-based dance melodies and Auto-Tuned vocals.
Though some long-time fans may feel spurned by these changes, there are still traces of “classic” Tigarah here. For instance, closing number The Gurl Is On The Table is a collaboration with Brazilian duo Tropkillaz, and the delirious energy of Funky Wonderland is eclipsed only by its madcap music video. This features such sights as the MC cruising in a hot pink DeLorean, and a half-naked parrot-headed woman banging some drums. Elsewhere, there’s plenty of confrontational attitude on the sassy (and profane) To All You Haters.
Whenever an artist overhauls their sound like Tigarah's done here, it’s perhaps inevitable for people to speculate that commercial considerations may have factored in the decision. However, given how brazenly uncommercial The Funkeira goes BANG! was, it could well be that Tigarah e Laura had nowhere else to go except closer to the mainstream.
This World Is My Playground was released on August 5th, and it is available worldwide via iTunes and Amazon.
