Using the trajectory of Eduardo Sebastião das Neves, known as "Crioulo Dudu" ("Black Dudu", or "Creole Dudu"), as well as his compositions and musical repertoire as a starting point, this essay discusses the possibilities of black musician political expression during the Brazilian First Republic. Taking into account the debates on the Black Atlantic, the growth of publishing market and recording industry, it was possible to locate Eduardo das Neves as an active producer in the field of popular music that was being built between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Dudu gave special political dimensions to the music world by creating and disseminating songs that valorized patriotism and that discussed race relations and black identity in the post-emancipation period in an ironic and irreverent way. To examine Dudu's trajectory and musical work allows rethinking some established views on political participation and black identity during the First Republic.
popular music; race relations; black identity; First Republic (Brazil); patriotism.