A prominent member of Medellin‘s hip hop music scene is killed in another attack on the cultural movement, Caracol Radio reported Tuesday.
Luis Albeiro Pacheco, better known as “Rasta” and member of the group “Clika Underground” from Medellin, was shot on Sunday afternoon while he was watching a soccer game in a public bar in the La Mota area of Medellin.
He was taken to the Clinica Las Americas with serious wounds and died early Monday morning.
Authorities currently have no leads as to who the killer is or the motives for targeting the rapper.
Rasta, 37, was a graphic designer and graduate of the Institute of Bellas Artes and a pioneering figure in the Medellin rap scene. “He was cultural manager, a researcher of the rap movement, concerned about art,” said several fellow rappers from the “Clika Underground” movement, which he helped found in 1993, reported El Colombiano.
This is the sixth attack on local musicians in two years. Just over a month ago 17-year-old rapper Daniel Alejandro Sierra was murdered in the city’s Comuna 13. His murder led local hip hop artists to organize a march calling for an end to the violence.
At its best, the hip hop scene in Medellin offers an outlet for young people to express themselves, providing an avenue for them to publicize their stories and offering an alternative to a life of drugs and violence.