6 artists and acts shaking up the Brazilian urban music scene of 2025
Just to give you an idea, Spotify announced in 2023 that Brazil was its 3rd largest market for hip-hop streams1, a genre accounting for almost a quarter of the platform’s total. And in Brazil, where every major city and every region has its own musical style, urban music is no longer limited to hip-hop alone: trap is mixed with pisadinha, baile funk, inherited from Miami Bass, comes in an infinite variety of forms, and R&B flirts with Musica Popular Brasileira…
To help you discover the incredible depth of Brazilian urban culture, here’s a selection of some of its most representative new artists, with whom Believe has the pleasure of working. As always, turn the volume up, it’s going to be tudo bem!
CRYZIN
Just over a year ago, Cryzin burst onto the Brazilian scene with ‘Mais Existe Um Lugar’. Going viral in just a few days on social networks, the track, mixing trap and R&B, in duet with Kaio Viana, quickly climbed into the Brazilian Top 50 and into all the local rankings of streaming services. A year later, the video has over 30 million views and the remix just as many; while the original and sped-up versions have racked up over 64 million listens on Spotify.
Since that first hit, Cryzin hasn’t really rested, having released over a dozen singles, remixes and collaborations in 2023. And the Salvador native already has several tracks to his credit since the start of the year: ‘Adrenalina’, ‘Meu Primeiro Milhão’ (which also has its own remix and sped-up version) and ‘Sexta Hoje & Aonde’, a very soaring trap sound released last April. These tracks were co-composed with his regular producer Noémie Leal, since in addition to singing, Cryzin can also handle the keyboard and guitar. And by the way, Meu Primeiro Milhão also happens to be the title of his recently released first album.
With that work ethic, there’s absolutely no doubt that Cryzin will continue to surprise the Brazilian scene in the months to come.
GREGO
Although he grew up surrounded by sertaneja music, it was rap that launched Grego‘s career. In early 2023, Grego released “Pagou Pra Ver”, his first single in a very modern trap style. He went viral on Brazilian social networks singing an extract from his 4th single “Indomável“, a trap track with a minimalist electro beat. But it was piseiro that brought Grego luck.
Extremely popular in north-east Brazil, where Grego is from, piseiro is a music genre that borrows from other very Brazilian styles such as forró and baile funk, and features synthesizers and drum machines. After releasing several hip-hop songs, Grego surprised everyone in October 2023 with ‘Pane No Sistema‘, a piseiro track that became an instant classic, quickly entering the top 10 most listened-to tracks in Brazil on Spotify, and racking up millions of views on YouTube (81 million at time of writing). Grego ended 2023 with a debut album, also called Pane No Sistema, featuring other Piseiro hits such as ‘Bricando com Fogo’ and ‘Então Vai’.
At the beginning of March 2024, Grego did it again with ‘Goteiras‘, a new rap track with a baile funk rhythm. There’s no doubt that Grego is at ease in every genre and is sure to surprise us again this year!
DJ MATT-D
DJ Matt-D is what you might call a precocious artist, having produced his first tracks as early as 2013, only aged 14 years old. He trained hard on his own, experimenting with different musical genres. By 2016, he was sharing online his own productions and remixes in genres ranging from electronic music to trap and baile funk.
It’s thanks to this trap-funk fusion that he became popular. In 2020, he released ‘Homenagem aos Relíquias‘, a trap-funk prod featuring several singers from the new generation of funk who pay homage to the genre’s classics. The track went viral in a matter of days, ranking among the 50 most listened-to tracks on YouTube Music in 2020. And definitively revealed him as a producer. Since then, DJ Matt-D has never stopped producing for himself or other artists on the funk scene.
On Spotify, where he has over 4 million monthly listeners, several of his tracks exceed tens of millions of streams, including ‘Tipo Gringa‘ and ‘Peças de Griffe’ with Menor MC. ‘Pandora‘ and ‘Novidade na Área’ even go past 180 million. Among his tracks released in 2024, ‘Acendo o Beck’ and ‘Cena de Filme‘ have already passed the million stream mark. And who knows, he might well become one of the decade’s most emblematic producers!
OS GAROTIN
All hailing from São Gonçalo, the young members of Os Garotin are already seasoned musicians. They met in 2019 and regularly played together alongside their solo careers. It wasn’t until 2023 that Os Garotin became a reality, when Paula Lavigne, companion of the legendary Caetano Veloso, convinced the artists, who had been attending open workshops at the home of the maestro of Brazilian music, to form a trio.
They soon released Os Garotin Sessions, a first EP recorded live, mixing samba, bossa, R&B, soul and funk (not baile funk this time). An immediate success! Not only do the tracks ‘Queda Livre’ and ‘Zero a Cem’ top the million marks in YouTube views and Spotify streams, but the EP is nominated for awards such as the Prêmio Multishow 2023 (TV Globo) and wins the Prêmio Potências (Billboard). October saw the arrival of Só vem, a second EP in the same spirit.
2024 got off to a flying start with the success of ‘Nossa Resenha‘, an MPB-tinged single featuring their godfather Caetano Veloso, which is also featured on their 3rd EP Mais Una Historia de Amor released in February. Early May, AntchieX, Cupertino and Leo Guima released their debut album OS GAROTIN DE SÃO GONÇALO and they will get it on the road soon!
G.A
Although he’s seen as one of the promising new artists on the Brazilian rap and R&B scene, the name of G.A name has been circulating in Brazilian hip-hop circles since as early as 2016. And when he released his first single ‘Missaõ‘ in 2020, G.A already had a small amount of notoriety acquired thanks to his multiple participations in Batalha da Aldeia and Batalha do Vila, rap battles filmed in public and broadcast on YouTube.
The Itapevi native already had a wealth of experience before launching his recording career. His audience grew as his singles were released, but two of them were very successful: firstly, ‘Contagem‘ in 2022, a trap and R&B track; then ‘Paladar Infantil‘ in 2023, another trap and R&B track, whose video clip climbed to 10 million views on YouTube.
This late March 2024, G.A released his debut album Sua Vez de Escutar, still exploring that trap/R&B mix and inviting some big names from the local scene like Menor MC and Vulgo FK. The album passed the 5 million Stream mark in less than 2 weeks on Spotify, and reached number 66 in the Brazilian Top 200 album chart on Spotify. An already successful year for G.A!
MARQUINHO NO BEAT
Even if he has managed to rack up no less than 5 million monthly listeners on Spotify, mainly because he has produced tracks for many of Brazil’s hottest hip-hop artists, Marquinho no Beat is a rather discreet person about whom very little is actually known.
Quite astonishing when you consider that several of Marquinho’s tracks exceed 100 million listens on Spotify alone. And that he has several diamond certificated songs. For instance, he is behind Contradições, the latest Kayblack’s EP, one of the most listened-to projects on Spotify in Brazil in 2023. He also produced the track ‘Larga Essa Vida‘ by MC Luanna, selected for Spotify’s “Best Of RADAR 2023” global playlist. In 2023, Marquinho No Beat released the album Intenção, a musical calling card on which he invites loyal collaborators and stars of the scene: KayBlack, CJota, MC Menor and many others.
Marquinho No Beat has been very productive in 2024’s first months: in addition to the Você Sabe album with emerging rapper Jamal KMG, he has released no less than six singles. Released at the end of March, the trap track ‘Arquivos’ with Azzy and Cave reached 120K views in less than a month. He’s well on his way to dazzling us for the rest of the year!