Brazilian-born João Rosa moved to Barcelona when he was only 10 years old, and it didn’t take him long to draw eyes and ears all around the Catalan city in his direction. As a teenager and under the MC Buseta alias, he started making waves surfing reggaeton and trap beats as part of urban boy band Los Sugus, through which he began his relationship with La Vendición and future collaborators like Yung Beef and Kaydy Cain. His last EP before changing his moniker, 2018’s Heart Breaker, still revolved around trap, but he also dipped his toe in funk carioca, the genre that has most informed his newest evolution, now as MC Buzzz.
Granted, MC Buzzz’s Baile de Rua, his debut mixtape on Caribbean-laden Brooklyn imprint Mixpak, screams “funk carioca” all over its duration, but it was filtered by the rapper and his army of producers in a way that feels bold and thrilling. Paul Marmota, King Doudou, Fakeguido, Limebeatz, and Merca Bae were the people in charge of fueling Baile de Rua with dance-ready beats, each of them putting their own spin on the tracks they worked on, but always making sure the 20-year-old rapper and his raspy voice shine.
Even though Baile de Rua’s opening track “Intro” kicks off dark and atmospheric, It doesn’t take long for the tamborzinho to lurk in and turn the song into a party. It features one of the two sole vocal guests on Baile, Chilean MC Pablo Chill-E, who sees Buzzz’s bet and raises it, injecting more energy with his flow. The other collaboration comes on single “Maluco,” where Buzzz and Switzerland’s Di-Meh, together with King Doudou, confabulate to set dancefloors on fire everywhere with a trap-funk style.
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Speaking of King Doudou, the seasoned French producer brings the extra spice to Baile de Rua, breaking away from the mixtape’s rhythmic theme just enough to score the best track on here. Besides “Maluco,” the electronic music artist turns to tecnobrega on “Baile Das Buquinhas” and to 150BPM, the vertiginous funk carioca sub-genre created by DJ Polyvox, on closer “Toma,” with outstanding results.
Buzzz’s overall mood in Baile de Rua is laid-back, but highly sexual, dragging his word in his signature flow. Be it surrounded by designer clothes (“Paris”) or weed smoke (“Bota Bota”), he’s always getting freaky under the sheets. He does seem to show more range when dared by the instrumentals. For instance, the instantly-recognizable Paul Marmota production “Infierno” strips the tamborzão to its bare bones and hides it behind a reverb cloud and moody arpeggios; in response, Buzzz gives less explicit, more suggestive lyrics, and it works. “Tudo Pasa,” featuring Limebeatz behind the desk, slows things down with a driving steady beat, allowing Buzzz to switch back and forth between braggadocio and vulnerability, a rare moment in the mixtape.
In the end, even though the producers who participate on Baile de Rua seem to have stolen the spotlight, it’s MC Buzzz who took all of these 10 stellar beats and turned them into the throne he sits on. With his new collection of songs, MC Buzzz sets the record straight on what he is all about.
Stream the mixtape here.