[Hook: brazilian portuguese-accented male MC, shouted joyfully over the thundering surdos] Clean sweep, clean sweep, broom up in the air Floats are gone, drums are gone, everybody's still here Every feather, every sequin, every cup on the ground Clean sweep, and the whole avenue turns around [Verse 1: brazilian MC, quick and bouncing on the repinique] Four a.m. on the avenue, the last float rollin' out Seventy thousand in the stands with nothin' left to shout Feathers on the asphalt, sequins in the cracks Half a samba queen's crown in the gutter by the tracks Then the gate swings open and they hear the broom brigade Forty men in orange comin' out to clean the parade I'm the first one through the gate, broom spinnin' on my wrist Got the hips my mama gave me and a step you can't resist Tiao from Madureira, twenty years on the clean Most famous broom in Rio that the cameras never seen [Hook] Clean sweep, clean sweep, broom up in the air Floats are gone, drums are gone, everybody's still here Every feather, every sequin, every cup on the ground Clean sweep, and the whole avenue turns around [Verse 2: brazilian MC, harder, the caixa snapping every line] Used to be the stands would empty when the last surdo stopped Nobody stayed to watch a man pick feathers off the block But one year I was sweepin', and the samba wouldn't quit So I did a little step, a little spin, a little split Threw the broom behind my back and caught it on the one And a lady in the bleachers stood and hollered "Again, son!" Next year there was fifty, then five hundred, then the stands Now they wait till five o'clock to see the broom inside my hands [Paradinha: brazilian MC calls it, the director's apito stops every drum on one accent, the broom scrapes, then the surdos restart in a brand-new pattern] Para! Para! Now bring it back, bring it back, bring it back! [Verse 3: brazilian MC, full power, the surdos in the new pattern] This year the judges read the scores, the champions took the crown Then the big screen in the bleachers swung to us, and the whole place sat back down Seventy thousand didn't leave, they were waitin' for the sweep Kids up on their daddies' shoulders, grandmas standin' on their seats Forty brooms in a line, and I count it like a drum Swish on the two, scrape on the four, and here the feathers come Every sequin that they dropped, every crown that hit the street We gave it back to the avenue in time with the beat Twenty years they called it cleanup, called it trash and called it late Now the champions in the stands are the ones who stay and wait [Hook] Clean sweep, clean sweep, broom up in the air Floats are gone, drums are gone, everybody's still here Every feather, every sequin, every cup on the ground Clean sweep, and the whole avenue turns around [Outro: brazilian MC, shouted, the surdos hitting the last accent] Swish on the two, scrape on the four Clean sweep, Rio, give me one more [End]
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