Photography courtesy of Mad Decent

“I thought it was the apocalypse,” says Diplo. That is how the Grammy-nominated DJ/producer describes attending a baile funk party in Rio de Janeiro, a culture and city he immersed himself in to film his documentary, Favela On Blast. There — “at the end of the world” — the pavement gave way to dirt paths even the police feared crossing; a redheaded man holding a machine gun stood next to his Black brother, while another man wired the electricity for a congregation decked out with a hefty sound-system.
     According to Diplo (whose real name is Wesley Pentz), baile funk developed on its own without a guiding hand from the record industry. During a 2004 Hollertronix show in Philadelphia, two Argentine girls handed him a cassette. “It was like a Smiths record looped up, like an 80s record, a little kid screaming over the top and heavy bass drums and all this surface noise,” Diplo recalls. “I thought it was the best music I had ever heard.” With no information on the hybrid of heavy metal and Miami bass readily available in these early days of the Internet, Diplo headed to Brazil to conduct his own investigative research. Once he was initiated into the often dangerous and drug-laden scene, he felt as if the blend of people coming together made it seem like “all the things bad in the world — European colonization, African immigration, and the industrial revolution — were all set right.”