2023-10-10 12:55:39
Underworld (masculine noun): « group of misfits or delinquents considered as an organized social group » (Dicio, online Portuguese dictionary). The stage is thus set for PANIC IN THE UNDERWORLD“panic in the underworld », new album by DJ K, a young prodigy from São Paulo who studied at the baile de Helipa in Heliópolis, the largest favela in the largest city in Latin America. The baile is this hot outdoor evening which, despite numerous attempts by the authorities to suppress it, takes place every week in hundreds of favelas, during which DJs and their high-powered sound systems play the latest trends in “favela funk”. “. The “funk” in question here is this mutation of Miami Bass born in Rio in the 1980s, which has become a global phenomenon and a platform of expression for a large part of the most disadvantaged populations in the country.
It’s been a long time since funk no longer belonged only to the favelas: the biggest MCs and producers now thrive on hundreds of millions of views, reach the middle class and its homes, present shows on TV and are programmed in the most big festivals. However, the baile remain the heart of the reactor of this constantly evolving music which has intensified in recent years, the catchy and good-natured choruses giving way to increasingly rapid, industrial and experimental productions, constantly seeking to push back the limits of the eardrums. If we danced “Rap da felicidade” (“rap of joy”) in 1995, the new hits of the genre, particularly in São Paulo, are now more aggressive than joyful, and sound more like rave than samba.
DJ K’s new album, casually produced in three days, is a glimpse of what the music’s original audience in São Paulo listens to today. The shrill peaks, the mournful voices, the transitions every 30 seconds and the ear-shaking bass plunge us directly into the phantasmagoric universe and the organized bazaar of Helipa’s baile. A live transmission of what is broadcast today from the explosive walls of the favelas, the nerve center of the country’s tensions and its music of tomorrow. Encounter.
In the scene you belong to, what do we call the “submundo” (“underworld”)?
What we call the submundo is, in a way, the favelas, the baile, the substances, everything that happens there in a more or less illicit way. And the element of panic is the state in which the favelas are currently, with the current repression, Covid, inflation… I wanted to evoke all of this in music, with the most popular genre currently in the favelas.
Is this genre you’re talking regarding mandelão funk?
In Brazilian funk there are many different styles. Mandelão funk, automativo funk, conscious funk… I mix it all up a bit and I call it “bruxo funk” (“witch funk”). It’s an uncensored style. We talk regarding everything we want: favelas, baile, what is consumed there, repression… These are our realities. In terms of music, it’s very aggressive, it’s very strong, it’s fast. It’s a feeling of the atmosphere in which we play in the baile: it’s a total letting go.
Why do you think it was in São Paulo that such a style developed?
The largest favelas in Brazil are in São Paulo! And the reality is completely different from Rio, for example, which is a city with the sea, nature… Carioca and Paulista funks have been different for a long time, because they are two very different atmospheres. Our BPM is much faster, for example, and our sound is much colder. Our music is more in tune with our reality, although we talk regarding realities and problems that exist around the world. But perhaps a little more in São Paulo than elsewhere…
And when did the “bruxo” (“sorcerer”) funk arrive?
In fact, it all started with a joke. It was the rapper Emicida, who is known throughout Brazil, who one day made a tweet saying that what I was doing was no longer production, it was downright witchcraft! It immediately spoke to me, and I kept this expression in the way I presented myself.
Witchcraft goes very well with all the aesthetics and visuals around mandelão funk: horror film clowns, exorcism…
These are visual codes that go with our music. People love the thrill that fear gives them, love going to the cinema to watch horror films. They like suspense, surprise… So we put that in the music, but also in everything visual around it. Generally speaking, in the bailes in which I play, the more pushed it is, the more aggressive it is, the darker it is, and the more the audience likes it.
Although it is very popular, from an outside perspective, one might consider your music as niche electronic music. Do you see a convergence between the audience of baile de favela and the audience of trance, techno, electro music, etc.?
Already, it’s been years since funk became very mainstream. Funk no longer belongs to the favelas, the whole of Brazil listens to it, so the public is already very mixed. Then, I indeed see a convergence of electronic audiences and audiences in the favelas. Me, for example, I have already been invited many times to play in electronic, rave, techno festivals… I am currently in Germany, just yesterday I did a show in Berlin, where people are rather techno. And it went really well!
And what relationship does your scene have with the much more mainstream funk of Mc Kevin O Cris, Mc Kevinho, Mc Livinho…?
Personally, I have nothing to do with commercial funk. To get on TV, on the radio, in the big media, you have to do a much smoother type of funk, which is very censored. Even though I’m trying hard to have a big audience and I’m in the middle of promoting to expand the number of people who listen to me, I have nothing to do with them. And above all, in the favela, people don’t listen to commercial funk. They don’t like it. If you play in the favela, you have to play something more aggressive, a sound much closer to mine.
What other artists do you have as references?
Actually, when I was younger I listened to a lot of rock and reggae. Bands like Evanescence, System of a Down, Pearl… Quite a bit of punk. These are energies that I try to transmit in my music. It was later that I became interested in funk. Right now, I’m very eclectic in my listening. I listen to a lot of samba, pagoda, rap, trap…
And how did you end up playing Baile de Helipa? Who decides who plays there?
It’s a very closed system, in isolation. You have to know the right people to play there, it’s almost impossible to be a DJ there if you’re an outsider. At the same time, it’s understandable: the baile de favela environment remains a bit dangerous, so before hiring a DJ you have to know who he is, where he comes from… And no one makes money playing there! However, it is a very competitive system, many DJs from Brazil would like to play Helipa’s baile.
Personally, it took a while before I might perform there. Through friends of friends who had listened to what I posted on Soundcloud, I was able to get my place. Everyone knows me now, I’ve been playing it almost every week for three years. Then, it’s the snowball effect: the more you play, the more people come to your Instagram asking you to play in other bailes.
What does releasing an album on Nyege Nyege mean to you?
I didn’t know it, and it was my manager who introduced me to the team. They asked me to make an album, so I did it in three days without great expectations. At that time, I had lots of things to do, accounts, events… and then when the album came out, I quickly understood the repercussions. We had reviews in American and European magazines, journalists everywhere. I understood that this work took me elsewhere. My life is already changing!
DJ K will play on October 14 and 15 in Paris at La Mazette for Nyege Nyege.
PANIC IN THE UNDERWORLDavailable on Nyege Nyege.
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#baile #funk #horrorcore #witchcraft