Baile Funk 101
Is it wrong of me to slowly be getting into baile funk? As a genre it has slowly been developing for the better part of three decades, and recently I have started building a better appreciation for it.
After an hour or so of researching, here is what I have come up with about the genre and just naming a few of the modern day pioneers of the genre in the mainstream world. The genre started out as funk inspired street dance music from Braizl, which has evolved over the years and has greatly influenced modern day dance music. The commonly used drum loop can be tracked back to Dj Battery Brain’s track 808 volt, which is commonly referred to as Voltmix.
The growth and development of the genre can be dated back to the 70s in Miami, thanks to the developing music scene there and also the proximity to Brazil compared to other developing music cultures. It all started when Brazilian record suppliers would base themselves there in the hope of finding out the next smash hit or genre, slowly over time they started to have a real connection to the local “black music scene” and this was warmly accepted into Brazilian musical culture.
Over time the music in Miami evolved away from funk into new genres such as Hip Hop, but the term funk stuck in the Brazilain vocabulary. The greatest influence to the Brazilian Funk sound was its emergence from Rio’s Favelas (festivals) and takes components from Brazilain Funk and early Hip hop. These Favelas played a very important role in terms of integrating the culture of the favelas with the culture of the city at large.
The genre first became popular in the 80s and from the mid 90s it was developed into a mainstream phenomenon in Brazil, where songs were sung about poverty, racial pride of black people, violence, social injustice and the list goes on, it was a way for locals to express themselves.
One of the early producers outside of Brazil who took advantage and commercialized this new sound was Diplo and his work with M.I.A on the successful Piracy Funds Terrorism mixtape, with a series of three tracks simply entitled Baile Funk One, Two and Three, as well as some other mash ups with the drum kick supporting them.
♪ Diplo/M.I.A – Baile Funk Two
♪ Diplo/M.I.A – China Girl (Diplo Mix)
It is not right to talk about the genre without talking about Edu K, he is touted as “Brazil’s #1 MC and pin up boy of the baile funk sound. The fact that he was born and raised in Brazil would have a great influence on his music production, in his early years he was utalising the growing popularity of the genre to establish himself as a producer, and over time his production has matured and developed into a more distinct style. In his early days of production he was very much a big funk producer and brought the genre a lot of attention when one of his tracks was used in a soft drink TV advertisement in Germany.
♪ Edu K – Bundalele Baile Jean
♪ Bumblebeez – Dr Love (Edu K Baile Funk Remix)
So basically that is a little history about the genre, based on my research. I’d love to get some positive feedback about some artists who are currently killing it at the moment, because as it stands most of the stuff I am hearing is pretty repetitive and not very innovative.
Tomorrow’s post will be a review of the new DJ Hero game, so stay tuned !
Jax