Baile Funk.
August 29th, 2005 by atari
Okay. I just experienced my first Baile Funk party in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. For those of you who may not know, favelas are the . Traditionally it was forbidden to build on the hills of the city and as a result Rio is one of the only cities where the privileged live at sea level and the poor live up above with breathtaking views of the sea and surrounding area. While the favels are rife with drug trade, my friends that live in Rocinha, Rio’s largest favela, claim that it is actually very safe to live there. The drug traffickers are notorious for keeping general crime down in the neighborhoods, although violence does errupt as a result of the drug trade itself. And the cops? They just stay out of the picture completely.
Back to Baile Funk. It is a genre that has emerged out of Brazil and has been picked up by such artists as and . It is not the type of funk you’d tradtionally think of in the US—it has a very electronic bassline to it. They sample songs from the mid 90s such as Prince’s When Doves Cry (see ), add a bassline, and add their own lyrics over it.
The music has been often criticized for its explicit sexual content or as mysogynistic, but according to my Brazlian friends, while sexual in nature, the music is far from anti-women. Many of the Baile Funk singers are actually women.
So Baile Funk is reasonable first because it just sounds really cool. It compeltely operates outside of any traditional model of copyright. People just freely sample from others—and this is appreciated within the community as opposed to being an invitation for a lawsuit. All of the music is produced locally and independently and sold on the streets for the equivalent of $1.50. The artists don’t make money from CD sales but instead they work as promotional material for the music itself. It is a self-sustaining music community that has emerged out of the slums of Brazil and is now fluorishing elsewhere in the world. And the parties are damn fun…
August 30th, 2005 at 10:45 am
Brazilian Independence Day this sunday. This calls for a favela. Where’s Benny when you need him.
August 30th, 2005 at 11:00 am
calls for a favela? you mean a baile?
and independence day is actually on next wed sept 7.
August 30th, 2005 at 12:11 pm
Buy CDs/LPs. Bring them home.
August 30th, 2005 at 12:22 pm
hehe. they don’t do vinyl here anymore…
August 31st, 2005 at 3:38 pm
ok i sent my friend from rocinha to buy me the latest funk mixes. diplo wants em too..
September 1st, 2005 at 12:39 pm
hey! i love baile funk, i would be very interested in any new mixes which might be available, or simply to talk about the burgeoning baile scene.
September 1st, 2005 at 1:29 pm
nice. well i just got two new compliations- As Melhores Do Funk and Funk Da Gente Volume 1. i’m also getting a dj malboro mix and neurotico 42 tomorrow… have you been to rio?
September 1st, 2005 at 2:31 pm
[...] Atari in Rio recounts his first Baile Funk, a type of dance party in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. [...]
September 1st, 2005 at 2:59 pm
for the record, it should be her first Baile Funk…
September 1st, 2005 at 4:53 pm
I’m hooked on Baile Funk. I have about four different “albums” that have been passed around on the net. Would you be able to put some of the latest mp3s on your blog (maybe as a zip file)?
September 1st, 2005 at 6:18 pm
yeah i just got four new mixes.. and the cool thing about it is that copyright is virtually nonexistent in baile funk, so we can put it up on our site w/o worries..
maybe i can make reasoner podcast #2 a baile funk mix…
September 5th, 2005 at 3:51 pm
yes! stop teasing us
September 5th, 2005 at 7:58 pm
sorry i’ve been in transit (and now highly jetlagged). email me about the funk atariteenage at gmail ….
September 11th, 2005 at 8:56 pm
here at calabash music we’d be very interested in showcasing some of the baille funk artists that you meet or can get music from. pls write back about how we can get some of this music up on our site.
September 25th, 2005 at 7:51 pm
[...] Okay well after much anticipation, Reasoner presents our second Podcast—a mix of all the great Baile Funk I was able to get my hands on while in Rio de Janeiro. Over an hour of our favorite favela beats. [...]
October 14th, 2005 at 9:21 am
where can I find baile funk artists in the us? artists names? albums?
November 5th, 2005 at 8:37 pm
I heard Diplo’s Favela On Blast…its smazing.
I live in Australia and it is almost impossible to get this music over here. Can anyone help me get my hands on some of this stuff?
seraphim@excite.com
November 5th, 2005 at 9:42 pm
see the .
November 10th, 2005 at 12:37 am
I have many baile funky musics but wanting more.
end for me e-mail
rocinhajj@yahoo.com.br
November 16th, 2005 at 1:53 pm
Is the name of your mix
“I Love Baile Funk”?
November 16th, 2005 at 9:16 pm
hey!! thanks for checking us out. no its not “i love baile funk” (i think that’s the one you made.) in fact, its reasonable baile funk (b/c of the name of our blog/podcast), but some people got confused since i put up an image of “i love baile funk.”
we have a tradition over here at reasoner of putting images with our post—that we generally get from elsewhere that relate to what we’re writing about. so i happened to find that one.
so when i saw that some people were calling it by the wrong name (rupture, blentwell, etc.), i tried to correct them, but it looks like the name stuck…
November 17th, 2005 at 7:55 pm
Oi DJ,
valeu
Brasileiro? não.
Sou Funkeiro
see you soon,the world is small
Vem Deus!
sujinho
NNNNNNNOOOOOOSSSSAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!
November 28th, 2005 at 3:22 am
Reasoner Podcast 2: Reasonable Baile Funk (92.7 MB) link fixed (?)
Liberated Syndication
HTTP Error 404 – The file you requested could not be found
Sorry. Please check the url.
Hi i am from Rio de Janeiro, i would like to grab your mix…
Why not host it as mp3 file ?
I Think i can help you if you want to…
:D
January 1st, 2006 at 8:02 pm
[...] We know you’ve all been waiting for it—so here it is. Our third podcast keeps the Brazilian theme with lots of fun Baile Funk, but sways toward what we term “Bailectro”: the fusion of Cansei de Ser Sexy (aka Tired of Being Sexy) with MC Edi-style Funk. The mix spans from Baile Funk to Electro to Post Punk to Tropicalia to Grime to Brega to Samba Rock to everything in between. All of the artists are Brazilian—with the exception of the Diplo and Sujinho tracks (and well, if they would just learn Portuguese, they might as well be). [...]
March 6th, 2006 at 2:51 am
WOW what I need is some of this music can anyone help me… thanks in advance
September 1st, 2006 at 8:39 pm
reasoner 3 – how do I hear the third podcast ? Im reallt interested in the next phase of baile funk i wanna see where its headed
88
September 23rd, 2006 at 3:16 am
A minha vida e o Funk! Gosto mto+++..o’gado pela musica..
Parabens..Atari
Zezinho
rocinhajj@yahoo.com.br
December 5th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
home office uk
March 7th, 2007 at 3:19 am
I love baile funk!!!! Это пиздец как круто!!!!@D.. Cool respect!!!