This chapter is a study of music and violence in action films set in Rio de Janeiro’s poorest neighborhoods. It traces how the Brazilian films Cidade de Deus [City of God] (2002) and Tropa de Elite [Elite Squad] (2007) rely both on visual language that emphasizes hyperrealistic slum violence, and on musical tropes that carry a local meaning linked to roguery and cunning. It argues that these films were part of a larger trend of national policies that incentivized filming in the poorest neighborhoods, in essence profiting off decades of neglect. The use of musical styles to emphasize or critique the symbolic links of those neighborhoods to crime was often not available to international audiences unfamiliar with the legacy of styles such as samba and carioca funk.