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Canserbero or Tyrone Josè Gonzalez Oramas, was born on the 11th of March 1988, he was a Venezuelan rapper who would rake up to 200+ million views per song. He died at the age of 26 at the height of his fame. His death occurred under very fugazi circumstances, it was labelled as a murder-suicide, but we will get into that later; first I’ll talk about his earlier life. Additionally quick disclaimer, he was a pure rapper, something like Despacitoooo is Reggeaton which is like pop, you can compare his music to someone like Kendrick Lamar on good kid, m.A.A.d city, a true peoples champion and creative, and lastly he obviously raps in Spanish and his interviews are Spanish so I’ll find respectable English lyric versions of his songs, where it isn’t botched like all our GCSE French coursework was.. (shout out Mrs. Protopapa) I’ll translate segments from interviews myself. You got that yeah? Lovely safe lets get it.

Canserbero came from humble beginnings and was born in Caracas Venezuela, he faced tragedy early in his life when his mother passed away when he was only 8, a few years later when he was 12 his brother was murdered. His cousin Carlos Zambrano said this made him very cynical and untrusting, he began to push everyone away. Fast forward a few years and Canserbero started rapping and was starting to gain a fan base, during an interview he was asked about his difficult childhood and he said something I’d like to share with you, it’s kinda crazy.. He said ” I had a normal childhood, humble but good, I have beautiful things to remember and terrible things to remember.. my story wasn’t easy but there’s worse stories than mine” he follows this up with a light hearted laugh and joke with the interviewer. This guy was a good soul man. With a turbulent past, filled with rage and seeking an outlet, Canserbero’s friend introduced him to rap, and he fell in love with it, he honed his craft and gained a following, however without the money to go to a recording studio, he along with his crew invested the money they got from local shows into ‘El Techo’ pretty much translating to the roof, it was a toilet that they remodelled into a studio. For those of you wondering what he’s saying in the video I linked below, Canserbero is saying how he recorded his ENTIRE DISCOGRAPHY in that room. The pride of Latin American rap, the GOAT rapper ( in my humble opinion) with songs on youtube with up to 228 million views.. all came from an old toilet in Venezuela. Common G be eassyyyy. Have a look at the short video so you can get a look at the studio.

With help from El Techo he was able to release his debut solo album called Vida meaning Life and with its rapid success he hit us again with a follow up album called Muerte meaning death. With the help of these two huge albums he began touring Venezuela, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Cuba and Colombia, despite this success he never made a radio song. The subject matter of his music was often quite heavy and dark ( We’ll get to his music at the end G be eazyyy ;] ) he didn’t produce a ‘Work out’ type song like J. Cole ( love you g new album soon come) he was passionate about his craft and didn’t want to dilute it for the fame or money. But the man himself said it best, he breaks it down better than I can. When asked about his success and being on so popular now despite his heavy messages in his songs he said ” My music wasn’t commercial because it didn’t sell, my music was blue, and now a few years later my music is still blue it hasn’t changed in the slightest, but it sells, my product is commercial whether you want it or not, whether i modify it or not.” Passionate about his music and message Canserbero experienced success.. however tragedy struck. Canserbero died in 2015 on the 20th of January aged 26. The official police report stated Canserbero got into a fight with a longtime friend Carlos Molnar and stabbed him to death, and then flung himself off the 10th floor apartment in a supposed suicide. During all of this Carlos Molnar’s partner Natalia Molnar was present. An autopsy report found drugs in both of their systems and the police chalked it up as a drug fuelled bloodbath.. however through the subject matter of his music in which he has a whole song called Jeremías 17:5 talking about betrayal and the value of loyalty, it didn’t add up. Quite frankly this all stank of something fishy ( Like Ryan Daniels breath.. shout out my guy LOL) Being a national treasure, the people didn’t accept this quite bogus cause of his death.. this was until Natalia Molnar, the only survivor and witness broke her silence, she claimed a different story, she claimed she was having an affair with Canserbero, and then Carlos Molnar walked in on them, he then proceeded to tussle with Canserbero until throwing him off the balcony, Carlos then went to attack her and she defended herself and stabbed her husband to death. Canserbero openly attacked the Venezuelan government for their corruption, perhaps someone filled Natalias pocket to take the fall for what they did? The governments treatment of this was bizarre, they tried to sweep his death under the rug as quickly as possible and stated Canserbero was schizophrenic, bipolar and erratic and this was the cause of his violent actions. What followed was a public outroar, his cousin Carlos Zambrano said he was never schizophrenic or bipolar, and that he was indeed a kind, humble and friendly person who took care of his own. Other artists who toured with him confirmed this and even explained after every show he would stay behind for more than an hour meeting his fans and greeting them, asking them how they were and if they enjoyed the show. One artist said he saw people line up to see him and they would get a picture and line up again to see him a second time, Canserbero saw this and laughed and would talk and take a picture with them again. That was the type of man he was. However not only rap artists came to his defence, several reporters did the same to defend his memory. Sadly we’ll never know what truly happened.

To wrap this up it would be criminal to not talk about his music, but I feel that speaks for itself. I found it hard to limit myself but I chose 5 songs of his that I feel you guys should check out, naturally I’ll link the english subtitled version, and I’ll give them some context if the songs need it.

And thats everything.. with that I’ll leave you with Canserbero’s famous quote, all we need is love, all we need is hope. Hope this helps you guys kill some time during this Corona Virus madness.

Stay safe.

When someone mentions the marvellous city what tends to come to mind are their breathtakingly beautiful beaches in particular the famous Copacabana beach and Ipanema beach, however pull the cover back and you’ll see a darker more blood soaked history that is normalised in Rio. To begin to understand what I’m talking about you must first understand what favelas are, they’re poor neighbourhoods dominated by crime and drugs which are essentially self governed with many police fearful to even enter them, there are around 1,000 favelas in Rio. In 2008, while in preparation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics, city authorities pledged to regain control of the favelas. Today, the police controls only 40.. (Yeah… not really on job at all!)

How are the police trying to tackle this favela drug war epidemic? Well not great.. the image above isn’t the Brazilian Police force, it’s the cutthroat brutal special military force called BOPE, or better known from their infamous crest as ‘SKULLS’. Question is why is this military force required for the ‘pacification’ process of restoring order in favelas? Two main reasons for this, firstly after the Rio Olympics large sums of money were spent on rebuilding and protection in tourist heavy areas, however as a result of this unbalanced spending, favelas have essentially been forgotten and police forces and fire-fighters have taken huge pay cuts to the point where they are having to beg for donations of pens. Secondly Brazil is a huge country, and those living in favelas are around 11.25 million! Assuming 10 percent of those living in favelas are involved in the drug gang’s that’s around 1.125 million members of drug trafficker gangsters. Perhaps due to these factors the police force doesn’t suffice as they’re undermanned underpaid and demoralised, to the point where some corrupt police officers sell military grade weapons to favela gang factions as well as granting immunity to some of the big factions like the infamous ‘RED COMMAND’ by taking pay offs to leave their territories alone. The corruption runs deep with Brazillian politician and former governor Sergio Cabral who was found guilty of corruption and money laundering and as of 2017 was sentenced to 14 years in jail. However the Brazilian BOPE military force seems to be disliked in the media and the favela citizens, the media branded the BOPE as the ‘Death Squad’ they’ve been widely criticized for many things from their brutality to their shoot first ask later policy to even their crest being a skull with two knives, leading to their other slogan, victory over death. 

But not all that comes from the favelas is negative, to give you another brief history lesson, the favelas were erected by the poorest inhabitants of Rio illegally as they weren’t able to afford to live in ‘conventional’ housing in the richer areas. It’s safe to say these homes were essentially made by their friends, cousins and family. To quote the greatest rapper of our time (Don’t @ me) J cole says “There’s beauty in the struggle and ugliness in the success” this is telling here, despite the racism rooted in Brazil with a large chunk of the black community residing in favelas and white population the the richer areas like Ipanema, the rich culture of the favelas is unrivalled. Rio is generally considered a vibrant hotspot for music, culture and its festivals but no place is like the favelas, when I went in a favela it was like stepping into another world, not in a bad way in an amazing way. Music blaring extra loud, peopling drinking beer on their door steps and outside local corner shops, kids practicing capoeira ( A really wavey Brazilian martial art, basically kung fu mixed with dance its cold mandem you have to peep it) it had its own distinct culture, the community was much more tight knit they needed each other and were happy despite not having as much.

Touching on that note during my own time in Brazil Rio, I was able to speak with a former favela resident and stayed in contact, I spoke with Almeida as they wanted to be referred as (fearful of using full name which is quite telling of the state of the country and corruption) and asked them the problems in Rio. They replied “I Think traffickers having so much power and getting kids working for them is a big problem and corruption in political parties too.” When I asked for a possible solution they replied “It’s complicated we should change all things here like political parties, school and social programs and education can be helpful.” Having witnessed the beauty and culture Rio has to offer I can only hope the violence comes to a stop, having said that if you’ve made it this far you’re a real G, if you’re interested in learning more about Rio and its culture heres a few things you can check out

City Of God the movie and Elite Squad the movie (Almedia said both of these movies were fairly accurate portrayals of life in rio and favelas.)

And here’s a cool blog by a guy called Miguel who actually lived in a favela for a brief period of time https://www.travelsauro.com/living-favela-brazil/

I’ll be back terminator style with something new sometime soon, maybe about Boxing maybe about Ufc Maybe about Brexit (yeah its long). Anything and Everything right, Peace.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton