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.
Butantan, the largest producer of immunobiologicals and biopharmaceuticals in Latin America, is currently manufacturing a COVID-19 vaccine in partnership with the Chinese company Sinovac. This has drawn criticism from groups and individuals, including Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro, who question the vaccine’s efficacy. In response, as a gesture of support for Buntantan’s work, amid a flurry of memes associating baile funk with the Tupi-Guarani word, MC Fioti released a remake of ‘Bum Bum Tam Tam’ on 21 January.
