Ella's Introduction to Rio Funk/ Baile Funk
Baile Funk, called Funk Carioca (rio funk) or just Funk in Brazil, evolved since the 1990s from a mix of electro, miami bass and hiphop in the favelas of Rio.
The tracks often have sparse production and you can hear the brazilian sound in the percussion. Oh and there's lots of 808
Since 2000 or so there has been plenty of international interest in funk carioca, with a bunch of compilations coming out on European labels and the sound being picked up by producers worldwide.
Funk tracks can be pretty brutal, lyrics are often really sexual, and the samples are taken from anywhere and everywhere - old movies, cartoons, pop tracks, computer games..
Links to my funk pick.
This track is all about partying and you really hear the miami bass influence..
Click to viewThis track by Dennis DJ is tetris sample? something like that.
This track is pretty over the top, has some guitar and from my poor understanding of portuguese is a tribute to ass.
Popozuda Rock n Roll by De Falle
That's a pretty old track, which you can hear!
From one of the guys from De Falle, Edu K has headed in a more electro direction, but you will recognise the beat in this track!
In the track 'Baile Frik' by Frikstailers you can heavily hear the funk sound, though they're in fact from Argentina and the production is quite different and obviously no MC. Their myspace here www.myspace.com/frikstailers
Deize Tigrona is most known for her track 'injecao' which you can recognise in MIA's track Bucky Done Gun
This is her myspace www.myspace.com/deizetigrona
..and the MIA track
Bonde do Role are an awesome group who have taken funk influences and made awesome guitar pop. A bit like CSS, but better. Also if you have a problem with the production of funk, this will probably be more to your taste.
and some more
This video is talking about the volt mix and tamborzao beats (it has english subs) that you can hear in many tracks
Some good websites...
More detailed intro to funk and a list of popular artists - Go Go Gringo's Blog
Guardian article about funk - ghetto fabulous
Collection of some common words and expressions in funk - Funk dictionary
Man recordings
(there are plenty more out there, i'm just getting bored)
Some compilations to get you started:
DJ Marlboro - Bem Funk (available here) - lots of great tracks, including some of tracks of the wussy kind of funk (you'd know it when you heard it, basically it involves men singing and isn't that great from what I heard so far)
Rio Baile Funk - Favela Booty Beats (available here) - all the tracks on this are pretty old and it's not that broad a spread, but still quite a good introduction and a few classics on there.
Festa Funk Sabadaco (available here) I got this one the other day, it's more recent than the other two compilations and i think mostly has better production but still quite raw sounding. Deffinately would recommend this one.
Problem with buying funk is I don't really know anywhere to get it, a lot of european releases are pretty old and I don't speak portuguese so getting stuff from Brazil can be tricky. If anyone knows where to get music, tell me!
Everything I say should probably be prefixed by ''as I remember'' or ''I have read that'', because I've never been to Brazil and have know direct knoledge of anything.