MC Bin Laden joins Mace and Ckrono on a blistering, emphatic new single titled “Vroom Vrau.” Like many tracks in the speedy Brazilian genre known as baile funk, this one is skeletal and kinetic. The melody is minimal, little more than a shivering organ sound. Forward momentum is everything, and even the sharp repetition of the hook functions as jet fuel, pushing “Vroom Vrau” towards an abrupt, breathless finish.
MC Bin Laden shot to fame five-ish years ago — Branko, the Lisbon-based DJ who runs the Enchufada label, credits MC Bin Laden’s “Bololo Haha” with “changing the game” for baile funk. Baile funk is popular in Brazil and in the Portuguese-speaking world, and videos from the genre routinely amass hundreds of millions of views on YouTube channels like Kondzilla. Last year, MC Fioti’s “Bum Bum Tam Tam” became the first baile funk video to reach one billion views.
However, few baile funk artists have been able to establish a foothold in the U.S. market to date. MC Bin Laden is a rare exception: His 2017 EP É Grau was released on the American indie label True Panther Sounds. “Vroom Vrau” will be released through Diplo’s label Mad Decent.