A 20-year-old Brazilian rapper was fatally shot on 6 July, while performing at a free concert in São Paulo state. MC Daleste was midway through the show when he was shot in the abdomen and collapsed on stage. He died later in hospital.
The incident was caught on several videos posted to YouTube by fans who attended the gig. The disturbing clips, which have accumulated over five million views, show Daleste, real name Daniel Pellegrine, rapping before he falls to the ground.
According to Billboard, Daleste was involved in São Paulo's ostentation funk scene, where rappers trade gangster bars over heavily percussive beats. His releases have included songs about drug-dealer's mothers, "goddesses" and hating the police.
Saturday's concert took place at a public housing project in the town of Campinas, about 50 miles north of São Paulo city, with as many as 3,000 people in attendance.
In another disturbing act of public violence a week before, two men were killed at an amateur football match at Pio XII in northern Brazil. In this incident, a mob of spectators beheaded a referee who had stabbed one of the players.
A string of funk MCs have paid their respect to the rapper via social media. "Soon an MC will have to start performing with a microphone in one hand and an automatic in the other," posted the performer known as MC Buru on his Facebook page. New York-based, São Paulo native DJ Béco Dranoff told Billboard: "This is one more sad event in a long history of urban violence in Brazil. Music should be the peaceful medium that connects us all for good times and for change."
While police have yet to arrest a suspect, someone using the MC's Twitter account asked supporters "seeking #justice" to come to São Paulo's Penha neighbourhood. Meanwhile, about 100,000 fans have left notes and "likes" on Daleste's memorial page. "He had no enemies," the rapper's father, Roland Pellegrine, told Brazilian news site G1. "It was envy. Jealousy kills."
