hip-hop

Criolo

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São Paulo rapper who moves freely between hip-hop, samba and MPB — dense, unsparing portraits of the city delivered with a singer's phrasing.

Criolo is the stage name of Kleber Cavalcante Gomes, born in 1975 to migrant parents from Brazil's North East. He was raised in the Favela das Imbuias, in the Grajaú district on the southern edge of São Paulo, and began focusing on rap at age eleven, performing in small neighbourhood venues for years before his 2006 debut album, Ainda Há Tempo.

Before that debut, Criolo had already built a reputation as the creator of Rinha dos MCs, a freestyle battle event that helped establish him within São Paulo's rap scene. His work since has drawn on samba, MPB, reggae and Afrobeat as much as hip-hop, with a voice that moves between rapping and singing.

His writing stays fixed on São Paulo: inequality, violence, love and daily life in the periphery. The 2011 album Nó na Orelha, produced by Daniel Ganjaman and Marcelo Cabral and featuring "Não Existe Amor em SP," reached an audience well beyond rap after its 2012 international release, taking him to shows across Europe, the Americas and beyond.

Espiral de Ilusão, a samba-focused album from 2017, was named the sixth-best Brazilian record of the year by Rolling Stone Brazil and earned him a best samba singer award. Everything since 2010 has come out through his own label, Oloko Records, run with manager Beatriz Berjeaut and music director Daniel Ganjaman.

Criolo has since been nominated for four Latin Grammy Awards, for the singles "Boca de Lobo" and "Etérea" in 2019 and for the album Sobre Viver and its title track in 2022. Sobre Viver featured guest appearances from Milton Nascimento, Liniker, MC Hariel and his own mother, Maria Vilani.

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