I was in Paris last weekend to celebrate six years of Man Recordings at Glazart alongside homeboys DJ Beware, Bambounou and Big Dope P. Next day I went to see the photo exhibition of long time Man Rec collaborator, photographer Vincent Rosenblatt. At the “Maison Europeene De La Photographie” Vince currently shows the best photos from his year long spanning work on baile funk. Shooting on baile funk parties in Rio´s favelas for more than five years, Vincent has dived deep into funk culture and has created an amazing body of work . You may know his photos from the covers of my “Who´s Afraid Of Rio?” and “Who´s Afraid Of Remix?” EPs, as well as the “Rio Baile Funk Breaks” vinyl, which are all by Vincent. If you happen to be in Paris until mid April, make sure to drop by to see the exhibition.

“Rio Baile Funk”
Until the 11/4/2011
Entry: 7€/ 4€
Maison Europeene De La Photographie (MEP)
5/7 rue de Fourcy
75004 Paris
France

Vince was also on French TV5 to speak about his work and photographs:

Haaksman is in Rio….again. He claims its for “label” business, but everytime I skype with him, he’s in a rush because he HAS to go to the beach.

Well, I wish I was in Rio too, and so does Joyce Muniz. Which is why we decided to do a mix of some of the records that we picked up from Rio when we were there last Summer. Most of the tunes in the mix are from vinyl, from the days when they still pressed up Baile Funk onto wax. Some real classics in this mix, from now defunct labels such as Pipos, Balanco, Spacelab and Explocao.

Download it here

TRACKLIST

Original Baile Funk Master Sany Pitbull has sent us his new mix, the”Future Baile Funk Express”. Yahhhh!
Download it from here:

SANY PITBULL MIXTAPE

Tracklist:

(more…)

Pardal, the manager of Rio´s fiercest female MC crew Gaiola Das Popozudas has sent us this new press photo of the Popozudas. Yes boys and girls, this is the funk carioca female body in full effect. Who needs Giséle Bündchen when there´s Gaiola Das Popozudas?

Download Gaiola Das Popozudas recent floor burner here:

GAIOLA DAS POPOZUDAS “DE SAINHA”

Baile Funk lives and breathes in Rio de Janeiro. Hearing the music being blasted out of car stereos and on the streets, tuning into the Baile Funk mix on the radio, going to the bootleg market to pick up the latest hits, being at a baile in a favela…. all I can say is, if you love Baile Funk, you should try to go to Rio.

Here are some of the torch bearers of Baile Funk that I had the pleasure of meeting.

DJ Marlboro

One of the first to make Baile Funk accessible to the masses. I got to see his set at his monthly night at Zero Zero club. Dude played a great mix of Miami bass and classic Baile Funk – the ladies loved it.

Here is an old school classic from Dj Marlboro

Dj Marlboro – Melo da Mulher feia

Dj Sany Pitbull

This is a pic of Sany, Sany’s nephew and me at Circo Viador. I reckon Sany’s nephew is going to become a dj too. I mean, I would too if my uncle could freak the MPC like that!

Gaiola das Popozudas

- The first lady of Baile Funk posing with me and the lovely Joyce Muniz. We saw Gaiola’s show in a brothel in Rio, where Dj Edgar also holds a residency. Gaiola is siiiick! She and her two dancers definitely know how to put on a show.

This is the original to the Makossa and Megablast remix

Gaiola das Popozudas – Late que eu to Passando

Dj Edgar

Edgar the criminal! He definitely took good care of me when I was in Rio. Check out the previous blog entries for his music, and go on to youtube to see Edgar on the MPC 1000. Deadly!

Big thank you to Julia Ribas, Joyce Muniz, Nathalie, Bu, Ben Mono, Tee Carducci, Edgar, Marcelinho, Luciano, the lovely ladies from the South, and everybody else who made this trip so enjoyable!!!