What funk did for Brazil’s class consciousness: A brief history
If you think your first trip to Rio is going to be greeted with gentle bossa nova riffs playing softly in the background, you’re about to get the culture shock of your life, for the first Brazilian-born electronic music genre is a stereotype breaker.
Imagine unnecessarily heavy bass, topped with metallic sounds, screaming excessive lyrics usually regarding someone’s backside, possibly using the well-known melody of a song you already know, but turning it into a cheap-sounding remake. If that sou
nds unenticing, it shouldn’t as this funk is a creative re-imagination of hip-hop and European electronic music, with the added element of being a unanimously appreciated political movement.
The samba wave isn’t quite over, and the older generations still favour the country-sounding Sertanejo, especially in the cowboy Gaucho regions of the South, but there’s no question what any speakers in Brazil will be blasting on a Friday night. The younger generations are especially captivated by its fast vocal chops and distinctive drum patterns, but it holds particular resonance with the lower classes and Afro-descendants of Brazil’s North-East.
“Funk music was a statement of Afro-Brazilian identity, as well as a struggle for cultural rights,” explained Mano Teko of Apafunk, the president of the organisation for funk rights, to Sounds and Colours, adding, “It was the only opportunity for the oppressed to raise their voice and sometimes it still is”. The movement emerged out of Rio’s favelas, providing relief for the city’s poorest residents through roaring parties and rebellious lyrics that celebrate favela culture, which suddenly made their dress code popular, and speaking up against the police found its place in popular culture.
This had a polarising effect, with well-to-do citizens involving lawmakers to combat the more daring side of funk, which sometimes glorified defiance of authorities and favela factions like Comando Vermelho. Since it is illegal to promote crime through music, authorities began to crack down on this distasteful sound, attacking its image in the press as sympathetic to drug crime and violence, and using it as an additional excuse to fuel police violence in the underprivileged areas of the city.
Although Brazilian people are known to be ever-smiling and warm, the more aggressive sound is still representative of the nation’s love for dance, since its fast pace makes for incredible diversity in its dynamic dance tradition. Every region of Brazil has its own version, and its variations are starting to gain traction elsewhere on the continent and abroad, with its best-known sub-genres including the socially conscious funk consciente, the sexually charged funk putaria, and a literally illegal category, proibidão, or ‘strongly prohibited’, whose explicit and immoral lyrics are what caused so much controversy with authorities, to the point where it’s actually been banned in clubs.
Police have raided baile funk events on the pretext of cracking down on drug and gang activity, while rival factions may also try to stop parties by playing a competing gang’s music. Although music has had a political charge throughout history, Teko argues that this sudden outrage at an emerging culture is due to its extensive power. “The texts are not an ode to violence but simply a record of the daily reality in the favelas. Does a newsreader not do the same? And does he get punished? The truth is that the municipality bans funk because they are afraid of its power. Funk is a form of protest, and in the favelas any form of protest is forbidden,” he said.
Sharing its name with American funk doesn’t mean the two are all too compatible, and even though they both have their roots in African-American struggle, the Brazilian kind has a stronger drum presence and tempo, with echoes of Miami bass that have no place in James Brown-esque funk. Brazil also enriched its genre with local percussion and unique social commentary, with a danceability like no other, and blending it with pop and international artists has helped explode Brazil’s high-speed strain worldwide.
Global stars like Karol G and Anitta have collaborated on some of its tracks, bringing its fruits to a more diverse audience, such that it is now increasingly mixed in clubs, with techno furthering its incorporation into Gen Z’s music roster. To train the naked ear to what might otherwise seem as an incoherent jumble of distractions, here are our top 15 funk tracks to get into the genre.
15 funk tracks to start your journey:
- Claudinho e Buchecha – ‘Conquista’ (1996)
- Deize Tigrona -‘Injeção’ (2002)
- MC Serginho and Lacraia – ‘Égua Pocotó’ (2003)
- Tati Quebra Barraco -‘Boladona’ (2004)
- MC Carol -‘Meu Namorado é Mó Otário’ (2012)
- Anitta – ‘Show das Poderosas’ (2013)
- MC Kevinho – ‘Olha a Explosão’ (2016)
- MC Fiotti – ‘Bum Bum Tam Tam’
- WIU – ‘Rainha da Finesse’ (2024)
- DJ Luan Gomes and Lou Garcia – ‘Não Fosse Tão Tarde’ (2024)
- Nilo e MC Paiva – ‘Fui Mlk’ (2024)
- Hungria Hip-Hop and MC Jacaré – ‘Pinxadão’ (2024)
- MC Daleste, MC Marley, and MC Mury da ZN – ‘Quem É Essa Menina de Vermelho’ (2023)
- Pedro Sampaio – ‘Pocpoc’ (2023)
- DJ Dennis and Kevin O Chris – ‘Tá OK’ (2023)
