Proibidao C.V: Forbidden Gang Funk From Rio de Janeiro
Posted by Stuart Buchanan - 02/04/08 at 07:04:35 am
A couple of months ago, I took delivery of a new compilation from Sublime Frequencies titled “Proibidao C.V: Forbidden Gang Funk From Rio de Janeiro”. As the label explains on their web site:
“Proibidao is a raw musical genre that captures the dark side of Brazilian favelas. The explicit lyrics of apology to drug gangs and the violent content makes them illegal to broadcast through radio or as live public events … A DJ spins Miami bass rhythms straight from sample CDs, and an MC talks on top of it, mainly live in street bailes and then recorded through a simple multichannel to a minidisk or simply straight. No mix is done and only sometimes an extra production is done. The gang leaders, to spread the respect and love for the gang as well as hate to the other gangs, finance the bailes and hire the DJs and sound systems.”
mp3: PROIBIDAO C.V. Track 6 (Uncredited) (via Dusted)
Sublime state: “This CD is in no way an apology for these groups but a document to portray a moment in time in Rio de Janeiro musical and social history“, however on a recent post on his new blog, MC Gringo decries Sublime’s release as a project that should have stayed locked down:
“Every day in Rio there are dying people in reason of a senseless war. Everybody in Rio de Janeiro is affected of this war. We know, we are living in the most beautiful city of the world - nevertheless we can not always join our life in a relaxed way, especially not if we are living in a favela. Sublime made the record ‘to portray a moment in time in Rio de Janeiro musical and social history’ … thanx sublime - very important work!
“I have another idea for your company. On the market Uruguiana in Rio de Janeiro you can buy DVD´s with gunshots in various favelas in Rio de Janeiro, filmed by the police. There is a lot of great blood and crazy violence on this DVD. Why you don´t copy this DVD´s and release them ‘to portray another moment in time in Rio de Janeiro’. Believe me, they will still get a lot of trouble with this compalation … with topics like this the Brasilian government is not joking …”
I respect Gringo’s work and fully respect his opinion, however The Village Voice recently summed up my own feelings towards Sublime Frequencies releases: They are “teleportation machines that fling listeners, with no warning and little preparation, into a wholly unfamiliar world”.
As an alternative vision of favela culture, one that sits alongside yet outside the party vibe we’ve come to expect from funk carioca, the ‘Probidao’ compilation acts as a check and balance - lest we forget that there are alternative realities to the types of representations transmitted by Western mainstream and hipster culture. If you’re looking for the latest funk carioca party album, go elsewhere - if you want a broader and more realistic understanding of favela culture, press play.
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i dunno, stu. while i’m glad one can wrap one’s ears around some proibidao reality even if one can’t make it all the way to rio, i find gringo’s critique pretty cutting in its way: he offers a provocative limit case to prompt us to reconsider our consumption of such sounds and images.
there is a kind of gawking at the heart of this (re)packaging of other people’s violence. and i’m dubious, lack of liner notes notwithstanding, that SF’s practices aren’t still themselves “representations transmitted by Western mainstream and hipster culture.”
not to be too critical — since i do dig your blog and all — but let’s take a gawk at your own representation: in the final sentence of this post you imply, if i may, that violence is more representative of favela culture than partying — an arguable point, to be sure, but partying would seem to be as central to funk as violence, no?
Comment by w&w — April 2, 2008 #
Thanks Wayne, I appreciate the feedback.
I agree there will always be difficulties in repackaging and representing aspects of cultures other than our own. Contentious thought it may be, this album serves as one way to explore an alternative aspect of the funk scene, an aspect that is generally otherwise hidden. For your average music fan (such as myself), language barriers ensure that there are scant few routes into stories such as this, which is why this release will hold an obvious appeal, hipster or otherwise.
As to the closer, I certainly didn’t mean to imply that violence is more prevalent than partying (that would be a foolish call), but I can see how that might have been construed from my text. From what I’ve read thus far from writers both inside Rio and out, the projected reality would appear to be that the violent aspects of culture are widespread, but certainly not dominant. Thanks for allowing my to clarify.
Comment by Stuart Buchanan — April 2, 2008 #
Thank you, Gringo. I am 100 % with you.
pedro
Comment by pedro — April 9, 2008 #
Gringo has another view. For him is ‘Proibidão’ something deeper, I think.
Comment by Ian — April 25, 2008 #
CV é o caralho
Nada contra a musica ,mas os MCs do funk…nao entendem na da de cultura..so falam apenas do lugarzinho em q vivem…e parecem que nao gostavam de estudar tbm…enaltecem bandidos a troco de porra nenhuma…tudo isso em nome da sua “cheirada”… em nome da familia carcerária.
Que voces evoluam seus espiritos um dia e passem fazer algo melhor, bem melhor do que o que vcs fazem agora, …preciso listar?
Comment by hide — June 10, 2008 #