British Rapper Kenny Vulcan Disappears in Brazil
Family and friends of British rapper Kenny Vulcan are concerned after he's reportedly gone missing in Brazil.
According to the Daily Mail, the 22-year-old rhymer disappeared some time after he left a recording studio in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil last Friday (April 13).
Vulcan's friends noted that his phone had been "switched off" and that his social media accounts had been deleted. The U.K. rapper's 20-year-old girlfriend, Renata Lima, registered the rapper's disappearance after he didn't return her messages and failed to make contact with his family in the U.K. or his friends in Brazil. Lima says Vulcan brought his passport and two cell phones with him to Barra da Tijuca's OdKill recording studio on Thursday night (April 12). Vulcan's recording session carried over late into the night and no one has seen him since.
Vulcan, born Kenny Mukendi, had been in Brazil since last December and had been making arrangements to forge a music career from inside the country. One of those arrangements involved trying to apply for a work permit so that he could live in the country for an extended period of time.
According to Lima, Vulcan left all of his personal belongings in the living space they occupied during their time in Brazil. She says that the rapper's lack of a motive for leaving the country and the fact Vulcan isn't fluent in Portuguese—the dominant language in the country—made her concerned.
Lima says she'd been talking to Vulcan until she fell asleep at 1 p.m. When she woke up four hours later, she found that she'd been notified that her boyfriend's Instagram account had been deleted.
"I got scared and tried to get in touch with him another way, but his phones weren't working," Lima recalls. "His international cellular had run out of battery on Thursday and his Brazilian phone was switched off. I sent WhatsApp messages asking where he was, but he didn't respond."
Lima, who says she tried to reach Vulcan through Facebook only to find it was offline, says she also contacted OdKill Records for information on her boyfriend's whereabouts. The musicians he was working with that day say the rapper left after a lengthy recording session last Thursday night. They were still sleeping at the time he left the building. They didn't have any clues as to where he might have been headed. Last Saturday (April 14), Lima visited the studio to confirm that her boyfriend had indeed disappeared.
Vulcan's friend and fellow musician Tony Mariano says the aspiring entertainer had no plans to make a return to the U.K., and that his career plans in Brazil indicated that fact.
"[Vulcan is] a really nice guy," Mariano offers. "He was peaceful, not worried about the violence here and had no problems with anyone. He was really happy, loved it here and wanted to stay in Brazil. In fact, he was looking for a job in the music industry because he didn't want to go back to the U.K."
The investigation is now being handled by Brazil's Missing Persons Department (DDPA). Vulcan is a 6 foot albino man and he was last seen wearing a Flamengo football jersey, black trousers, white Nike sneakers and a baseball cap. A video of Lima dying Vulcan's hair was shared on Facebook in the hopes that it would help people locate the rapper.
Rais Bono Mapianda, who spoke on behalf of Vulcan's family, says his cousin had been in talks to set up a meeting with the Brazilian division of Universal Records before his mysterious disappearance. Before that, he'd appeared as an extra in music videos for Mary J. Blige, Fat Boy Slim and Sam Smith.
Mapianda says he and the rest of Vulcan's family learned about the rapper's disappearance through Lima. He says their family has contacted London's foreign office and that the office contacted the British Embassy afterwards. Interpol is involved with the investigation.
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