Bio
Gustavo Souza Marques, also known by his stage name Gusmão is an ethnomusicologist, drummer, and beatmaker. Marques’ main research interests are postcolonialism, critical race theory, media studies, performance and popular music (mainly hip-hop) in the Americas.
Marques most recently served as a postdoctoral fellow with the ERC CIPHER Hip Hop Interpellation project at University College Cork, National University of Ireland, where he was the Latin American and circum-Caribbean specialist for the global hip hop knowledge mapping project. His book, Beyond Gangsta: Tyler’s Reimagining of Hip Hop, examines the musical work of Tyler, the Creator through the lenses of critical race theory, postcolonialism, media studies, and performance studies. It is under contract with Bloomsbury as part of the series New Approaches to Sound, Music, and Media.
On the arts practice side, Gusmão produced the legendary Mexico City rapper MC Luka’s album Japomex (2024) which features other renowned Mexican rappers such as Sociedad Cafe. Gusmão also produced singles for MC Luka including “Lupita Taco Shop, Vol. 2.” (2024). His next scholarly project lies at the intersections between magical realism, ecomusicology, and transmodernism in hip-hop across the Americas.
Gusmão is also producing his new beat tape Urso Futurismo. The album combines Brazilian music genres such as samba and bossa nova with Caribbean styles such as raggamuffin and experimental American hip-hop. The album will be released between late 2024 and early 2025 on his YouTube channel Manuvah Records.
