It mixes regional rhythms of Brazilian Northeast, such as maracatu, frevo, coco and forró, with rock, soul, raggamuffin, hip hop, funk and electronic music.

Mangue bit can be divided into two distinct waves: the first in the early 1990s led by the music groups Chico Science & Nação Zumbi (Zumbi's Nation)[2] and Mundo Livre S/A (Free World Inc.), and the second in the early 2000s led by Re:Combo (a copyleft movement that uploads half-sampled music for download) and Cordel do Fogo Encantado (a music group that started as a roving theatre troupe with roots in a form of literature known as literatura de cordel ("twine literature")).

[5] In the early 90s, Paulo Andre Pires, who would become Nação Zumbi's impresario, began producing shows in Recife and invited both local and international bands to perform.

[6] Despite being both being cited as founders for the Mangue movement, Chico Science and Nação Zumbi (CSNZ), and Mundo Livre S/A have different influences and backgrounds.

[6] His influences came from music he heard while attending baile funk parties as a youth and included early rap, hip-hop, rock and soul such as, James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Funkadelic, Sugar Hill Gang, Kurtis Blow, and Grand Master Flash.

[9] Chico with his friend, Jorge du Peixe, joined several groups; Legião Hip Hop, Orla Orbe, and Loustal, before finding and meeting members of Lamento Negro, a bloco afro specializing in samba-reggae, in 1990 and forming what would be CSNZ.

[11] When first hearing Chico Science in a mashup performance of Loustal and Lamento Negro, he thought the combination of the local/global juxtaposition, as well as the difference in geographical location, could launch what would become the Mangue movement into something that would highlight Recife's diversity.

The Mangue manifesto, titled "Caranguejos Com Cérebro" (Crabs with Brains), was written by Fred 04 and Renato L. and distributed to the press in 1991.

[13] When naming Mangue, Chico Science initially used it solely to describe the fusion of genres and sounds used by Loustal and Lamento Negro.

It is divided into three parts: "Mangue - the Concept", which talks about the biodiversity of the mangue swamps and its importance as an ecosystem to the people of Recife, "Manguetown-The City", which describes a bit of Recife's history and economic situation as being rated one of the worst cities in the world to live in, with a high rate of unemployment and a high rate of people living in slums, and "Mangue-The Scene", which introduces the Mangue movement as a way to inject energy back into the city of Recife and connect it to the circulation of music on a global scale.

[15] That same year, Paulo Andre Pires launched the first Abril pro Rock festival in Recife featuring CSNZ and Mundo Livre S/A as well as Nacão Pernambuco, a maracatu band that was gaining attention and growing quickly in popularity.