Meet The New Generation of Brazilian Funk
“This is what the end of the world could sound like”...perhaps this is the best way to express the sound of the experimental Brazilian funk made by the collective Humildes do SC. Mixing rhythms from the Afro-Brazilian diaspora with sonics more saturated and high-pitched than thought to be possible, this union of producers has ushered in a wave of modern baile funk that has taken over the underground club scene and the biggest “fluxos” in Brazil.
Following the release of their ‘PANDEMONIUM’ pack on Moment, we spoke with one of the founding members, dj paranoia.
Moment: Tell us a bit about how the collective was formed. Who are all the founding members?
dj paranoia: The heads of Humildes are DJ Ramemes, Sykors and Adame. Ramemes created the group as a joke between the producers on Soundcloud. 'Humildes' in Portuguese means 'humbles' so it was a way of telling our peers that it was a safe place for everyone, even the early producers, to exchange info.
M: How would you characterize the sound of your collective? What sets you apart from other Brazilian funk artists?
p: I think we are into some global bass and some experimental funk stuff, so we could be tagged as these genres. But the most important part of our identity as a collective is that we are trying to mix everything into this music and mix this music into everything we like too lmao. And I think Humildes artists hold this aura of being fun/comic producers. We’re always making great music that tries its best at making people happy.
M: What do you think of the international attention baile funk has gotten recently? Are there any common misconceptions people are getting wrong about the genre?
p: There’s a bunch of misconceptions, but I think it’s common, based on the cultural affiliation of this music within our society… foreigners would never understand why the lyrics are based mainly on very taboo topics, why our sound design is based on very gritty sounds, very loud mixes. All that stuff is planned and has a motive behind it.
M: Funk has historically been a very regional genre with unique styles originating in different cities across Brazil, and DJs often include their city in their artist name. But your original name, Humildes do Soundcloud, implies that the group is more centered online than in one location. How is your work influenced by your local scenes compared to the scene around the music online? Has this balance changed over the years?
p: We are just another language of this great universe called Brazilian funk. It’s like we are some kind of multiverse of this whole situation hahahahaha, these dudes that are playing on these huge soundsystems in the middle of the slums are with us in our WhatsApp groups! Exchanging info and music, and collecting our sounds too. Besides the name, a bunch of people from our collective like Ramemes have some close ties with the real OG artists of the Brazilian funk scene. And I think we both influenced each other’s style evolution between those years.
M: What are some releases this year that people should check out to hear the latest era of funk?
p: Undeniable choice is D.Silvestre’s self-titled album. Really a new perspective from this genre called bruxaria (witchery) that discovers a really dark prism of Brazilian funk. And I think ‘Playlist Rd da Dz7’ from DJ RD da Dz7, a masterpiece of ritmada and some experimentation of a bunch of styles from São Paulo.
‘PANDEMONIUM, a Humildes do SC moment’ is out now via the link below.
The pack was created by founding members Sykors, dj paranoia, Adame, Syredu, Dj Má, and features contributions from artwo, Edu Wasabi, Yandrel, Zero, DJ TCHOLA, Gabrieu, ettternalriot, fennecxx, rhonaz, and dj keu sempre. You can check out the group on Soundcloud, Spotify or their website.