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.
The train is Beat Diaspora’s prediction for 2009. Wrapping up my west coast explorations, I was thoroughly impressed with