brazilian hip-hop

February 27, 2005 1:15 PM

funky do morroFrom the ghettos of brazil comes this funky and fun music that recalls the energy and optimism of early 80's hip hop. Think Afrika Bambaataa and Malcolm McLaren. Before rap crossed over to the dark side.
posted by vronsky (13 comments total)

Pretty good stuff, and it does sounds like it could be coming from the eighties.

Just out of curiosity, when exactly did rap cross over to the dark side?
posted by kuatto at 1:51 PM on February 27, 2005

This definitely sounds like the old-school danceable stuff. I'd be curious to watch where this goes. I trust the Brazilians to come up with something entirely new and interesting. Thanks!
posted by vacapinta at 2:36 PM on February 27, 2005

If you check out MIA a lot of her stuff sounds like this [but more modern]. She tends to team up with Diplo and as a result they get some cool sounds. I recommend that you [no one in particular] check them out.
posted by cloeburner at 2:40 PM on February 27, 2005

Good ear cloeburner. Diplo has a mix of favela sounds out now - http://www.ninjatune.net/ninja/artist.php?id=107


kuatto - as a casual listener I would say NWA is a good demarcation of when rap crossed over. It became much more about guns, drugs and gangs, while the early 80's was more about dancing, and had an innocence and an energy which I found appealing.
posted by vronsky at 3:21 PM on February 27, 2005

Before rap crossed over to the dark side.

Bold statement - the Brazilian "funcao" sound might remind you of Bambaata, but the misogynistic lyrics are more 2 Live Crew. Energy and optimism?
posted by iamck at 3:34 PM on February 27, 2005

vronsky - As a serious listener, I want to chastise you for your ignorance about hip hop, but the mainstream did "cross over," and I could see how a casual listener could make that assumption. Rest assurred, if you look harder you'd find much of the innocene and energy still exists.
posted by iamck at 3:38 PM on February 27, 2005

Whatever, I think it's great. It's dance music by people with no money, which is probably the best kind - just an 808 and a microphone. Rock solid. Thanks!
posted by fungible at 7:25 PM on February 27, 2005

Sex machine, I screw
like an animal
Like Chatuba of Mesquita
from the anal sex tram
Chatuba screws ass and then
screws pussy
Screws cherry, it's the
bald men's tram

It's GREAT!
posted by iamck at 9:52 PM on February 27, 2005

Can we identify a point where rock "crossed over" as well - going from washboard-accompanied tales of courtly love to paeans to irresponsible sex, violence and drug abuse - Let it Bleed? The Velvet Underground Featuring Nico? Likewise, are songs about drugs like "White Lines (Don't Do It)" or about drugs and violence, like "The Message" somehow aberrant and unrepresentative of the mainstream of carefree, fun-loving hip-hop of the early 80s?
posted by tannhauser at 2:31 AM on February 28, 2005

tannhauser: Perhaps Dylan going electric?

vronsky: So, NWA = dark-side crossing = the time when white people started buying hip-hop records in large numbers, enriching many of the genre's black performers, producers and record-company owners? Dark-side crossing = crossover?
posted by allaboutgeorge at 3:33 AM on February 28, 2005

Perhaps Dylan going electric?

Could be... there was an innocence and an energy about folk music up until that moment, whereas Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span? Basically all about the crack, the bling and the drive-bys. I refer you to Thomas the Rhymer (didn't ever mean shit to me), or of course their updating of the classic protest song against the synod of Whitby (trad.) , 664 is a Joke.
posted by tannhauser at 3:57 AM on February 28, 2005

Hip-hop has been so rich and diverse for so long now. At the same time that NWA was doing it's gangsta thang, 2 Live was doing sex, Public Enemy was tearing up the political spectrum, De La Soul was getting it's smooth, playful funk on, the Beastie Boys were going from mindless partying all the way to their own fabulous musical and political enlightenment, Bizmark was covering humor and doing it with real music, and Wu Tang and ODB were doing... well, the various things they've done.

And that's all just mainstream. A small portion of maintstream, yet. When you drop off that map, it's been crazy wide.

One guy who' absolutely blown me away recently is Mike Ladd. Thanks to Salon, there's a free mp3 from his latest work of art, Negrophilia. He evens gets a review from Jazz Review.

Thanks to the BBC, you can stream a couple other tracks (small links at the top of the interview) by him. Avant-jazz/hip-hop doesn't do justice by way of description. Whoever you are, whatever your take on rap/hip-hop, you should give him a listen.
posted by the_savage_mind at 8:21 AM on February 28, 2005

Driving into work today, I heard Biz Markie on the radio. He was pitching a cherry-flavored stomach-pain remedy.

vronsky, please forgive me. I think we've got a new dark-side crossing definition.
posted by allaboutgeorge at 4:52 PM on February 28, 2005