Chullage, artistic name of Nuno Santos, is a Portuguese rapper son of Cape Verdean parents. Activist and administrator of a social support association in Arrentela. He currently has three albums edited.
He was born in Lisbon in 1977 and raised at Asilo 28 de Maio, in Monte de Caparica. It was here that he got his taste for rap, when he heard Zulu Nation’s Rebel Mc CD for the first time. Initially, he limited himself to consuming proposals that arrived from the other side of the Atlantic, from France and later from the neighborhoods where he lived with other MCs, DJs, B-Boys and Writers such as Clay, Chora and Freedy.
The first steps were taken among friends, in Monte de Caparica, in the early 90s, when he started listening to Public Enemy and writing his first rhymes, but it was after listening to the Leaders of Nova Mensagem that Chullage found the incentive for Rap, it was then that he created his first group “Black Brothers”, which was limited to doing improvisations.
In 1993, due to his mother’s health problems, Chullage and his family moved to Arrentela, in Seixal. It would be there that Chullage would form his first group worthy of the name “187 Squad”, and the crew he still belongs to, Red Eyes G. Of the 11 initial members of “187 Squad” only two remained. Despite this, the reputation of 187 Squad on the south bank continued to grow, later joining the “Máfia Sulleana” collective made up of Nexo, Crazy Jungle, JJ’s among others, with whom they recorded a very famous demo in the Portuguese underground circuit, with the support from the Luso-Galactic Academy. In 1997 the group broke up, and Chullage went solo.
In 1999 he was invited by D-Mars (Micro) to be part of his collection “Subterrânea” with the themes “Resistência” and “Ciclo Infernal”. Also in that year he participated in the album “Microestatic” by Micro. From there he began to be invited to join DJ mixtapes with Bomberjack, Sas, Cruzfader and NelAssassin.
After participating in several Mix-tapes, Chullage released his first work of originals in July 2001, with the Lisafonia label and Edel distribution, the album “Rapresálias (Sangue Lágrimas Suor)”. This record became the first independent edition of Portuguese Rap to exceed three thousand records. Finally, an artist from the national underground was able to take his work to a wider audience. The premiere of the music video “Rhymeshit Que Abala” on the television channels Sol Música and SIC Radical also allowed for greater dissemination. He was even nominated for the Blitz awards in the categories of “Album of the Year” and “Breakthrough Artist of the Year”.
After a long season of concerts (with Sas, Kosmikila, Naugthy and Balawild), Chullage recorded his second album “Rapensar (Passado Presente e Futuro)”, released on April 1, 2004, edited and distributed by Lisafonia. This double disc, presented in a spectacular digipack, marks a new step forward in the artist’s brilliant career and raises the bar very high for the rest of Portuguese Hip-Hop. After selling out the 2000 copies of the 1st edition in less than four months, a re-edition was launched with 3 new songs and 2 video clips “National Ghettographik” and “Ignorância XL”, which so much surprised the viewers of Sol Música and SIC Radical for its extraordinary quality. Rapensar was voted album of the year by readers of Hip Hop Nation magazine and “National Ghettographik” the second best video.
