Bandidos de Cristo: Representations of the Power of Criminal Factions in Rio's Proibidão Funk

This article draws on ethnographic research and theories of ideology to explore the cultural and rhetorical context of Brazilian proibidão funk, or prohibited rap music, and the usage of this music by the Comando Vermelho criminal faction to strengthen its hegemony in the favela of Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Gangsters from this faction sponsor large-scale, outdoor street dances known as bailes de comunidade, and use them as platforms to stage their power. They also promote the production of clandestine rap songs such as "Bandidos de Cristo" ("Bandits of Christ"), which are recorded live at the dances by the drug traffickers and disseminated in the favela on bootleg CDs. Such clandestine songs are not played on the radio or available in stores. Through these dances and songs, drug traffickers in Rocinha represent themselves, with utopian and messianic overtones, as social bandits and the legitimate defenders of their community.