Gabriela Brito, AKA Lela MC, performed her first rap song six months after her family left Venezuela. At 12 years old, she’s becoming a major presence in Bogotá
It’s rush hour in Bogotá, and the city’s rapid-transport system is tightly packed with commuters when, on one bus, the thump of a hip-hop beat reverberates from a boombox, and a young girl starts rapping into a microphone.
Passengers crane to watch the performance, and – above the groaning of brakes and tattoo of car horns – she spits out an intricately rhyming piece about exile and hope.
Lela, 12, sings a track in a hip hop club in Bogotá. Below, Lela sits on a sofa inside the club.
