Argentinian producer Bizarrap’s musical sessions featuring artists such as Nathy Peluso and Nicki Nicole not only went viral on YouTube, garnering millions of views in days, they also became a new method for artists to get to discover. That’s what Bizarrap originally intended to do with his now fan-favorite sessions.
“The first ‘session’ in 2018 wasn’t even planned,” explains the 22-year-old producer, whose real name is Gonzalo Conde. “All I wanted to do was record a local rapper called Kodigo and upload it to YouTube because I was a big fan of his and wanted other people to listen to him too. My plan was to record with my phone, but for some reason that didn’t work out, so we scheduled the session for the next day and I thought, ‘Why not give these freestylers the production they deserve with microphones and all?’ So that’s what I did.”
With 38 sessions (titled Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3 and so on) under his belt, the latest being a collaboration with Mexican-American rapper Snow Tha Product, Bizarrap is now a go-to producer for a new generation of artists, from Argentina and elsewhere.
His passion for freestyle started at the age of 13 as he discovered different artists on YouTube and landed on a particular rap battle that immediately captivated him. “It was the Argentinian rapper Frescolate who fought in an international competition. I fell in love with what he was doing because I liked the spontaneity of this style,” says Bizarrap, who had four entries on the Billboard Global Excluding US chart, including his session with Peluso.
After watching this battle, he started making freestyle videos with his friends and he was the one mixing, adding music, editing and uploading the final product. “I went to art school where I mainly focused on visual arts, so I was fascinated with editing videos. To this day, I still enjoy editing videos, which is why I’ve been editing all of my sessions because it’s a really fun process that I’ve been doing for a long time now.
Since then he has anchored himself in the ever-growing freestyle and trap scene in his native Argentina, with him and his compatriots Cazzu, Maria Becerra, Nicole, Peluso and Duki at the forefront. “It’s a movement that has gained a lot of strength lately and it’s been really special to watch it grow.”
Now he’s focused on growing and continuing his sessions and collaborating with artists his fans wouldn’t expect, in the spirit of the spontaneity he’s been a fan of ever since he fell in love with freestyle. . “I like to surprise people,” he says. “For example with Snow, not many people expected it but when I first listened to her, I went crazy. And the fact that she could rap in English and Spanish, it blew my mind.
Her favorite part of a session? “Working on a beat before the artist arrives and seeing their reaction when they first listen to it,” he adds. “It’s so rewarding to see when they connect to the beat I created just for them.”
See you this week Billboard Latin artist on the rise below:
Last name: Gonzalo Conde
Age: 22
Recommended song: I think you may be impressed if you watch my session with Nathy Peluso, but if you really want to get an idea of who I am and where I come from, then I recommend you listen to my sessions with Trueno. It really represents what freestyle battles are all about and it’s a great way for people to understand what I do and where I come from.
Key Achievements: Being able to live from what I love the most: music. And another accomplishment that is not personal but rather collective is that we are bringing Argentina back into the spotlight.
And after: Continue to record sessions with artists. Honestly, I haven’t worked on my first album and it’s not in my plans to start recording it. I would love to, eventually, but I don’t feel inspired to start it now. I think this past year has really helped me find my musical identity through all these collaborations. I’m in no rush to release my first album.
