!VAR HAGENDOORN

Favela on Blast

Favela on Blast is set out to do for baile funk or funk carioca as it is also called what Rize did for krumpin'.

Baile funk is an explosive fusion of breakbeats, rap and samples. Some of it works, some of it doesn't, but the energy is undeniable.

Favela on Blast was directed by Leandro HBL and Wesley Pentz a.k.a. Diplo. It focuses on the sub-culture surrounding baile funk and shows that it is more than a musical style.

Here's a trailer and here's a whole lot more. CNN did an interview with Leonardo BHL. I love the moment when a dj explains the difference between scratching and the kind of drumming on some sort of monome baile funk dj's do. At the heart of every new artistic style or movement there's always a technical innovation. There's a lot more on Leonardo BHL's Favelo on Blast micro-site, but the video's are all in Portuguese and are not subtitled.

By the way, I also love the moment in the CNN interview where a dj explains that MC's are today's poets. There is no point in singing about a beautiful daybreak up the hill, because nowadays it can be pretty tough to put your head out to actually see a daybreak. What I like about this fragment is that this is exactly the same defence artists and poets have used for decades to distinguish themselves from their forebears. This is not to say that one is better than the other. It's just that "this" is what it means to be alive today. In twenty or thirty years time future artists will denounce today's baile funk dj's.

Now when is someone going to do a documentary on kwaito, the underground music and dance from South-Africa?