A new anti-crime bill in Brazil targets the son of a jailed Red Command gang leader who is using his music to advocate for his father’s freedom. But the measure is unlikely to have much impact on either organized crime or the popularity of narco culture music.
Lawmakers in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies are debating a bill that would ban public financing for concerts with artists who reference crime. The proposal has been dubbed the “Anti-Oruam” bill in reference to Mauro Davi dos Santos Nepomuceno, a Brazilian trapper known as Oruam.
The artist is the son of Márcio dos Santos Nepomuceno, alias “Marcinho VP,” a Red Command (Comando Vermelho – CV) leader who has been in prison since 1996 for murder, drug trafficking, and forming a gang.
SEE ALSO: Red Command Profile
Oruam gained popularity after using his 2024 concert at Lollapalooza Brazil to advocate for his father’s release from jail, which led to one of his songs topping the charts of Brazil’s most listened to in January 2025. The following month, Oruam released a new album called “Liberdade” (Freedom), which featured songs that call for his father to be freed.
The Anti-Oruam bill is not the first piece of legislation in the region to target music related in some way to organized crime. Mexican politicians in several parts of the country, for example, have long discussed prohibiting narcocorridos, a sub-genre of norteño style folk music. The local government in Tijuana voted to ban these types of ballads in 2023.
InSight Crime Analysis
The Anti-Oruam bill fails to address the underlying factors driving young people into the ranks of organized crime groups. Instead, it criminalizes music, such as trap, rap and funk, that speaks to the realities of marginalized communities.
“Some people analyze funk as being rammed down the population’s throat by the music industry. What they don’t realize is that funk is a bottom-up movement: the industry only embraces it when it is so huge among people that they can no longer ignore it,” Danilo Cymrot, a Brazilian criminal lawyer, told InSight Crime.
Furthermore, the bill will likely be ineffective. As the law would only forbid the public financing of concerts, songs referencing crime would still have ample room to spread and reach their intended audience.
According to Brasil de Fato, Oruam has only had one concert funded by state money since launching his music career in 2021. During 2023 and 2024, he performed at over 120 concerts, according to a public record of his shows.
As local governments generally do very little to promote cultural events in marginalized communities, gangs sometimes fill the vacuum by putting up the money for musicians and concerts, which offer them opportunities to make money and attract new members. This practice would be entirely unaffected by the proposed law.
However, while gang financing of concerts is frequently used by authorities to portray funk as a negative influence, experts told InSight Crime that these accusations are overblown.
“I do not believe organized crime is the biggest funder of concerts in [these communities],” said Juliana Bragança, author of the book “Trapped in a Cage: the Criminalization of Funk in Rio in the Jornal do Brasil (1990-1999).”
SEE ALSO:How Venezuela’s Prison System Fueled a Reggaeton Star’s Career
With little prospect of any practical impact, the bill appears to be more of a symbolic targeting of certain musical genres. In Brazil, artists making these types of music often cast a spotlight on the reality of many listeners, who coexist alongside gangs and criminal activity.
In this context, Oruam represents the perfect target.
“Oruam has a number of characteristics that make him the perfect scapegoat,” Bragança told InSight Crime. “On top of being a young black man from the favela, who sings rap, trap, and funk, he is the son of Marcinho VP.”
Featured image: Mauro Davi dos Santos Nepomuceno, a Brazilian musician known as Oruam, is the son of a Red Command gang leader. (Photo: Mariana Pekin/UOL)