00:07One beat, two worlds.
00:09Greek rapper Negros Tu Moria is turning his reality into a sound all his own.
00:16This is Trabetico.
00:21My music blends two identities, Greek and Ghanaian.
00:27The way I sing is sometimes reminiscent of certain scales from African or Ghanaian songs.
00:32I sing in Greek, but at the same time I am black, African, Afro-Greek.
00:39He tells stories of discrimination and violence.
00:50Life was hard.
00:52Poverty, violence.
00:54I have lived it all.
00:55I have lived it all.
00:57I understand.
01:00Born in Athens in 1991 to Ghanaian parents, Kevin Sans Ansong grew up in the working-class migrant district of
01:09Kipseli.
01:10His music carves out a space in a society that has often turned its back on him.
01:15His sound blends hip-hop with Trabetico, the music of Greek refugees who fled Anatolia in the 1920s.
01:22The songs also spoke of poverty and exclusion.
01:28I like Trabetico because it's the hip-hop of the past.
01:33It too carries social messages of pain and longing.
01:38Trabetico is a combination of the traditional Greek sound, rabetico, and today's music.
01:45The word traba means to exchange, an exchange between these two sounds.
01:51Could these songs reshape Greece's music scene?
01:55His producer, Odidouz, thinks it's quite possible.
02:02We're building this sound together.
02:04It's our sound.
02:07I don't know if anyone else will try making something similar, but if they do, that would be brilliant.
02:18A 2017 performance in Kassel, Germany, sparked the international breakthrough.
02:25May 2025 saw the release of his eighth album, Mavri Elada, Black Greece.
02:39His popularity in Greece is long-standing.
02:42He released his first album in 2012 and now boasts 94,000 Instagram followers and over 87 million Spotify streams.
02:51But not everyone is a fan.
02:53Far-right groups attack him for being too Greek, his very name seen as a provocation.
02:58The name refers to Yeros Toumorya, a legendary 19th century freedom fighter.
03:04On stage and in videos, Negros Toumorya often wears the uniform of Greece's presidential guard.
03:12Despite backlash, he refuses to back down.
03:22When I was a kid wearing this uniform, everyone said,
03:25Oh, how cute, the little African kid in uniform.
03:32But when you're an adult wearing it, they say,
03:35Our heroes died for us.
03:36And now this black guy is wearing the uniform.
03:42We were given these uniforms as children.
03:48I like them and respect them as a symbol of identity.
03:54By asserting his Greek identity, the rapper empowers second and third generation immigrants across Greece.
04:02When I first heard him, I was so happy.
04:06I could see myself.
04:07He's even from my neighborhood.
04:11He uses his art to express the country's problems.
04:16Connecting that with our musical heritage is really interesting.
04:21Especially since he isn't the typical Greek.
04:27He says what needs to be said.
04:30What we've had to go through are experiences.
04:32And what we've learned from them.
04:34He's putting it all out there.
04:38There's this common belief among Greeks that we aren't racist.
04:42I can't really judge if that's true myself.
04:45But I think it's important to have someone reporting on their own experiences firsthand.
04:52Negros Tumoria is embracing Greek culture on his own terms.
04:56His trebetico is the sound of a young generation finally finding its voice.
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