baile funk in the observer music monthly

generally well written and interesting, but a shame once more that it's trailed as being all about sex and violence, guns & booties, with the headline Ghetto Fabulous. ho hum

now that's not really the point is it - you shouldn't just do what people want!

i liked the piece, though, and read it in blender a while back.

gumdrops said:

broadsheet readers like to read about that surrounding stuff more than hearing the actual music that comes from it so the OMM have probably done the right thing.

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thats not just limited to broadsheet readers. you only have to take a cursory peek at posts here to know the truth of that.

yeah obviously the surrounding stuff is interesting, and the way the article went into the complexities of all of that was also interesting, it's more the simple way it's presenterd on the front page, the contents page and the headline/tagline of the article that i object to. of course i can see why they do it, but that doesn't stop it being (a) lazy (b) pretty unhelpful (c) objectionable (d) borderline racist. especially noticeable when in the same issue they had that article about chris ofili's freeness project - which is all about changing people's one dimensional view of black music.

the same thing is apparent in the guardian article today by gary younge about hot 97 - the article itself is really interesting and balanced, offering some viewpoints and stories i haven't come across before, but the little box in the middle of the article (what are these things called?) trots out a list of 'hip hop royalty' all of whom have either been shot, killed or jailed. ho hum.

xiquet said:

the little box in the middle of the article (what are these things called?) trots out a list of 'hip hop royalty' all of whom have either been shot, killed or jailed. ho hum.

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Surely a great deal of hiphop reputation within the scene comes from having been shot, killed or jailed -- that's not an invention of the Guardian, is it?

no i don't think it's an invention of the guardian, but i don't think it's an important or inherent part of hip hop either - i'd say it's a misrepresentation that has been so widely-reproduced that many people take it to be unquestionably true

it's certainly got NOTHING to do with how i judge music - or how i think it should be judged - and therefore whenever it comes up i'll protest against it

xiquet said:

no i don't think it's an invention of the guardian, but i don't think it's an important or inherent part of hip hop either - i'd say it's a misrepresentation that has been so widely-reproduced that many people take it to be unquestionably true

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I think this is the basis of K-Punk's critique... that this image is not thrust upon hip-hop, it emanates from within it. I think he has a point .

xiquet said:

it's more the simple way it's presenterd on the front page, the contents page and the headline/tagline of the article that i object to.

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here's what it says:

Baile funk might be the most exciting music in the world - it certainly comes from one of its most dangerous places.

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now, the first statement is subjective; I think it's kind of fun as music goes, but 'most exciting'? nah.

but the second statement, surely, is quite accurate. the Brazilian slums are very violent places - is this in dispute?

>Baile funk might be the most exciting music in the world - it certainly comes from one of its most dangerous places.

One gets the impression that the reader is meant to understand a connection between these two things. This is somewhat objectionable IMO.

My head sounds like that

'funk' was mentioned 47 times in the article, but what does it sound like, there wasn't ample description.

intertonic said:

'funk' was mentioned 47 times in the article, but what does it sound like, there wasn't ample description.

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Miami Bass + bongos + shouting in Portuguese

Didn't anyone else think the piece was interesting for fleshing out the social backdrop to the music? I for one found it fascinating, and if it was accurate, I don't think it's possible to separate the context from the music "in itself" (wasn't that what Derrida meant by his infamous and oft-misquoted "Il n'y a pas dehors de text"? - there is always a context).

Specifically if the bailes are run by drug gangs and the vocals are peppered with shout-outs to gang members, exhortations to shoot rivals etc., not to mention the crass sexual content, then for me this seriously complicates how the music is listened to. A bit like the complications of taking cocaine, when you know it's come from Columbia and is cut with as much blood as sugar... or more appropriately listening to US rappers perpetuate mythical stereotypes of rogue black masculinity that actually cause huge problems for the under-privileged African American audience they're selling them to. In a sense the context of baile funk makes it more "real" than the cartoonish aspect of US hip hop, and maybe even more exciting because of this, but at the very least the context colours on the listening experience, no?

ivy league vs. favela

dHarry in particular

I too think that the piece was interesting for mapping out a social backdrop that is the engine for the music. And that it would make for uncomfortable listening because of the precise context that generates a style or sound, but also it appears at least from the article that there is an ambiguity as to whether it is an escape valve keeping a lid on an volcanic underbelly or a rallying call for violent fomentation.

I agree that this backdrop colours the musical experience, but can we really understand that experience, or listen to it with the same ears. Does a narrative or story convey the same message if it is translated or set within a different environment? I'm not so sure.

In some ways I prefer hip hop and rap as it stands now. They are actors enacting fantasies onto plastic/tape or digital. Unfortunately, as many of us are aware impressionable minds take them too seriously through their emulation of them. But in some ways I prefer this (ivy-league graduated hip hoppers posturing as gangsta or pimp) to the re-al politic of the music that seems to be emanating from the favelas. Am I being fair, is that a reasonable analysis? I don’t know.

I will come back to this after I have had a good listen.

Be well.
intertonic

Pearsall said:

here's what it says:

"Baile funk might be the most exciting music in the world - it certainly comes from one of its most dangerous places"

now, the first statement is subjective; I think it's kind of fun as music goes, but 'most exciting'? nah.

but the second statement, surely, is quite accurate. the Brazilian slums are very violent places - is this in dispute?

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i was referring to the front page and contents page of the magazine plus the article headline, which read respectively:
- "baile funk: guns and booty in brazil"
- "the sex-drenched funk of the favelas"
- "ghetto fabulous"

thus, before you've even started reading the article, it's made very clear that this is about sex, guns, bums and the ghetto.

for me, what's most interesting about funk is that it's a massive, homegrown, underground musical movement of many talented artists and well-organised entrepreneurs which has taken rio, brazil and the world by storm. its context - i.e. that it's done so in such adverse conditions - poverty, violence, corruption, lawlessness and persecution by the powers that be - is also interesting, but this is secondary. i think the way OMM presented this article overly concentrates on the fact that this is a bunch of dark-skinned poor people being highly sexualised and violent. which is not particularly positive.

saying that rio's slums ARE violent/dangerous is not a counter. i don't dispute this, i just don't think it should be focused on this way.

2stepfan said:

I think this is the basis of K-Punk's critique... that this image is not thrust upon hip-hop, it emanates from within it. I think he has a point

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i agree - like the violent/dangerous comment above, i don't dispute that there is negativity and violence in hip hop. rather i'm saying that this is too often the focus of people's view on hip hop. i'd say that several people's comments on this thread are examples of this. anyone with more than a passing interest in hip hop knows that there is loads of positivity in the genre; that it's not as popular as 50 cent and the game doesn't mean it's less important in contributing towards what hip hop means or stands for.

Eric said:

>Baile funk might be the most exciting music in the world - it certainly comes from one of its most dangerous places.

One gets the impression that the reader is meant to understand a connection between these two things. This is somewhat objectionable IMO.

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exactly

dHarry said:

Didn't anyone else think the piece was interesting for fleshing out the social backdrop to the music? I for one found it fascinating, and if it was accurate, I don't think it's possible to separate the context from the music "in itself".

Specifically if the bailes are run by drug gangs and the vocals are peppered with shout-outs to gang members, exhortations to shoot rivals etc., not to mention the crass sexual content, then for me this seriously complicates how the music is listened to.

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yeah i thuoght the piece itself was very interesting and what it said about the social context in which funk is produced was fascinating. your 'if it was accurate' caveat is a biggie though!

i don't know much about brazil or baile funk, but given what i know about jamaica and dancehall, and how i see them reported in the media, i dno't think it's entirely unreasonable to infer that the same kind of gap exists in the reporting of brazil and funk.

e.g. a common criticism of dancehall (cf the sean paul review in this week's OMM and the revierw of beenie man's last album in the guardian in 2004) are that all the songs are about sex or about the artist's penis. this is quite clearly bollocks. yes, lots of them may be, but if you claim that, and focus on that, then you miss all the other subjects which are covered. i think claiming that funk is all about booty & guns, or hip hop is all about shooting & jail, or dancehall is all about buddy & punaany, inspires many people who don't yet know enough about those musics to subsequently see that whole genre in that way. which, i think, is wrong and objectionable.

I played that compilation "favela booty beats" that came out last year to a Brazilian friend. She translated some of the words to me and I was surprised that it wasn't nearly as violent and vulgar as I imagined. A lot of it is quite innocent. Or at least not as bad as I was led to believe.

Also, calling these people talented is stretching it. I like the music but I have yet to hear something that impresses me with its artistic skill from that genre. In fact I am pretty frustrated by how "retarded" a lot of it is. You could accomplish more with tape splicing.