Funk Carioca

Baile funk is a genre of dance music and hip hop music originating in Brazil. It is sometimes also called Rio funk and is mainly based on Miami bass music, a sub-genre of hip hop. Unlike Miami bass, however, Baile funk also uses traditional Afro-Brazilian rhythms. The lyrics often explicitly deal with sex, violence and drugs.

The track "Quem Que Caguetou (Follow Me Follow Me)" by Tejo Black Alien & Speed was a minor hit in both Germany and the UK, thanks to its usage in a car commercial.

Important baile funk groups and artists

Listed after the name of the groups are major hits the group or artist has had.

• Furação ("Ta Tudo Dominado", "So As Cachorras")
• MC Serginho ("Eguinha Pocotó")
• MC Andinho
• DJ Sujinho
• MC Vanessinha ("Dança da Peteca")
• MC Tati Quebra Barraco
• Bonde do Tigrão ("O Baile Todo")
• Denis DJ ("Cerol Na Mao")
• MCs Naldinho & Beth ("Tapinha")
• De Falla ("Popozuda Rock'n'Roll")
• MC Jack E Chocolate ("Pavaroty")
• Ricardo E Esquisito ("Mulher Coca Cola")

http://www.theworld.org/globalhits/index.shtml

Think of Afro-Brazilian samba mixed in with some American hip hop beats and even a little electronic music from Europe. And you've got a truly international musical style. It's been performed in Brazil for 30 years, and starting to enjoy some popularity abroad. The World's Ruxandra Guidi has today's Global Hit.

In the mid 70s, while James Brown was getting down to his "Sex Machine" album...Brazilian singers moved to similar beats deep in the favelas, or shantytowns. They named their musical style "baile funk," which translates from the Portuguese to "funk balls or parties."

Today, baile funk is still very much alive both inside and outside the slums of Rio de Janeiro. James Brown, Parliament, and the Blackbyrds continue to be major musical influences. As are soul, disco, American hip-hop and electronic music.

Even though MCs entertain hundreds of people at huge parties each week, the style remains an underground phenomenon. Their mix CDs and cassettes are made at home, with old casio synthesizers, and are sold only on the streets.

Daniel Haaksman is a German DJ. A few years ago, he says he was taken aback when he heard baile funk for the first time, streaming out of a pair of speakers on a street in Rio.

Daniel Haaskman: "I constantly go to record shops and I'd never heard about baile funk before, so I was really surprised that there's something that is made electronically and with digital equipment but that is still not known in Europe."

Haaksman bought more than 80 homemade CDs on that trip. Once back in Berlin, he started compiling some of his favorite new baile funk songs...The CD is "Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats" - and it's the first to bring this music to an international audience.

This group, "Os Tchutchucos," uses live accordion music and heavy bass beats to produce a song that is equal parts Brazilian samba and American hip-hop. The song is called "Chapa Quente," meaning "hot plate" - a Brazilian expression often used to describe a sexy woman.

Baile funk lyrics are explicit and raw, making references to sex, drugs and violence. Daniel Haaksman says these songs paint an accurate picture of life in the favelas.

Daniel Haaksman: "The social reality of the favela is reflected in the music, in the lyrics...some of the lyrics, they praise gangles, they name gangsters and how many people they've killed."

Baile funk and its performers often make headlines in Brazil. In 2001, a judge forbade seven-year-old MC Jonathan Costa from performing the song "Jonathan 2000" at parties. In the judges' words, the song had "pornographic content".

That same year, Rio de Janeiro's Health Secretary denounced funk parties in the slums, saying kids were practically having sex on the dance floor.

So it comes as no surprise that baile funk is frowned upon by the middle class, and the media. But Silvio Essinger, a music critic from Rio, says baile funk is an important cultural expression. And, he says, it offers poor youth in Rio a rare opportunity for fun.

Silvio Essinger: "To understand baile funk, you have to look at it the same way you look at punk rock. It's a scream, it's a cry for attention, and it's a musical force that was intended to shake the music mainstream."

Thirty years since the beginnings of baile funk, the music continues to thrive outside the mainstream. MCs still play every weekend at crowded favela balls that attract hundreds, sometimes thousands of people. Again, music critic Silvio Essinger.

Silvio Essinger: "They don't need radios, they don't need record companies, because the songs become popular before they go to the radio. They become popular on the ball...so they don't worry about getting record company contracts. They earn their money on the ball, that's how they earn money."

The soundtrack for the 2002 film, "City of God," brought baile funk to international audiences. So did a Coca-Cola ad two years ago, which was set to catchy baile music. German DJ, Daniel Haaksman, hopes his compilation will bring the music to new audiences, and encourage Brazilian artists to perform abroad.

Daniel Haaksman: "Now with the internationalization of this music, there's few MCs or DJs who make it to Europe and start to perform here, and it's quite likely that also in the future there will be collaborations between European or American music artists and Rio MCs or DJs."

Haaksman has returned to Rio a few times since he discovered baile funk. He's enjoyed going to the parties there so much, that this month, he threw the first baile funk ball in Berlin.

For The World, I'm Ruxandra Guidi.