From the moment you land at Heathrow, it’s impossible not to think about London in the context of the global city.  The tarmac is littered with airplanes bearing the liveries of airlines worldwide.  The brilliant cacophony of foreign tongues converges at immigration — from visitors and workers alike.  When it comes to heading for central London, the level of infrastructure is staggering: subway, local train, or express train.  Some American cities are lucky to have a bus.

The citadels of finance buttress the insane real estate pressure — every square inch of vacant land hotly coveted by developers — and a trenchant radical backlash.  But Sassen’s analysis in The Global City is so powerful because it isn’t awed by the structures of transnational trade; rather, it coolly describes them, while incorporating the counterpoint: extreme disparities of wealth.  It takes a vast underclass to serve and service the transient servants of global capitalism.

Thus is London the multicultural hub that makes it such a fascinating place to visit today.  Quoth w&w, “what an amazing, creolized city.”  I got my taste today at Brixton market.  From Blacker Dread music store (and “reggae consultant” ! or so says the business card) to free-range jerk chicken to Bhangra Burgers to Black Hebrew street preachers to Halal butchers blasting dancehall to the ingredients for callaloo and Irish potato casserole (I made a fine creolized dinner if I say so myself).  It’s no wonder Paul Gilroy theorized the Black Atlantic here.

My experience had a heavy Caribbean tilt, though it could just as easily be Desi/Bengali over in Brick Lane, or African, or Irish, or Chinese.  But I’m on a West Indian vibe, since I flew all the way across the pond for essentially a long weekend to celebrate the second biggest street party in the world after the Carnaval in Rio with my gracious host and new London resident, Casi G of Flamin Hotz Records.

That party is Notting Hill Carnival, natch.  50 years strong and still reflecting “the heart of black London.”  While “multicultural London” may be a selling point for the tourist bureau, the city definitely did not arrive at this mixed heritage so smoothly.  It was a race riot that gave birth to the Carnival in the first place.  Last year there were several stabbings, and I was warned even at airport immigration to be careful.

But that unruliness is a little exciting — this isn’t an event totally given over to commercial sponsorship and family-friendliness (though the first day is supposed to be more for the littles, as they say).  It’s antithetical, perhaps, to the corporate structures that, through vast demographic and migratory forces, have made this event possible.

Likewise the pirate radio that has been on constant rotation since I got here, my trusty transistor proving that radio really is the most democratic medium.  While heavyweight Rinse FM was blasting the UK funky to get us pumped for Saturday night, much of the daytime hours have me glued to Urban Love Radio: “Bashment, dancehall, and soul with a touch of funky and soca.”  Some rulll lover’s rock on right now for the brunch hour.

Don’t want to get too lulled by the soundtrack, though, there are sound systems a-waiting!  FWD >>> bacchanal.  Catch you post-Carnival, mate.

Today just might have been a historic day.  At 10 am hora de Brásilia, the State Legislature of Rio de Janeiro convened a public plenary session on funk.  It was sponsored by the Human Rights and Citizenship Commission, whose president explained:

A proposta é pôr em questão oportunidades de se promover o funk como um instrumento pedagógico a ser utilizado nas escolas ou de se criarem, por exemplo, oficinas profissionalizantes para formação de DJs. Esse é o caminho para o estado reconhecer que o funk existe desvinculado do crime.

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The proposal is to put in question opportunities to promote funk as a teaching tool to be used in schools or to create, for example, professional channels for training DJs.  This is the route by which the state can recognize that funk exists outside of crime.

This won’t just be a political echo chamber, however.  Expect testimony from DJs, MCs, and critics like Hermano Vianna (who blogs em português aqui).  In particular, a relatively new organization is leading the charge from the DJ/MC front: the Associação dos Profissionais e Amigos do Funk (Association of Funk Professionals and Friends), or APAFunk for short.  Their presidente is MC Leonardo, who I most recently mentioned for his contribution to the Tropa de Elite soundtrack, which has very much reinvigorated his career.  But as a recognizable figure dating back to the early 90s, he also has the long-term perspective that will serve him well representing funk to the public.

Their main goal is to repeal Law 5265, which was passed in June 2008.  It declares in Article 1:

A realização de eventos de música eletrônica, conhecidos como festas raves e de bailes do tipo funk, obedecerá ao disposto nesta Lei. (Electronic music events, known as rave parties or baile of the funk type, must obey the regulations of this law in order to take place.)

It goes on to assert police authority to shut down the baile, require that organizers record the event for police to review up to 6 months later, and specify such details as how many bathrooms are required.  The 30 day notification to the State Secretary of Security is particularly onerous, given how many events and line-ups are put together at the last minute.

Putting bailes under state authority, and in such a draconian, bleakly bureaucratic fashion, is tantamount to prohibition.  Only the most commercial bailes can realistically comply with such a law (or afford to bribe the right people), and while they are an important part of the baile funk landscape, they’re far from the most interesting.  On the flip side, only the most proibidão baile da comunidade is secure enough to completely flout the law.  But smaller scale promoters who want to operate in the asfalto, or in the vast stretches of the Zona Norte, Zona Oeste, and suburbs where the distinction between favela and asfalto is not so sharp, are caught in a lurch.

Thus is APAFunk leading the charge and FunkNeurotico urging the masses to show their support.  This is likely many funkeiros first political exposure, as the announcement makes clear: “ATENÇÃO: Traje para o Evento Camisa, calça comprida, sapato ou tênis – Não é permitido sob qualquer hipótese camisetas, bermudas e chinelos / ATTENTION: Bring to the event a shirt, long pants, and shoes or sneakers – You will not be permitted inside with t-shirts/tank tops, shorts and sandals.”

I was musing on the idea of politicized funkeiros — a far cry from the sight of funkeiros in the early 90s gang fighting on Ipanema — when a very provocative photo landed in my inbox.  Sany Pitbull has been taking it to the highest political levels.

Yes that is Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva playing an MPC.  He was visiting a community center in Cantagalo and asked for Sany to show him how to use the MPC.  Sany played the weekly baile in Cantagalo for a decade but recently quit over concerns that the new boss and his penchant for bringing guns into the baile could hurt his reputation.  I am glad to see he’s back on the hill in the daytime — indeed the Red Bull Funk-Se, where he did daily workshops, might indicate a new M.O. as professor de DJ.

He joked at the end of his e-mail, “what’s next, Obama asking me for a lesson too?”  Plenty of ink has been spelled on Obama as president of/by/for the hip-hop generation.  Could Brazil be on its way to a funk generation that will achieve similar political involvement?  Unlike hip-hop — or perhaps much like plenty of commercial hip-hop — funk is not known for its political awareness.  Outside of the scandal-marred political career of Veronica Costa, a city councilwoman accused of using her office to promote bailes run by her husband, mega-promoter Romulo Costa of Furação 2000, there hasn’t been much of a political face for funk.  But with what I hope was a decent turnout today at the Tiradentes Palace for the hearing, with MC Leonardo at the helm of APAFunk, and with Sany Pitbull making beats with Lula (I’ve never seen Obama touch a turntable for that matter), maybe funk really is getting organized for its own good.  A vote on repealing the baile regulation could come as soon as September 1.

So Kuduro has definitly crossed over in France as “dance of the summer” and it’s been a process in the making for the last 2 years. Check this entry for a link to a facebook video that shows white hair old people square dancing on Dança do Tchiriri: http://masalacism.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-kept-saying-that-kuduro-crossed-over.html

All right, now Kuduro’s fashion in France is actually not coming from Angolan, but Cap Verdien people. They are leading the scene in France and are providing most of the hype on the movement. After that, there’s a weird (same old) ideology of distinction of “we are the true ones, we are the originators, you guys just do shit” kind of vibe floating around from Angolan towards Cap Verdien. Galiano would not say that publicly but I know he kinda took this ideology as his own. I can’t go in details here, but they are the one pushing the sound now and the last few years.

Also Radioclit has absolutly NOTHING to do with this. Seriously, zero. Same with Buraka. This is grassroot success based on the fact that the Cap Verdien community in Paris and it’s suburbs is a big enough to make other communities follow. It’s also because it’s a dance as much as it’s a music and therefore it’s very fashionable in the club for 17 years old. Nothing to do with blogging or international hipsterism.

Finally, Coupé mix with Kuduro is already there. Check out: Normal Nada - Decale kuduro or also Dj Vielo’s Decale Cap Vert. This is just the beginning. All of this is based on the fact that white people dance clubs and carribean/african clubs are still very seperated in France. Or at least, there’s a strong network of carribean/african clubs throughout France. And like every where else, there playing the latest trend, which happens to be Kuduro now in France. And for the last few years, I’ve seen the name popping on the regular on the big fluo posters of the local african club in my medium/small size hometown of Orleans. Which never happened before.

Looking fwd to the rest of this discussion

Most importantly he confirms that kuduro is broadly popular, propelled by support among France’s vast multicultural immigrant scene (Cape Verdean especially).  I had suspected as much from the plethora of YouTube videos, but sometimes that on-the-ground observation cinches it.  I think this kind of grassroots feel — people actually dancing to it, clubs playing it, the beat thumping out of car stereos — is more exciting and more interesting than if it were exclusive to le blogosphère.  Especially when it affords interaction with other styles, like coupé décalé — see again Guillaume’s suggested artists.

But where he links back to his post, and the video of old white folks clumsily dancing the tchiriri, is where things get très interesting.  That’s beyond the marginalized masses in the banlieue — that’s percolating to the museum of dance music, wedding hits.  It in turn reminds me of wayne&wax’s thoughts on chacarron (aka mumbling reggaeton) (old blogspot w&w at that).  He compared it to the macarena, and in later posts thought it would be the ideal reggaeton entrée to the masses: something families can sing along to between innings at baseball games, etc.

Could tchiriri be headed for similar meme status?  If YouTube is any kind of bellweather, I still don’t see any dancing babies or WoW tchiriri.  That, at least, remains one arena in which funk has a viral spread kuduro lacks.

In light of a comment I dropped on Unfashionably Late’s global ghettotech conversation starter, I’ve also been curious about what adaptations have to take place for a nuwhirld sound to become popular up north.  The lead single on FG’s release might provide a clue –

Elle chante en français!  The easiest way to overcome the linguistic barrier is to smash it to pieces.  Dama S. is definitely Angolan — although whether or not and how long she’s lived in France is unclear to me — but sings so the audience can understand every word, and perhaps even earn some extra cachet with her accent (keeps it exotic, no?).  The chorus remains straightforward — “Danse with me, kuduro / Dance like this, kuduro / Move with me, kuduro / Grind with me, kuduro / Kuduro, kuduro, kuduro, now!” — and the images, other than the sunglasses exchange, mostly present snapshots of authentic kuduro in action.  It’s a deft act of translation, retaining enough of the source material but providing a linguistic entrée for a new audience.

Some Google.fr searching reveals a small but growing kuduro niche, with FG as the recurrent #1 kuduro hustler en France.  There are at least a dozen kuduro titles available on Amazon.fr, some of which I previously looked at.  I also came across this message board thread, whose exchange goes roughly something like this –

tisba972: i’m looking for the title of a song (ragga, soca, a little antillean carnival) without many lyrics and keeps repeating itself harder and harder.  I’ve heard that there’s a dance routine to this song at the west indian parties in bordeaux.

tiatia: the sound you are looking for is kuduro, and the song is the dança do tchilili [sic]

Nyabel: Lol kuduro is cape verdean, not antillean =) like buraka sound system for example

Sam-Fred: Hey, kuduro is angolan !!!  It was invented in 1997 by Tony Amado in Luanda.  It’s the only country that produces kuduro worthy of the name.  Nothing to do with Cape Verde or anywhere else.  For the right info, you can check out: http://kuduro-sound-system.blogspot.com and here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/kuduro.sound.syst­em?ref=ts And the track that’s gonna blow up this summer is surely a song with the Angolan singer Dama S. & Kuduro Sound System “Danse avec moi Kuduro” ["Sam-Fred" sounds very much like Monsieur Galliano himself]

SamFred: And Buraka Sound System is portuguese not angolan and not really Kuduro

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Confusion in the lusosphere aside, I also stumbled across a version “Dança do Tchiriri,” last year’s #1 kuduro smash en France, that shows just how far the dance&music (the two inextricably linked) has spread beyond the streets of Luanda.

Senegal, Morocco, Mauritania, Paris, Madrid, Lisbon, Porto, Miami, Martinique, Guadeloupe, [French?] Guyana, Cape Verde, Marseille, Bordeaux — it’s a roll call of diasporic and post-colonial echoes: francophone enclaves in Africa and the Americas, major European immigrant hubs, and an emerging luso-network (Brazil curiously left out).  It becomes abundantly clear from a video like this one that kuduro has resonated far beyond Luanda not just with bloggers and nu whirl connoisseurs, but the analogues of Angola: other African capitals, the cities where African immigrants congregate, the semi-colonies of African descent.

This is definitely kuduro far beyond the marketing capabilities of one Frenchman — no disrespect to Frédéric, to the contrary it’s encouraging to see it spread so far & wide.  Lisbon is becoming an increasingly important node as lusophone music takes the stage, but Paris remains an essential hub for Africa and the Caribbean.

Another contender for “hit d’été 2009” (despite the above claiming it’s summer 2008) is “Mwangolé” (Umbundu for Angola) by Les Princes du Kuduro.  Their MySpace claims a Paris/Luanda connection on the location and the about reads, “Puto Milagre & Manu Le Boss sont 2 jeunes issues des ghettos angolais Venus pour représenter les vraies origines du kuduro, les princes du kuduro comptent imposer leur style musical à la France et au monde… (Puto Milagre & Manu Le Boss are 2 youths from the Angolan ghetto who have come to represent the true origins of kuduro, the kuduro princes are bringing their musical styles to France and the world).”

Unlike the French-tinged “Danse avec moi Kuduro!” — where the language and lyrics de-emphasize the country of origin — it’s straight Angolan pride as the title suggests (see also the Angolan flag in the back of their car) in uncompromising Portuguese and a driving beat a bit harder than the kuduro I’m used to hearing.  Who in turn is the intended audience?  I know FG plays mostly in Paris proper.  But Les Princes du Kuduro seem to be targeting more toward the banlieue, the kind of audience that would be in the Paris scene of the global dance video.  In short, this strain of kuduro is aiming for the success of coupé-décalé, which of course is bolstered by the huge Ivorian population in France.  But how big is the Angolan diaspora?  A cursory search doesn’t reveal many details.  And this is not a conceptual link, mind you.  Not if Kuduro Coupé Décalé Stars Compilation has anything to say about it.

I know Guillaume was recently on his native soil.  Perhaps he’s got a read on the situation sur la terre / sobre a terra.

Tell it like it is, Skip.  Last Thursday’s arrest of Harvard’s Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. just today landed on the front page of the Boston Globe.  It’s already out of date, though, as the Middlesex County DA just dropped the charges.  Newspapers can’t keep up with the twittering and rather astutely livejournaling (people still write in LJs?) masses?  Or was it the front page splash that carried enough weight for the DA to act fast?

Media speculations aside, Harvard and race got some ’splaining to do.  Whether university or Cambridge cops, the problem is depressingly pervasive.

All the same week that Vanity Fair unleashes on trouble in the coffers.  Abandon ship?

I’ve been Boston-based for the last several weeks as I discover my career and a stint in the Bean would not be complete without dropping some wax (digital or analog, it’s all good) at Beat Research.

This go around the bio reads –

DJ Gregzinho is just off another trip to Brazil, where he crisscrossed the favelas of Rio to meet up with DJs and MCs on the Flamin Hotz Records fair trade funk carioca releases Funkeiros e Progresso EP and Pancadão do Morro: O Funk do Flamin Hotz, Já É? They pushed plenty of fresh funk CD-Rs into his hands, and he also scoured São Paulo, Recife, and Salvador for some crate digging samba rock/rap, maracutu, guitarrada, Brazilian hip-hop, and MPB. Expect a wide range of Brazilian beats, as well as the usual pan-American sabores from Hudson Bay to the Tierra del Fuego. Gregzinho blogs about cities, beats, urban space, and landscapes at Beat Diaspora.

Been on a real Caribbean vibe in particular as of late.  Soca Monday, perhaps.

Beat Research at The Enormous Room
DJ Gregzinho, DJ Flack, wayne&wax
Monday, July 20, 9 pm-1 am
No cover, 21+
567 Mass Ave, Central Square, Cambridge, MA

It’s official.  Cabide DJ won the Red Bull Funk-Se MPC battle (as if you had any doubt).  The Rei do MPC remixed up the King of Pop for his victory lap.  More audio and a slideshow of what looks like a great event.

As he wrote in his announcement e-mail:

Um sonho que eu tive junto com a minha grandiosa e saudosa amiga Adriana Pittigliani está se tornando realidade, o sonho de ver o movimento funk ser realmente respeitado como merece…. Não está sendo fácil transformar esse sonho em realidade( e ninguém falou que ía ser facil,mesmo), mas com a ajuda de uns aliados estamos conseguindo chegar lá.

O motivo desse email é um só, te mostrar parte do que estamos fazendo, é só o inicio, temos muito mais à fazer… Muito trabalho ainda vem por ai.. Chega desse papo de musica de favela, musica de pobre… o Funk é muito mais do que isso… Muito maior do que parece ser…
Basta apenas se organizar pra ser tornar o maior ritmo musical desse país..e seremos sim, quem não acredita vai ver…

Está para acontecer um evento histórico, embrionário ainda, pequeno talvez em  relação à magnitude do ritmo, mas ja é um inicio e olha que não estamos começando fracos não, só aliados de responsa compraram a briga ( do bem e pelo bem ).

40 anos de funk
40 anos de historia
40 anos mexendo com a cabeça,alma e quadris de tanta gente mundo à fora
40 anos se transformando e se preparando pra ser a musica dos próximos 40 anos(no mínimo).

Redbull Funk-se , do vinil à Mpc …

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A dream that I had together with my dearly departed friend Adriana Pittigliani is becoming a reality, the dream of seeing the funk scene get the respect it deserves… it hasn’t been easy to turn this dream into a reality (and nobody ever said it would be), but with the help of many allies we are finally succeeding.

The motive of this e-mail is simple, to show you what we have been up to, it’s only the beginning, we have much more to do… Much more work to come.. The arrival of this conversation about favela music, about the music of the poor… Funk is much more than this… Much bigger than it seems to be…

A historic event is about to take place, still in its infancy, perhaps tiny in comparison to the magnitude of the funk beat, but it’s already a beginning and look at how we don’t start off weak, only our most trusted allies will join us in the fight (of and for what’s good).

40 anos of funk
40 anos of history
40 anos of moving the head, soul, and booty of so many people
40 anos of transforming itself and preparing itself to be the music of the next 40 years (at the minimum).

Redbull Funk-se, from vinyl to MPC …

Sany Pitbull: funk prophet?  Could be.  The schedule is packed, with a daily panel discussion, film showing, Sany Pitbull MPC workshop for kids at a technology magnet school (!), and nightly party.  Notably it indeed stretches back 40 years, bringing in the likes of Gerson King Combo, one of the originators of Brazilian soul and overall “black music” as they call it.  The press coverage is unsurprisingly favorable, and speaks to the media’s willingness to give positive coverage toward mainstream, legal, organized funk, with corporate backing no less.  (Poking around the “related articles” reveals one from last year about a baile crackdown sparked by a grenade explosion that injured 12 at an August 2008 favela baile).

One of the events I am most disappointed to be missing is the MPC battle!  Cabide DJ x Phabyo DJ x DJ Pokemon x DJ Mancha.  I’m a little intrigued at some of the rules though –

Serão passíveis de eliminação os seguintes casos:

Agressão física contra um dos participantes; ofender o apresentador ou o Dj.
O DJ que falar de facção criminosa (apologia).
Não fazer referência a time de futebol
Não executar músicas com temas e vozes infantis.

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The following will lead to automatic disqualificaton:

Physical aggression against one of the participants; offending the host or another DJ.
DJ mentioning a criminal faction (apology for crime).
Do not refer to any soccer team.
Do not play music about children or with children’s voices.

There is clearly an effort to manage the kind of funk on display at such a high-profile event: no proibidao, nothing that could involve minors (there goes all the tunes about “gatinhas”), and I guess no riling up the crowd with a cheap paean to Flamengo.

My money’s on Cabide, natch, as he’s No. 1 sampler do Brasil e do mundo now.  Besides, that’s his MPC they’re fighting over in that pic.  Either way, there’s a 50-50 shot a Flamin Hotz artist will be the “king of the MPC.”

Meanwhile, the Cine Funk Clube will be screening Favela on Blast tomorrow night to round off a week that’s included “Sou Feia Mas To Na Moda” (I’m Ugly But Trendy), one of the earliest post-2000 funk docs and some other more obscure (or I guess more Brazilian) ones that I’ve never heard of.

I’ve got saudade, sure.  As Sany said, “You’re leaving June 11?  No no, make it July 11!  Stay for Funk-Se!”  But duty calls back here in the Estados Unidos.  Still, some likeminded folks & I have put together a mini Funk-Se at the Chicken Loft.  We’ll have old Brazilian wax, an MPC, Cabide’s DVD internacional, Favela on Blast, caipirinha, cerveja, boldinho, and comida galore.  Tonight, Cambridge is the next best place to Rio.

I’ll be joining Lone Wolf tonight at midnight for Todo Mundo on WMBR.  Got a Boston-based radio?  Tune to 88.1 FM.  Otherwise, stream it live!

Expect that pan-American sound, especially some fresh Brazilian beats.

Bridge Burner 2009 from Anne-Marie Bergeron on Vimeo.

Edit: Beyond being a great party, Guillaume gave me some perspective on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day (aka the National Holiday of Quebec) and Bridge Burner’s role in it.  As Wikipedia summarizes, the celebrations in Quebec date to the 19th century, the Pope declared John the Baptist the patron saint of French Canadians in 1908, and by 1977 it became an official state holiday with public funding as an event to celebrate Québécois identity and francophone language/culture.

The big free party at Parc Maisonneuve is subsequently a lovefest of Quebec pop/rock, of Quebec French, of state-sponsored national identity (because, y’know, Quebec is a nation inside Canada, but nation in the “cultural-sociological sense,” so sez the PM).  None of which is necessarily a bad thing, but might be a little boring, and certainly a turn off to the huge Anglo population in Montreal, many of whom propel the city’s music/art hip quotient.  So Bridge Burner, while proudly flying the fleur de lys with the greatest French Canadian DJ (Ghislain Poirier) on stage and an MC, Face-T, singing loud&proud in français québécois, is more bilingual on a day that is ruthlessly French.  Not that there aren’t a few naysayers — in the Facebook event page, the oldest comments (long since booted to the bottom) include one complaining that the title is “Bridge Burner” and not something French.

But national identity can and should take many formers, and as much of a French language partisan as I am, if the goal of June 24 — beyond celebrating my birthday — is to celebrate Montréal and Québéc, then throwing a party for the bilingual faction that makes up a crucial cultural undercurrent is certainly no swipe at the mission of la fête nationale.