RIO DE JANEIRO by chiara rimoldi
If you think Samba is the object of this love affair, you’re wrong. A brief look at Estaçao Primeira (the samba school of Mangueira, the favela in Rio's city centre and the primadonna in the history of samba) reveals that the majority of songwriters are either old fools (both literally and figuratively) detached from the people or white middle-class mumma’s boys. Despite what the travel books may tell you the truth is this: the favela dances to the rhythym of a different beat. Simply go to Mangueira on a friday night and you’ll witness the lustful fusion between the ghetto and the carioca funk, a new musical movement born in Rio at the start of the nineties. There is no doubt, carioca funk sets hearts on fire. Old basketball courts are transformed in 'funk raves', dens of vice, dance and sexual transgressions. Indeed, the entrance and exit routes are patrolled by the 'soldiers of drugtrafficking' on the inside and by the police on outside. To keep the funk parties thriving, deals are struck with the devil. A party like the one in the Fazendinha, in Complexo do Alemão (a conglomerate of favelas in the north side of Rio), costs the drug cartel something around 30,000 reais (12,000 euro) every Sunday. This stiff amount is paid, against their will, to corrupt police officers and buys a promise from the pigs to not intrude into the party. Like sound drenched curtains, the walls are covered with speakers. Two or three sound systems are placed strategically at different corners of the party, covering the favela with its grinding emenitions. The sound that explode from these infernal peaks, is nothing more than the bastard child of Miami Bass, the kind of funk which exploded in the 80s USA. However, a space is always left for DJs and MCs to contend with each other for the crowd’s devotion. It is difficult to recognise the origins of carioca funk. The rhthym has gone through a cultural adaptation and now finds itself twisted with african sounds and dripping with latin flavours. Drum and bass is present and accounted for and lately even tecno has begun to slither between the toned thighs of this new musical movement. The boundaries are yet to be definited, right now there is space for everything and everybody. Funk goes from the 'putaria' (whore), using vulgar lyrics and semi-naked dancers, to portray the sexual freedom of the favelas, to the political 'proibidão' (the prohibited funk), a kind heavily repressed by media and police for being an apology to the criminal factions that control the city. Labels like 'GANG' and 'PXC' have built their fame and clientele around the success of carioca funk and, without even knowing it, have found themselves associated with urban criminality. It is common knowledge that only the lovers of drugtraffickers can afford to walk around the favela with expensive clothes. Funk’s people, its constituency, are sensual, sleazy and grouchy. The girls take hours to get ready, scented, dressed in tight corsets, microskirts, high heels, perfect make up and tacky jewellery, in terms of femininity the Brazilian woman is second to no one. Tight jeans decorated with diamonds, go-go skirt, glass high heals, the look of carioca funkers does not lack seduction, fake orgasms and explicit sex. [to be continued ... for further info please contact the Author or Alex bi.] |