Bizarrap, the Argentine producer and DJ who jumped from his room to the world scene

He is the most listened to Argentine artist in the world, but his face remains a mystery. bizarre24, is a phenomenon of the urban music which has more than 7,000 million views and illustrates a generation that went from its rooms to worldwide success.

In his case, the triumph has been supported by a marketing strategy that he himself knew how to build.

This Wednesday, Bizarrap launches “BZRP Music Sessions #55″, a new song from his series of collaborations, this time with the Mexican singer Peso Pluma. To announce it, she uploaded an animated short to her Instagram account, which in less than an hour garnered more than a million likes.

Many discovered the producer at the beginning of 2023, when his collaboration with Shakira finished making his fame explode. It was Milan, the 10-year-old son of the Colombian superstar, who suggested that she record with the young producer. “He told me: ‘you have to do something with Bizarrap, he is the Argentine God'”she revealed.

That “BZRP Music Sessions #53″ has so far more than 1.1 billion views between Spotify and YouTube. The release entered the record books as the most viewed Latin song in 24 hours on YouTube, with 63 million views.

Time magazine just named Bizarrap as “one of the ten leaders of the next generation”and noted that “Their meteoric but unconventional rise signals a shift in the (music) industry, proving that newcomers don’t have to follow a set path to find their audience.”

In 2022, Bizarrap, born with the name of Gonzalo Julián Conde, was already the most listened to Argentine and a valued producer, as demonstrated by his collaborations with the Spanish rapper Quevedo, the Puerto Rican Villano Antillano or the Argentines Nicki Nicole and Nathy Peluso.

The study room

In his series of collaborations, Bizarrap provides the music track and lets the guest artist shine. “I like to put the artist before me, even his name appears before mine”, told in an interview with Forbes magazine last year.

Most of his sessions were recorded in his family room in the Ramos Mejía neighborhood, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, with the same wallpaper and minimalist decoration.

“I want the producers who are 15 years old today to see that from the room itself you can make several songs with a hundred million (views) without any kind of guideline or anyone else’s bank”he told the digital media Filo News in 2021.

Among his first inspirations he counts family records -his father is an accountant, his mother graduated in Literature-, Radiohead, PJ Harvey. And he had a revelation with electronic music, with artists like the American Skrillex and the Australian Flume.

At the age of 14 he began to study music. “He contributed very good ideas and was thirsty to learn”recalled to AFP Juliana Scellato, who was his piano teacher and described him as “An intelligent boy, very determined, a very transparent person, a boy from the neighborhood.”

As a producer, Bizarrap was self-taught: “I really liked rap and electronic music and I downloaded the software to produce. I started learning by myself. I would take songs I liked, extract them ‘a capella’ and mix them together”he told Forbes. The combination of effects and visual gags with improvisation in those first videos of his series “Crazy Combo” (2017) was the origin of his stage name, a bizarre version of rap.

blowing up the track

In more ways than one, Bizarrap is the embodiment of a decade in which many young artists rose to fame since the “do it yourself” from their home studios. But, in his case, with a healthy dose of strategy and professionalism.

He studied marketing and worked as alabel manager at Warner Records for two years. That experience, according to what he told Filo News, “was essential to understand the industry”, without losing his compass.

His appearance with thick black glasses that cover his face and a cap with a large visor make him go incognito on the street. But he already has a collection with his name in Adidas.

“He is a strategist, a very tactical person”said Villano Antillano. “He sees what is going to happen, he knows where a song is going to go”Nicki Nicole marveled.

At the end of April he performed his first own shows in Buenos Aires before 60,000 spectators in an ambitious show with 3,000 m2 of screens and surround sound.

His collaboration with Peso Pluma comes after a meteoric rise of the Mexican, who in March was the most listened to artist on Spotify in his country.

Source: AFP