In the first book-length study of Brazilian gangster funk in English, the author draws on a unique combination of ethnography and community activism undertaken across several years living and working in the favela of Rocinha—one of Rio’s largest—to explore its rise. On the surface, the core narrative he identifies pits favela residents against the middle and upper classes of mainstream Brazilian society. At a deeper level, though, he interprets it as a story of a communally oriented Afro-Atlantic worldview versus the dehumanizing colonialist and imperialist one. Brazilian gangster funk is an expression of the utopian edge of Rio’s urban youth culture pointing towards an improbable, yet powerful sense of hope for greater coexistence, not only for young people in Rio’s favelas but for all of us anywhere.
Brazilian funk has its origins in the dance parties of the young, mostly Black and racially mixed poor inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro in the early 1970s, set to the sounds of African American soul and funk. The music of these bailes funk evolved along with the advent of electronic music and hip hop—primarily through the influence of styles like electro funk, freestyle dance and Miami bass and groups and artists like 2 Live Crew, Grandmaster Flash, Stevie B and DJ Battery Brain. Due to the mass gang fighting at many dance halls across the city’s low-income suburbs in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the bailes funk relocated to Rio’s informal, low-income favela communities. There, funk carioca underwent a crucial shift as local MCs and DJs began performing in Portuguese to address the daily lives of Rio’s poor youths. They also started playing proibidão, as Brazilian gangster funk is called in Portuguese, often in homage to the criminal factions who ostensibly controlled those communities and hosted the parties.