Augusto Rodrigues
Tracy De Sa left Goa with her mother and elder brother when she was two. She returned to visit her family when she was 11 and her successful tryst with Hip Hop music has made her a regular visitor to her motherland. “I was taken away from the land that gave birth to me. We didn’t leave by choice. It was a bad experience that has helped me be what I am today,” says Tracy as she walks back to her departure from Goa, her growing up with her mama and elder brother in Spain and the life ahead, after her concert in a famed restaurant in North Goa.
Hip hop is a genre of music still new to Goa. Not to Tracy who thinks the music offered her the platform to vent the truth; uncut by societal ties and a beat through which she could not only tell her tale but be the voice of women.
“Hip hop gave me a chance to express, to say the truth. Hip hop is not a musical genre. It has a culture. This culture doesn’t exist in Goa. Goa has a different musical culture,” thinks Tracy as she explains the attraction to her music.
Tracy is the daughter of Saozinha Pinto from Calangute and in her music, the daughter sings the story of her mother and mothers world over with the sublime text that strength in adversity creates a happy smile.
Having performed in front of over 50,000 fans and having more than 16,000 followers on Instagram Tracy, who has a degree in gender studies, thinks women can make themselves heard loudly through rap and that feminism is not just a gender but a lifestyle that should be understood by all.
“Starting life in Spain was not easy. We suffered racism. I was laughed at in school when my classmates saw me removing chappati from my tiffin. People told us to go back to India. We didn’t have a lot of money then and I started working when I was 14. I felt rejected in that culture and I wanted to reconnect to my roots and that is why despite leaving Goa when I was a baby, I wanted to reconnect to my roots," recollects Tracy with confidence that lightens the environs as she talks.
When Tracy sings, her songs tell a tale of the wrongs of society; tales of injustice; tales of sexism and when she talks she sounds confident; she sounds like a journey of life worth living; of happiness and of togetherness of a family. “I do not know whether I am going to be single or married. The priority is to see if I can find someone who can understand me and live with my style of thinking and living and vice versa. The two beats have to be compatible,” says Tracy, with an innocent smile.
Starting life in Spain was not easy. We suffered racism. I was laughed at in school when my classmates saw me removing chappati from my tiffin. People told us to go back to India. We didn’t have a lot of money then and I started working when I was 14
Tracy De Sa
“I do not rule out the possibility of coming down to settle in Goa later on in my life. I may have not lived in Goa, but Goa has never left me. Maybe one day, I could come down and do so many things through music for the women; for single moms; for children abused by parents,” says Tracy who thinks music is one genre of life through which the voice of the subjugated can be heard.
At 30, Tracy’s voice is heard and followed all over Europe, Asia and parts of South America. Yet the hip-hop sensation from Calangute in Goa thinks there is much more to life that can be offered by music – the fulfilment of good.