From the start of their careers, Brazilian musicians Arnaldo Antunes, Carlinhos Brown and Marisa Monte were present at each other's performances on a regular basis, while also maintaining a personal friendship.

The project was recorded between 8 and 24 April 2002, in the studio designed in Monte's house in Rio de Janeiro, under the musical production of the singer herself, with the help of Antunes, Brown and musician Alê Siqueira.

Lyrically, it explores disparate themes, such as love relationships, the Brazilian Carnival and, in the case of tracks like "Mary Cristo" and "Anjo da Guarda", the playful concepts of a guardian angel and the Nativity of Jesus.

After its release, Tribalistas was met with generally positive reviews from specialized critics, with the majority praising the quality of its songs, the cohesive union between the disparate styles of the three performers and their vocals, especially those of Monte.

The song written by Brown, "Amor I Love You", became the project's first single and the driving force behind its sales, which exceeded 1 million units in Brazil and earned it a diamond certification from Pro-Música Brasil (PMB).

By the end of that week, Antunes, Brown, and Monte had written about 20 songs together, three of which were developed with additional contributions from other collaborators such as Menezes, Davi Moraes, Cezar Mendes, and Pedro Baby.

[11] Subsequently, the three resumed their individual career commitments; Monte continued the tour supporting Memórias, Crônicas, e Declarações de Amor (2000), which was recorded in audiovisual format and released later that year.

"[11] Analyzing each member's contribution, Marco Antônio Barbosa, from the website CliqueMusic, wrote: "If we were to define the percentages of each in the final sum, it could be said that the album is 65% Monte — phase Verde, Anil, Amarelo, Cor de Rosa e Carvão (1994) —, 25% Brown, and 10% Arnaldo.

[24] Jon Lusk, from BBC News, echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that while the album's sound features distinct elements like music box, berimbau, and glockenspiel, it never overdoes the mix or allows these experiments to feel confusing.

[23][24][21] The repetition of the phrase "passe em casa" ('drop by') in the chorus acts as a plea, expressing the desire to be visited and to spend time together, reflecting the yearning for companionship and relief from loneliness and monotony.

[21][28] With instrumentation including guitars, piano, and an accordion played by Dadi Carvalho, the track features the sounds of rain and extracts lines such as "me abraça e me faz calor" and "segredos de liquidificador" ('embrace me and make me warm' and 'blender secrets') from the song "Codinome Beija-Flor" (1985), performed by Cazuza.

Starting with the voice of a child, its lyrics seem to convey a message of protection, perseverance, and finding beauty in everyday life, creating a contrast between the darkness of night and the brightness of morning, highlighting the role of the guardian angel.

[28] The eleventh track, "Pecado É Lhe Deixar de Molho", is a bossa nova ballad primarily sung by Monte, exploring themes of love, patience, and forgiveness.

"[40] Tribalistas was met with acclaim from specialized music critics, most praising the quality of its songs, the cohesive union between the disparate styles of the three performers, as well as their vocals, particularly Monte's, while others felt her excessive participation made it sound like one of her solo works.

Philip Jandovský, from the database AllMusic, for example, gave it five and a half stars out of five, defining it as a "very good, but simple and unpretentious" album that, although in a different way than many had predicted, meets the expectations created around its release.

In a favorable review, the editorial team expressed surprise at the cohesion between the different styles of the artists, stating that what seemed like it would not work miraculously results in "a collection of memorable songs that are in very good taste."

[41] Awarding three stars out of four, Tatiana Tavares, a journalist for Tribuna da Imprensa, noted that the project manages to sound "simple due to the objectivity of its songs" and "sophisticated because of the uniqueness of its arrangements", also pointing out its ability to create a distinct concept from what each of the performers develops in their individual works.

"[26] Reviewing for the British portal BBC News, Jon Lusk was favorable to the album in his analysis, which he deemed Monte's best work since Verde, Anil, Amarelo, Cor de Rosa e Carvão (1994).

"[25] Also considering it similar to Verde, Anil, Amarelo, Cor de Rosa e Carvão, Marco Antonio Barbosa, from CliqueMusic, awarded three and a half stars out of five and opined that the album's "direct" and "appealing" melodies are even more highlighted when Monte "takes the lead" or interacts with Antunes's "strange" performance.

Pedro Alexandre Sanches, writing for Folha de S.Paulo, gave the album four stars out of five and wrote that Monte is able to skillfully transition between the "rationality" of Antunes and the "spontaneity" of Brown, and that, here, the "traces of banal conceptualism" of the former are diluted, freeing the latter from "the embarrassment of conveying his points of view."

"[46] Fabiano Finco, from the Pioneiro newspaper, described it as "pleasant", while echoing similar thoughts to previous analysts, emphasizing that Monte's contributions overshadow those of the others, making Tribalistas sound like a work that is uniquely hers.

"Mary Cristo" and "Já Sei Namorar" are "wonderfully catchy", while "Carnavália" is deemed "the best song Monte has released to date" and concludes that, in vocal terms, she and Brown give their best performances here compared to any of their solo works.

"[48] Rosualdo Rodrigues expressed less enthusiasm in his Correio Braziliense review, advising listeners not to expect any manifesto in the lyrics of the album, nor anything surprising in it, as, in his view, the artists, in conceiving it, were "seeking more the pleasure provided by the music than conceptual exercises."

During the analysis, he praises the trio's synergy and Monte's vocals but expresses that tracks like "É Você" and "Velha Infância" seem like leftovers from her solo album, Memórias, Crônicas, e Declarações de Amor (2000).

[43] Meanwhile, Saulo Gomes, from the ZeroZen portal, was extremely negative when reviewing the video version of the work, saying that the songs have a "sleep-inducing" and "awkward" atmosphere and that the overall mood of the CD is "romantic, almost cheesy, and definitely hippie."

[76] "É Você", although not released as a single, was included in another Rede Globo telenovela, Da Cor do Pecado (2004), in sequences where the characters Moa (Aline Moraes) and Paco (Reynaldo Gianecchini) interacted.

[79] An official webpage for the group was launched on 18 November, containing a promotion in which participants could win copies of the album in CD and DVD format by submitting the most creative answer to the question, "What did you think about the meeting of Arnaldo Antunes, Carlinhos Brown, and Marisa Monte?

[83] Tatiana Tavares from Tribuna da Imprensa praised their choice to sing in Portuguese rather than re-recording the track in another language, in contrast to fellow Brazilian Alexandre Pires, who performed in Spanish at the same event.

[72][86] Selling 500,000 copies within just over a month of release, it garnered media attention for achieving such success during a period of declining CD sales due to piracy and for being promoted without interviews or tours.

[101][92] In Portugal, Tribalistas debuted at the 28th position on the chart published by the Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa (AFP), and by its eighth week, it had climbed to second place, losing the top spot only to St. Anger by Metallica.