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For almost three decades, Brazil’s baile funk music genre has been attacked by conservative groups and reactionary media. Now, however, leading figures from this home-grown hip-hop scene are taking a stand in defense of the Brazilian people, in an attempt to rescue the country from its current political and health crises.
There’s a connection between baile funk and the pandemic in the name of the Butantan Institute, the São Paulo-based body responsible for research and manufacture of supplies for the Brazilian public health system. “Butantan”, in the indigenous Tupi Guarani language, means crushed soil. But it also looks and sounds a lot like ‘Bum Bum Tam Tam’, the title of a 2017 baile funk song by MC Fioti.