Back in 2007, I was just beginning my studies at Brown University, and getting used to the feeling of being perpetually knee-deep in homework and emotional instability. In my spare time, I would compulsively seek out new music as a way to distract myself, which usually consisted of interrogating people I’d recently met about their music choices and swapping tracks whenever possible.
Around this time, I became really interested in M.I.A. and her 2005 mixtape produced by Diplo (before either of them became a household name) – “Piracy Funds Terrorism.” Essentially it was just a mash up tape of M.I.A.’s “Arular” album vocals with various pop, hip-hop and global music samples. This was a very pivotal time in my history of musical taste, considering that in the few years prior to 2007 I hadn’t really sought out any music that wasn’t hip-hop or ambient electronica.
As a side-note, 2007 was a really interesting time for popular music trends. I look back at this time as the temporal gray area between hip-hop and R&B dominating the Billboard Top 40s and the subsequent commercial uprising of the EDM scene. In 2007, Avril Lavigne still had a single in the Billboard Top 10; this was the year of Crank That, Umbrella, etc etc. By 2009, tracks like the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow” and Flo Rida’s “Right Round” were holding court in the Top 10. And, you know – David Guetta happened. See the trend? Anyway, point being – at this time, back in 2007, most Top 40s radio stations weren’t playing too many dance tracks, and house music of any kind was often written off as being “European” or techno or both, and generally disregarded by popular American radio stations. Music festivals were not nearly as popular as they are now – in this country anyway – and rave culture was unfortunately still somewhat frowned upon by the greater public.
Anyway, I got to listening to this Diplo mixtape, and took a particular liking to a track called “Baile Funk One.” The track cites this track as the “sample” – somewhat of a misnomer given that “Baile Funk One” is the 2000 baile funk track “Aviãozinho” by Sandy & as Travessas (I’ll save my thoughts on this convenient mislabeling for another post). There was something about this beat that I found to be absolutely mesmerizing, despite the fact that the vocals were in a foreign language, and the actual construction of the beat itself was completely novel to me as well. Typically speaking- and I’m pretty sure this is a common occurrence for most people – I usually enjoy a newly discovered track because it carries some crossover element from a track or genre I’ve already familiarized myself with. But there was something about this baile funk rhythm that was so captivatingly upbeat, despite the fact that it bore absolutely no resemblance to any music I was listening to at the time. After accidentally stumbling across this track via the “Piracy Funds Terrorism” mixtape, from that point on I actively sought out other forms of international dance music and fusion genres. I also learned a bit more about the history of baile funk, which you can learn more about here in my coinciding “Track of the Week” post.