Local Expert
Lucy Bryson
I was born in rainy Manchester, UK, but made my escape to sunny Rio de Janeiro in 2006. Since then it's been hard to keep me away from the city, although I've also travelled elsewhere in Brazil and…
I was born in rainy Manchester, UK, but made my escape to sunny Rio de Janeiro in 2006. Since then it's been hard to keep me away from the city, although I've also travelled elsewhere in Brazil and South America. I'm a trained journalist and editor and have managed to fund my trips through combining my twin passions of travelling and writing - recent writing credits include updating chapters for Fodor's Brazil, Footprint Brazil and Footprint South American Handbook. I live high on a hillside in Santa Teresa - Rio's 'arty' district, and my one complaint is that I never seem to get time to visit the beach! Despite my lack of tanning time, I love Rio, and and have no intentions of returning to my wet and windy home city any time soon!
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It's funk, but not as we know it!
It’s loud, brash, and not to everybody’s taste, but there can be no denying that baile funk is as much a part of Rio’s music scene as samba and bossa nova. Born in the city’s sprawling favelas, Carioca funk (pronounced funkee), bears little resemblance to the funk music of the western world. The musical style actually descended from Miami bass, and features tinny keyboards, pounding synthesised drums and rather tuneless shouted vocals. The songs’ lyrical content – sex, drugs and violence are common themes – belie funk’s favela roots, and the music soundtracks the lives of many a young Carioca (Rio native). You’ll hear baile funk blasting from car stereos and apartment windows, but the only way to really appreciate the sound is to hear it in the right environment – namely a raucous ‘funk ball’. It’s often difficult to find a funk ball without venturing into a favela, but in-the-know funk fans head for Lapa on Friday nights, where an unassuming garage-style building is transformed for the night into one of the city’s liveliest parties. It’s very easy to miss the building, which is unnamed and without signage, but it’s well worth hunting out. The venue is on Rua das Marracas, one of Lapa’s busiest nightlife strips, close to the street vendors and Cosmopolita bar. Entrance is just R$5 for men, free for women (hey, that’s the kind of sexism I like!) and inside it’s a booty-shaking wonderland of pumping beats and jiggling bodies. Another way to hear funk music in its natural habitat is to take an organised trip with Be a Local (the group works with hostels to organised minibus transport, entrance etc), but although these nights are fun and relatively safe, they’re really a bit of a watered-down version of the real thing, with many locals heading there specifically for ‘gringo night’, in the hope of bagging a foreigner for the night. Ladies (and indeed, men – Carioca women can be very forward!), prepare to be harrassed and groped to within an inch of your life!