00:07One beat, two worlds. Greek 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. Poverty, violence. I've lived it all.
00:55I've lived it all.
01:00Born in Athens in 1991 to Ghanaian parents, Kevin Sans Anson grew up in the working-class migrant district of
01:09Kipseli.
01:11People of African descent are still something of a rarity in Greece today.
01:17But in Kipseli, I felt this diversity. Here I could pass another black person on the street.
01:26His music carves out a space in a society that has often turned its back on him.
01:32His sound blends hip-hop with Trabetico, the music of Greek refugees who fled Anatolia in the 1920s.
01:38The songs also spoke of poverty and exclusion.
01:45I like Trabetico because it's the hip-hop of the past.
01:50It too carries social messages of pain and longing.
01:55Trabetico is a combination of the traditional Greek sound, rabetico, and today's music.
02:01The word traba means to exchange, an exchange between these two sounds.
02:08Could these songs reshape Greece's music scene?
02:11His producer, Odidouz, thinks it's quite possible.
02:19We're building this sound together. It's our sound.
02:24I don't know if anyone else will try making something similar,
02:28but if they do, that would be brilliant.
02:34A 2017 performance in Kassel, Germany, sparked the international breakthrough.
02:41May 2025 saw the release of his eighth album,
02:45Mavri Elada, Black Greece.
02:55His popularity in Greece is long-standing.
02:58He released his first album in 2012
03:01and now boasts 94,000 Instagram followers
03:04and over 87 million Spotify streams.
03:07But not everyone is a fan.
03:09Far-right groups attack him for being too Greek,
03:12his very name seen as a provocation.
03:15The name refers to Gero Stoumoria,
03:17a legendary 19th century freedom fighter.
03:21On stage and in videos,
03:23Negros Stoumoria often wears the uniform
03:25of Greece's presidential guard.
03:28Despite backlash,
03:30he refuses to back down.
03:39When I was a kid wearing this uniform,
03:41everyone said,
03:42oh, how cute,
03:43the little African kid in uniform.
03:48But when you're an adult wearing it,
03:50they say,
03:51our heroes died for us
03:52and now this black guy
03:54is wearing the uniform.
03:59We were given these uniforms as children.
04:05I like them
04:06and respect them
04:08as a symbol of identity.
04:13If I were white,
04:16wearing it would be considered cool.
04:18It's the fact that I'm black
04:20that people can't accept.
04:25By asserting his Greek identity,
04:27the rapper empowers
04:28second and third generation immigrants
04:30across Greece.
04:33When I first heard him,
04:35I was so happy.
04:37I could see myself.
04:38He's even from my neighborhood.
04:42He uses his art
04:44to express the country's problems.
04:47Connecting that
04:48with our musical heritage
04:49is really interesting,
04:52especially since
04:53he isn't the typical Greek.
04:58He says what needs to be said.
05:00What we've had to go through
05:02are experiences
05:03and what we've learned from them.
05:04He's putting it all out there.
05:09There's this common belief
05:10among Greeks
05:11that we aren't racist.
05:13I can't really judge
05:14if that's true myself,
05:15but I think it's important
05:17to have someone reporting
05:18on their own experience
05:19firsthand.
05:22Negros Tumoria
05:24is embracing Greek culture
05:25on his own terms.
05:27His trebetico
05:28is the sound
05:29of a young generation
05:30finally finding its voice.
05:33in the world,
05:34a young generation
05:34It's important to know
05:35how to understand
05:35the world's
05:35and that's true.
05:36It's hard to know
05:36and what you're seeing.
05:36That means it's the sound
05:36I think it is
05:37the sound of a young generation
05:37that's called
05:37the truth.
05:37I think it's the sound
05:37of a young generation
05:37and this is the sound
05:37in as old?
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