The Cacique de Ramos is a still-active bloco carnavalesco. Located in the confluence of Ramos and Olaria, working-class neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro in the north side, the rehearsals are held in a soccer court. Near to the region known as Leopoldina, due to the homonymous railroad station which serves the area, the bloco Cacique de Ramos shares with the samba school Imperatriz Leopoldinense many participants. In the bloco Cacique de Ramos, all of its members parade while dressed as Indians. The bloco is similar to a samba school: there is a selection for the samba to be presented in the Carnival, there is a rainha de bateria (queen of the drum section), a diretor de harmonia (general coordinator of the parade), diretoria (directors), and other organizational figures. It used to gather over 10,000 members when the Carnival was held at the Avenida Rio Branco, but with the advent of the institutionalized Carnival at the Sambódromo the Street Carnival lost much of its space. The bloco Cacique de Ramos was fundamental for the inception of the samba style known after the '80s as pagode, which enjoys enormous popularity.

The group Fundo de Quintal, who pioneer in this style, was formed in the court of the Cacique de Ramos. In the '70s, a new generation of composers and musicians emerged in the Cacique de Ramos court. Meeting on Wednesdays to play soccer, they used to finish the weekly get-together singing sambas until the next morning. As they used to gather under an ancient, enormous tamarind, they became known as the "generation born at the shadow of the Ramos tamarind." There, they reinvented the samba de mesa (table samba) and the partido alto (samba style in which the poets in a circle improvise verses for hours, in turns), blending new sonorities and instruments (banjo, tantan, repique de mão, different thematics, harmonies, and melodies) in a new style known as pagode and that had the first established proponents in the Fundo do Quintal group. Having the encouragement of established sambistas Martinho da Vila, Monarco, Nei Lopes, Beth Carvalho, Neoci (members of the "bloco do Cacique de Ramos"), artists like Arlindo (and the other members of the future Fundo de Quintal), Zeca Pagodinho, Marquinhos de Oswaldo Cruz, and Jorge Aragão were launched for their individual careers after their stint at the Cacique de Ramos' get-togethers at the shadow of the Tamarineira de Ramos. ~ Alvaro Neder, Rovi