The Sound Politics of Funk Carioca - Bruno Verner & Eliete Mejorado talk Funk Carioca at Sound System Outernational

SOUND SYSTEM OUTERNATIONAL: Sonic Entanglements: Jamaica, Europe and Brazil

Bruno Verner & Eliete Mejorado (TETINE / SLUM DUNK) discuss the sound of Funk Carioca  - the intense lo-down Miami-bass driven sound from Rio’s favela parties (aka Baile Funk) emerged in the 80’s. Topics include the role of Female MC’s in Rio's Baile Funk scene, the influence of Funk Carioca’ sound, beat-making and style on producers of bass culture around the world and its subsequent mainstream international popularity

 ***After the talk Bruno Verner and Eliete Mejorado play a set of new and old school Funk Carioca

The Sound Politics of Funk Carioca – excerpts from a conversation with Bruno Verner & Eliete Mejorado at Sound System Outernational 1 - Janeiro 16th, 2016 at Goldsmiths University

Bruno Verner: It’s a lot to compact in 15 minutes. But we should start by saying it all changes in Brazilian Culture with the release of the record Funk Brasil in 1989. That’s the beginning of the Funk Carioca sound. According to the great DJ Carlos Machado, the guy who had the idea to produce the compilation and record Brazilian funks with lyrics in Portuguese was Cidinho Cambalhota but then he was killed and DJ Marlboro took over the project and suggested the project to Polygram Brasil which released it. So in 1990’s with the success of the album (in its first volume) funk productions began to appear in commercial radio stations from Rio and Sao Paulo and in mainstream media. Funk Brasil was a big hit. It sold around 100.000 copies. And Funk became the official music of the hills. There’s how the first tracks of funk carioca appeared. And it was mostly made by people living in the favelas or connected to the scene and the parties in the hills.

Eliete Mejorado: However, the image, the sound and the idea the Brazilian ‘middle class’ propagated about Funk Carioca or Baile Funk was always dismissive … “oh no, this is not good enough to represent our culture”. The was  always a massive propaganda against it – actually and unfortunately there still is. The cliché was always the same. “This is not music, these people say and sing horrible things”. 

Bruno Verner:  Or…they would go ‘it is too machista or it is too homophobic’. And in reality what happens is quite the opposite. If one thinks of the politics of funk carioca from the point of view of the female MCs it all gets much more complex than simply stating the tracks, the discourse and the lyrics are misogynistic, aggressive, machista and all. We have to have in mind that Funk Carioca is a culture that brought spontaneous sexual politics, feminism, queerism and attitude to the agenda again.

Eliete Mejorado: It is not like Bossa Nova where all the girls are “good” and “honest” you see?  They are not honest at all. And not good at all. They say what they think. They talk about what they believe. They talk about their sexual experiences. They talk about what they like. And very loudly. And I mean it, loud! And they are not scared of anything, so the middle classes in Brazil became terrified and began hating them. For them, Funk Carioca girls, I mean artists,  are an example of something that you should not show to your kids.

Bruno Verner: At the beginning of the 2000’s the artists formed their ‘bondes’ which took the form of singing & dance ensembles. This is the beginning of the so called Funk Sensual scene which starts at Cidade De Deus with artists such as Deize Tigrona and Bonde das Bad Girls….. but also with Bonde Faz Gostoso, Vanessinha do Picachu. Waleska Popozuda and many others. They were all responsible for transforming the understanding of the style and for making it a frankly post-feminist event like no other in the world. Not to mention the combination of the raw chanting and rapping they brought to the music and the addition, or better, the incorporation of Tamborzao -  one of Funk Carioca’s most notorious sonic identities. I’m talking here in terms of beat and rhythmics.  I’m talking about a sonority which somehow is also directly influenced by religious drumming and therefore also linked to religious such as Camdomble or Macumba. This made an enormous difference in the scene in the beginning of the Noughties. The new beat was add to as second layer to DJ’s Battery Brain's famous "808 volt" which used to be the common beat used in most of the funk tracks, almost like a preset. Tamborzao brought a totally new sonority to the tracks and consequently interfered in the way new funks would be produced for ever. In Denise Garcia’s film Eu Sou Feia Mas To Na Moda, there’s a great scene with producers in action in a studio, going through different Tamborazao samples. This period of productions marked the beginning of what was later known as the Funk Sensual scene. The popularization of  Tamborazao made Favela Funk bass-heavier and also more “Brazilian” if compared to the earlier productions of the late 80’s and 90’s. This transformation changed the scene of Funk Carioca forever in the context of Brazil and internationally, and in my opinion made the style’s production universal if we think in different contexts for bass culture. Likewise, this change marks another phase for the style. It was also the first time women and trans were taking over the whole scene and becoming MCs, dancers with different voices and styles. Again if we compare it to the productions in the 90’s when everything was still very dominated by men who were the singers, the producers, the owners of clubs and DJs.

It was definitely a more masculine scene as a whole in the 90’s.

Eliete Mejorado: And violent. Should we show something?

Eli Mejorado: This is an excerpt of “Eu Sou Feia Mas To Na Moda” which translates as “I’m Ugly But Trendy” from the verses of Tati Quebra Barraco’s lyrics. In 2004 filmmamker Denise Garcia directed the film and Bruno and I co-produced it here in London.

The movie was premiered it at Brady Arts Centre in Whitechapel before it was exhibited in Brazil. Check out, this is Deize Tigrona doing her Injeçao (Injection).

Bruno Verner - And this is the late Ramona Gitty, a queer dancer and friend of Deize.

In this track although you cannot hear it now there are the horns …. Oh yes...now you can! These are the horns which American super star DJ Diplo and M.I.A famously sampled and then used on in their song “Buck Done Gun”. They were into Funk Carioca, and listening to our radio shows at Resonance Fm and probably had our compilation Slum Dunk Presents Funk Carioca. But this is another story.

As I told, the first productions of Funk Carioca were extremely influenced by Miami Bass. So most of the tracks had the Volt Mix beat on it. Then in 2000 with the process of“nationalization” of Funk Carioca and introduction of Tamborzao, which had been invented by a producer called Leo.

Eliete Mejorado: Tamborzao is influenced by Camdomble and Macumba. So There’s Ogan beat there. Ogan of Candomble who drums to call the Gods. The Macumba points. The Iansã point. There’s Oxum which is the Goddess of beauty. The queen of the Waterfalls.  The queen of the bracelets. This is all there somehow mixed in the funk tracks and incorporated in the style. Funk Carioca artists are probably granddaughters and grandsons of Samba players.

Eliete Mejorado:  Let’s see this short clip by Tati (Tati / Barracao I & II).

Bruno Verner: This is to contrast the idea that Funk Carioca is normally driven by men. It is actually not. Tati is superstar and she has the whole audience with her. In Brazil, it also faced a lot of prejudice because of the dance. People normally think it is vulgar. And this is also because of the content of their lyrics which are direct and in your face. There are two kinds of female MCs. Sometimes they put themselves in the position of the “lover" and sometimes in the position of the “loyal”. 

Eliete Mejorado: There are the battles between the girls and there’s also the prohibited funks (proibidoes) which are mostly about the reality of drug dealing, the killings and so on. They tell what is really happening. The stuff you are not supposed to talk about in commercial funk tracks.

Bruno Verner: It’s pretty much about the stuff which is not radiophonic and it does not go   outside the hills. It speaks about the politics of organized crime, drugs, drug dealers etc etc. proibidões in Portuguese mean literally the tunes which are prohibited. They are more difficult to find it as well.  You have to have connections but you’ll find them with some street vendors (camelos), where an entire pirate and Cdr culture takes place.

Eliete Mejorado: We should play this Bonde do Tigrao here.

Bruno Verner: To finalise we’ll play a track from our compilation “Slum Dunk Presents Funk Carioca” which was released back in 2004 on Mr Bongo Records. This was the first Funk Carioca album to be released outside Brasil. We’ll play a classic track by Bonde do Tigrao called “Cerol Na Mao”.

This is also just to say that there is a great deal of cannibalization and re-antropofagia taking place. For instance, here we see and hear the producers’ influences which are literally sampled and then displayed narratively to form the base for the track. Cerol Na Mao is produced with parts of Head Hunter by the industrial Belgian group Front 242.  There’s a lot of sampling going on here.

Bruno Verner: Listen!

Eliete Mejorado: And then comes the Tamborzao

Bruno Verner:  And then comes Headhunter from Front 242.

Eliete Mejorado: Thank you. This is just to say bye bye!

Bruno Verner: Thank you!