MC Poze do Rodo, one of Brazilian funk's most-streamed voices, had been signed to Rio label Mainstreet Records since March 2021. On 29 May 2025 he was arrested at home by Rio's drug repression police (DRE) on a temporary warrant: the investigation accused him of apologia to crime and alleged his shows were financed by the Comando Vermelho faction — citing a 19 May concert in Cidade de Deus among the evidence. The case was still open when it happened again.
On 15 April 2026 federal police arrested him a second time, in a mega-operation against a money-laundering scheme moving more than 1.6 billion reais; a habeas corpus freed him on 14 May. Two criminal investigations inside fourteen months made the artist uninsurable for brand-facing work — shows freeze, collaborators walk, and the label's revenue base erodes long before any trial concludes. On 20 July 2026 Mainstreet announced the contract was over, framed as a mutual decision.
The press called it a million-real-scale deal ending. For the label the calculation was commercial rather than moral: a recording contract monetises releases, shows and an artist's availability, and all three had collapsed twice over. The split closed one of funk's most lucrative partnerships without a single courtroom verdict.
Mainstreet terminated the million-real contract after the second arrest, writing off remaining value because the artist's availability had collapsed twice over.
The label had priced the artist's street persona into the deal; once the state acted twice, the risk stopped being brand colour and became operational
Arrests cancel shows, freeze collaborations and make brand partners walk — the contract's revenue base erodes before any trial concludes
Framing the split as mutual agreement let both sides keep the door open, but the remaining contract value was written off all the same
A talent contract with legal risk priced in is a bet with a reset clause: one arrest is publicity, two arrests rewrite the economics, and the label exits before any verdict.
Mainstreet moved on without its biggest funk name while the two investigations — apologia to crime and alleged faction links from 2025, money laundering from 2026 — continued. Poze's catalogue stayed on streaming platforms. No label announced a comparable signing while the cases were open.
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