Okay, you might already guessed it. Man Rec is a label about electronic beats and lots of rhymes. And there´s one tune that brings it all down: Run DMC´s “Sucker MCs”. When released, it set a new standard. With a bassdrum, some claps and a snare plus two MCs singing over it, “Sucker MCs” showed that it doesnt need much more than a DJ playing a minimalist beat and two guys on a mike to make a dope tune.

Oh, and of course in terms of fashion there´s only one name we have to highlight: Prince Vince (a.k.a. Vincent Gallo)

I have a special, world exclusive pre-announcement for y´all to make and it´s about an upcoming release of mine called BOSSA DO MORRO. “Morro” means “hill” in Portugese, in Rio particulary, the hills are the cite where many of the city´s favelas are located. Thus BOSSA DO MORRO is a Baile Funk remix compilation I comissioned to celebrate this year´s 50th anniversary of Bossa Nova, the great musical genre that was birthed in Rio in the late 50s. When I first heard about this anniversary I immediately thought that there should be a Baile Funk Bossa Nova remix release. But soon I skipped the thought as I knew that it was quite impossible to get any original Bossa tracks for official remix use. Then I met Cristina Ruiz-Kellersmann, the Brazilian wife of Universal Jazz Germany boss Christian Kellersmann, and I suggested to her the compilation idea. She was enthusiastic about it and presented the idea to her husband who greatly supported the idea, together with Universal Jazz A+R Matthias Kuennecke. Eventually I was able to get access to parts of the Bossa Nova catalogue of Universal. Unfortunately not all of their prime tracks could be used, but BOSSA DO MORRO now features remixes of classic songs by João Gilberto, Tom Jobim, Sergio Mendes and Klaus Doldinger amongst others. The remixes are by Rio´s finest DJs such as DJ Amazing Clay, DJ Edgar, DJ Nazz, DJ Marrentinho, DJ Fu, DJ Dinho and a few others. The results are simply amazing. Think of “Girl From Ipanema” with a Miami Bass Beat. Think of “Insensatez” with a Tamborzão. It´s crazy. And I can assure you that there was a never a similar project like this released in Brazil.

How come that todays hottest Rio Funk DJs and producers never touched the big music legacy from their very own city? Well, there´s various reasons. For Cariocas (=the people from Rio) Bossa is the music made by the 1950´s bobos – the bohemian bourgeoise which hung out in Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon. These are area that are culturally and socially far away from the grim reality in the favelas. But it´s not only this barrier that hardly produced any Bossa-Baile Funk tracks so far (except for DJ Sandrinho´s famous “Funk Bossanova”). For the Rio funk DJ culture, Bossa´s just been far from being cool or dope , it´s music to which you can´t really grind your teenage booty to. Thus hardly any funk DJ samples MPB (=Musica Popular Do Brasil) or 1950s, 1960s Brazilian music. To Funk DJs, music from the USA or Europe is cool to sample, but certainly not the music that their grandma´s or parents were listening to. So BOSSA DO MORRO is truly a debut piece. The compilation not only cultivates the first Bossa/Baile Funk pairing, it´s a compilation that probably will be considered blasphemic in Brazil, where the music from the favelas is largely still considered trash. But maybe – hopefully – this image will get a slight correction when people will finally hear that even the most crude MPC based arrangement with a chunky Tamborzão beat can pefectly support a subtle song by Tom Jobim.

Watch out for the full compilation, scheduled for an October 17th release on both vinyl and CD through Universal Jazz Germany. A 12″ vinyl pre-release with four tracks will be released mid September. Watch this space for some more news (sorry I cant give you any free downloads of this project).

Our dear friends at UNRULY- the #1 label for Baltimore Club sent us this cute pic today. Funk Mundial indeed!! Scottie B (pictured in the middle), next time we´ll sort you out with the gold print version….

ARTIST:DANIEL HAAKSMAN
TITLE: WHO’S AFRAID OF RIO?
CAT NR: MAN 031
DIGITAL RELEASE: AUGUST 22ND, 2008
VINYL RELEASE: SeptEMBER 12TH, 2008

Who’s Afraid Of Rio” is the debut EP by Man Recordings label boss Daniel Haaksman. It’s the latest culmination point in his steady, mad love affair for baile funk from Rio De Janeiro which started in 2003 when a friend returned from Brazil bringing Daniel a stack of CDs with funk from Rio. A virgin trip to Rio ensued in January 2004, in which Daniel explored the – then in Europe – unknown terrority called baile funk, resulting in genre defining compilation “Rio Baile Funk Favela Booty Beats” on his former label Essay Recordings in summer 2004. The CD received global acclaim and produced considerable sales, encouraring Daniel to leave Essay and establish his own label Man Recordings in 2005, where he decided to fully concentrate on baile funk – establishing Man Recordings as the sole label outside of Brazil consistently and exclusively focussing on baile funk. Since it inception, Man Recordings internationally broke artists such as Edu K, Deize Tigrona or MC Gringo and released the first productions and remixes by artists like Crookers, Diplo, Count+Sinden, Bonde Do Role, Sany Pitbull, DJ Edgar, DJ Amazing Clay, Joyce Muniz and many others.

After releasing the acclaimed „Rio Baile Funk Breaks“ (Man 024) turntablist album together with DJ Sandrinho and DJ Beware in spring 2008, the Berlin based DJ and producer now proudly releases four baile funk inspired club bangers on his „Who’s Afraid Of Rio?“ EP. Haaksman decided to name his debut EP „Who’s Afraid Of Rio?“ as a bow down to the city and its rich music culture. He asks „Who’s Afraid of Rio?“ as he certainly isn’t – returning to the sugarloaf city twice a year since his first visit, attending numerous bailes in both the favelas and the regular neighbourhoods, establishing a steady contact and friendship with MCs, producers and DJs from Rio De Janeiro, with whom he collaborated on various projects and releases. “Who’s Afraid of Rio?” feat MC Jennifer, is the opening track, mixing up the beatbox sound of baile funk don Mr.Catra with a nasty snyth bassline, fitting to shake any dancefloor instantly. MC Jennifer is a well known baile funk song writer, who also wrote „Tamborzuda“ for MC Thiaguinho, which was produced by Count+Sinden for Man Recordings.

MC JENNIFER

Track two is „Parolar De Veso“ featuring the infamous SD Boyz who have provided baile funk hits such as “Popozuda Do Planeta” or „Cerol No Mão“, the latter a track which was also featured on the first „Rio Baile Funk Favela Booty Beats“ compilation. With a dancehall meets ghetto-tec beat, a mad synth bassline and the funky rhymes of the SD Boys „Parolar De Veso“ will cause mayhem on numerous Non-Brazilian bailes.

Track 3 is „Senta Senta“ a track that elegantly fuses baile funk with old school latin house beats and a fidget house breakdown. Think of the early Kenny Dope or Todd Terry visiting a baile funk party in one of Rio´s favelas. Finally, “Jogo Do Bilhar” („Playing Billiards“) featuring MC Betta, a hot young female MC from Rio’s North Zone, fusing Brazilian booty bounce with Euro crunk and dope science. Four DJ friendly club tracks that mix the best of baile funk with Euroland ghetto club sounds. The „Who´s Afraid Of Rio?“ EP by Daniel Haaksman quite likely will ignite another wave of passion for the hot, booty shaking music of Rio.

TRACKLIST

A1 Who’s Afraid Of Rio? Feat. MC Jennifer
A2 Parolar De Veso Feat. SD Boys
B1 Senta Senta
B2 Jogo Do Bilhar Feat. MC Betta

Yeahhhhh! My debut EP is about to be released next week Friday (29th) both on vinyl as well as digital. It contains collabs with hot Rio MC´s SD Boys, MC Jennifer and MC Betta. On this EP there´s something there for everyone to play, it contains everything from fidgit, to ghetto to a todd terry-like old school house-track – all colored by the great music experience called baile funk.

Here´s an exclusive pre-release promo MP3 edit of “Who´s Afraid Of Rio?” for y´all to bang out.

DANIEL HAAKSMAN “WHO´S AFRAID OF RIO?” feat. MC JENNIFER

Cop the EP on ITunes and other platforms to hear the full length, super sound version.