Filipe Ret, one of the main rappers in Brazil, sees his numbers go up more and more. Adding all streaming platforms, he has already hit more than three billion plays over a decade of career. There are more than 1.5 billion views on YouTube and 1.8 billion plays on Spotify. LUME, which debuted at number three on Spotify’s Global Top, already has 160 million streams and was elected “Album of the Year” by the 2022 Multishow Award. Just five months after its release, LUME adds ten more certifications to the extensive list of certificates of Ret.
Certifications are currently equivalent to the gold, platinum and diamond records that, at the time when the music industry focused on physical records, rewarded CD sales. Audition of these awards is a reality by Pró-Música Brasil — former Associação Brasileira dos Produtores de Discos (ABPD), which today has adapted to the news of the digital market, maintaining the awards in the form of certifications according to the artist’s plays/views in a digital environment. Check out the interview!
Released at the beginning of last year, your new album “Lume” celebrated the third place in Spotify’s Top Global, in addition to being chosen as the album of the year by the 2022 Multishow Award. What was it like to work on this project and what it has represented in the your career?
This was my hottest musical project, more track, with more weight participation. “Lume” represents the inner flame that exists within us. This flame is the energy that makes everything happen. Lume represents the expansion of the scene as a whole. Many talents from the scene participated to triumph in the moment we are living in rap and trap in Brazil.
Currently, you have spent more than a decade in your career and along with that billions of streams on different platforms. In general, how do you evaluate the participation of music professionally and personally in the last 10 years of your life?
I always liked music and rap completely changed my way of acting, it gave me the attitude I needed to change my life forever. I just try to continue this power that rap has. For other people to believe in themselves more.
Along with the arrival of the album, the singles “Melhor Agora”, “Vermelho Fogo”, “Fight”, “Trem Bala”, “Sonho dos Cria”, “Tudo Nosso”, “Good Vibe”, “A Meu Favor ”, “7 Meiota” and “Konteiner”. Could you tell us a little more about the creative process to arrive at these compositions and how they came together?
My deepest melodic memory comes from carioca funk of the 90s. At the time funk was called rap: “rap da happiness”, “rap do silva”, “rap do solitary”… most of disco has influence from carioca funk source.
Owner of an extensive list of laurels, just with the release of “Lume”, in November you received 10 certifications, among others and platinum, with the platinum ones indicating more than 16 million audio streams or 80 million videos and the another, 8 million audio or 40 million video. In your opinion, what explains all the success that the record has received?
It’s an objective disc. He gets straight to the point. Hot beats, straight rhymes, made for the dance floor. Maybe it’s because of that.
With all these references, you accumulated 35 certifications throughout your career, and ended up becoming one of the rap and trap artists that sold the most copies in the history of Brazil, in addition to being among the 15 most heard artists on Spotify Brazil. Observing everything he has achieved, would you believe that Filipe Ret of ten years ago would have been able to predict everything that happened in the last decade?
The Ret of 10 years ago already had about 11 years of rapping and was starting to earn money from it. My dream was starting to come true at this time. I dreamed big, but I didn’t imagine that the achievements would be so hardworking and everything would happen so perfectly at the same time.
I’m so grateful for the life I have, for my fan base and for everything I’ve built so far. But I could already intuit all this growth in rap, especially in RJ.
As an artist, you got certifications when you still focused on physical media through Pró-Música Brasil, which today is adapted to the digital market. How did you see this great change in phonographic technology and how did it impact the lives of musicians?
I already started posting on the internet. But it was still My Space days. It was a social network just for musicians. With four songs on My Space, I already sold my show for 100, 300 reais. With the arrival of YouTube, my first clip “Neurótico de Guerra” gave me visibility and I started doing more shows. And with the arrival of Spotify, the music industry exploded again. It’s wonderful to see the access people have to music these days and the appreciation of new releases and so on.
Follow Filipe Ret on Instagram
*With Leticia Cleto