Coke. Guns. Booty. Beats.

July 30, 2005 1:18 PM

Coke. Guns. Booty. Beats. In the slums of Rio De Janeiro, drug lords armed with submachine guns have joined forces with DJs armed with massive sound systems and rude, raunchy singles. Welcome to the most exciting—and dangerous—underground club scene in the world.
posted by Count Ziggurat (23 comments total)

There are samples of Rio Funk here (under "Break Beats").
posted by cmonkey at 1:30 PM on July 30, 2005

Damn you cmonkey, I enjoyed the article much more before I knew how shitty the music was that they were writing bout.
posted by Edible Energy at 1:40 PM on July 30, 2005

Yeah, I don't really understand the appeal. Here's another article.
posted by cmonkey at 1:47 PM on July 30, 2005

reminds me of the movie City Of God which rocked.
posted by delmoi at 1:54 PM on July 30, 2005

Whatever, Edible Energy. Favala music (like most Brazillian music) is fucking, fucking great.
posted by Tlogmer at 2:03 PM on July 30, 2005

Tlogmer: if you're referring to the samples linked to by cmonkey, then I think your dictionary is upside down.
posted by Edible Energy at 2:25 PM on July 30, 2005

" They start to chant: "We are the terror possessed by hatred. We will invade Side B and take the Germans. We want blood. We want slaughter. We want bodies on the floor." "

I always find it a bit shocking reading about life in the favelas. Someone posted a story to the blue a few months ago by author Martin Amis about Colombia - same essential gang violence, drugs, shanty hovels and widespread disabilities and of course endemic poverty. So I kind of find the music (and those samples cmonkey linked were crap IMHO) a bit beside the point in a way, despite it being the 'voice of the subjugated people' or whatnot. It just brings up the economic disparities in such places and reminds what a shambolic path most South American nations have had politically in the last couple of hundred years. oy.
Thanks for the post Count Ziggurat.
posted by peacay at 2:27 PM on July 30, 2005

I was in the coastal Oaxaca, Mexico area a few months ago and happened upon a youth dance. The beats coming out of there were strident, military-sounding beat-crunch numbers that kinda set me on edge. First time I'd heard this latin machiney sound. Rio Funk reminds me of it a bit, especially the group "furacao", from cmonkeys link. Guess I'm getting to be an old fuddy-duddy.
posted by telstar at 2:47 PM on July 30, 2005

Oh. You're right; that particular sample really sucked. Check the "balle funk" file on this page -- much better.
posted by Tlogmer at 3:23 PM on July 30, 2005

Oops. Working link.
posted by Tlogmer at 3:23 PM on July 30, 2005

Jeez, I've just turned 37 and you lot make me feel about 18! If you find Rio Funk (the music) heavy going you should try Gabber (Plain or Rotterdam flovour - samples are under 'Hardcore' via cmonkey's link.)

I'd forgotten about this tho'...it's pretty fucked up but then living with crime and poverty is pretty fucked up. There are some pretty sketchy edges to the party scenes around the world whether it's ketamine-fuelled squat parties in London or the Jamaican sound clashes where, like Funk Balls, the coke, guns & gangsters can have a heavy influence.

I'd love to go to one of these and get some first-hand experience but I do have an aversion to being beaten up or shot. But I'm not sure how much the danger is over-played in articles like this to make a more compelling story...
posted by i_cola at 3:57 PM on July 30, 2005

Damn you cmonkey! I pissed away my entire afternoon on that site!
posted by neilkod at 4:04 PM on July 30, 2005

I had the same experience of loving the idea of this music, and then being disappointed by the actual music. But then I've never really been a fan of dance music.
posted by OmieWise at 4:16 PM on July 30, 2005

I'm digging the first track from Tlogmer's link.
posted by muckster at 4:22 PM on July 30, 2005

Tlogmer's link is much higher quality. Sounds a lot less like the Miami Bass samples from Ishkur.
posted by Bugbread at 4:50 PM on July 30, 2005

Cmonkey, your link is great. Coupled with liveplasma, it's a nice way to stick the proper genre and band names to your musical preferences.

I found myself in the 'downtempo' section.
posted by Laotic at 4:57 PM on July 30, 2005

Don't get me wrong, Cmonkey's link (Ishkur) is about as best of the web as best can be. Presumably, the samples just aren't that great because either Ishkur isn't a big fan of Rio Funk (finding tunes representative of a certain genre in techno is hard if you aren't a fan of that particular genre, so finding a tune that is both representative and high quality is even harder), or because much of Ishkur's guide is several years old, so the genre may have progressed quite a bit since then.
posted by Bugbread at 5:16 PM on July 30, 2005

Another good site with mp3s (check the directories to the top left of page for lots of mp3s).
posted by stifford at 5:34 PM on July 30, 2005

Another link - there was an article in Slate a few weeks ago.

Favela on Blast (bottom left hand side) makes me happy, well worth downloading.
posted by elgoose at 5:57 PM on July 30, 2005

the dj sujinho 'i love baile funk' mix off of boomselection is pretty fuckin great, IMO. The selections on Ishkur are horrid.

Those parties sound like something I'd love if I was about ten years younger.
posted by mosch at 12:33 AM on July 31, 2005

telstar: You might have heard reggaeton, which is huge in Mexico, and as I understand, in the rest of Latin America. If anyone wants to check it out, "Gasolina" by Daddy Yankee is a good place to start. It should be really easy to find on P2P networks, since it's so popular at the moment. Personally, I used to think it was kind of horrible, but it's so catchy and dancable, it grew a lot on me, and now I kind of like it.

Some of the Brazilian funk stuff sounds similar to me, but reggaeton is more melodic, while funk just sounds like, yeah, gabber, which I hate.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 3:39 AM on July 31, 2005

Huh. I'm not hearing the gabber at all. The Ishkur stuff sounds like miami bass, while Tlogmer's DJ Sujinho mix sounds more like a mix of miami bass and tribal house, with a few little forays into nortec (northern Mexican techno).
posted by Bugbread at 5:20 AM on July 31, 2005

[Clarification: 'If you find Rio Funk (the music) heavy going you should try Gabber...' = 'There are far scarier styles of music']

Thanks for some cool links and recommendations in the thread guys...something to do the ironing too laters...
posted by i_cola at 8:23 AM on July 31, 2005