What is this Baile Funk?

Today, I just want to give you all out there a little line, a resource if you will, to seek out something on your own. Specifically, I have been getting a lot of questions about Brazilian music which makes sense because we play plenty here on 88Nine. Going even further, a number of questions on a “new” style of Brazilian beat-oriented sound—Baile Funk or Funk Carioca as it is even more commonly known.

From Wikipedia

Baile in Portuguese literally means “ball”, as in “dance party”, and “funk” is how locals label the musical genre (see below for origin of this label); therefore, “baile funk” means a “funk ball” or “funk party”, and is used in Brazil exclusively to describe the parties where such music is played, and not the music itself. The mainstream Brazilian media often calls the music “Funk Carioca”, meaning funk from Rio de Janeiro; alternately, it is simply referred to as “Funk”, especially in Rio de Janeiro.

Recently, funk carioca parties have been attracting attention outside Brazil. Foreign compilers also tend to use the term “Baile Funk” to represent the musical genre, which differs from the original Brazilian use of the term (the parties only). This may be due to English speakers seeing the word “baile” as an adjective to “funk”, as English word order might suggest.Since “bailes funk” or funk parties take place mostly in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and of other cities since about the 2000s, it is also sometimes known in English as “Favela Funk”.

Brazilian record suppliers who went to the United States in the 1970s to buy what was called at the time “Black Music” for Brazilian DJs targeted stores that sold American Funk records. As they continued to support the same hotspots over time, though American music had evolved away from Funk into new genres such as Hip Hop, the word “funk” stuck in local usage.

Miami was then a popular place to obtain records for Brazilian DJs, and therefore, Miami Bass was prominent in these imports. DJ Nazz and Tony Minister were the main suppliers credited to bringing Miami Bass recordsto Brazil while still referring to them as American funk records. Other local music producers began mimicking these importers in the late 1980s. The influence of Miami is also reflected in the prominence of freestyle-style synth melodies.

Much like any kind of hip hop music, funk carioca relies heavily on samples and interpolations of other songs, as well as of pre-existent funk music. Much of the production occurs in small-scale studios in Rio, and achieve distribution through hand-burned CDs in the markets throughout Rio and all over Brazil, from São Paulo to the Amazônia region. One of the first funk carioca widespread hits was a remix of Tag Team’s “Whoomp! (There It Is)” tune.

The Miami connection is important because in its more recent history Funk Carioca has been making waves in this country and this has a lot to do with one southern-bred DJ/producer named Diplo who encountered it at a party while spinning with a Brazilian DJ crew called Hollertronix. He has since incorporated the style into his own music as well as supporting Brazilian Funk artists himself.

Bonde De Role, a group we’ve been playing here for a bit is one of his finds, and if the response I’ve been hearing is right, y’all here in Milwaukee are feeling as much as I am.
While it would be easy to write a book on the subject, better to give you all some tools. So here is a nice list of some individual artists:
Bonde do Tigrão (hits: “O Baile Todo” (All The Party), “Cerol na Mão”)
Deise Tigrona (“Injeção” famous for providing the introductory sample to popular artist M.I.A.’s song, “Bucky Done Gun”)
DJ Mavi (rmx of Afrikan Bambaata’s “Be More Shake” released on EP at USA, 2005)
DJ Marlboro
MC Biruleibe (an almost 60 years old man who has been popularized with his hits “Treme a Tabaca” and “Be-a-ba”)
MC Catra (hit: “Adultério” (Adultery))
MC Colibri (hits: “Bolete”, “Pau na Coxa” (Dick On Tigh))
MC Jack E Chocolate (hit: “Pavaroty” [sic])
MC Leozinho (hit: “Se Ela Dança” (If She Dances)), “Tudo é Festa” (Everything’s a Party)
MC Marcinho-One of the most important names in melody funk. (Hit: “Glamurosa”)
MC Serginho (hits: “Eguinha Pocotó” (Little Mare), “Vai Lacraia” (Go On Centipede)
MC Vanessinha (hit: “Dança da Peteca”)

Some great compilations as well (just to get started):
Various Artists:
Rio Baile Funk: More Favela Booty Beats
Various Artists
Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats

Some titles from Diplo as well:
Piracy Funds Terrorism (with M.I.A.) (2004))
Favela Strikes Back (2005)
Favela on Blast (2004
And this should help you all out there to get started with your Baile Funk collections.

MC Marcinho

Diplo’s Favela on Blast Trailer

Bonde Do Role