Cuban Hip Hop Mourns the Passing of Rodolfo Rensoli

On Friday, June 6, Rodolfo Rensoli passed away. He was an indispensable figure in Cuban urban culture, a poet, visual artist, educator, and dreamer; a beacon of consciousness and resilience, a tireless defender of Afro-Cuban roots, and an architect of the country's rap movement, the Cuban Rap Agency (ACRap) reported.

Through a note published on its Facebook profile, ACRap recognized the immense legacy of the man who created the First Cuban Rap Festival (1995), a space that gave voice to a generation eager to express themselves, and the founder of Grupo Uno, a collective that laid the foundations for national rap.

It considered Rensoli a visionary of the Cuban Rap Agency, a project that institutionalized the genre and fused it with Cuban cultural identity. He not only promoted hip hop, but also Cubanized it, imbuing it with history, struggle, and poetry.

The statement from the Cuban Institute of Music and the Cuban Rap Agency conveyed condolences to the family and friends of the artist, who was born in Havana on June 13, 1966.

Rensoli, winner of the Ibero-American Comic Book Award, graduated with a degree in Cultural Heritage Management and worked as a specialist at the Provincial Center for Plastic Arts and Design in Havana.