Paper short abstract:

This paper analyzes the recent emergence of funk da milícia to argue that music styles that have already been marked as popular forms to express and enforce (informal) sovereignty, can subsequently be used by others groups and organizations to oppose and contest such sovereignty.

Paper long abstract:

The sound of the popular music known as funk proibidão is closely connected to gang rule in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro (Sneed 2007). Whereas drug factions still reign in numerous favelas, in the last decade off-duty policemen, firemen and other state agents have begun to form paramilitary groups to take over the favelas from the heavily armed traficantes. While many milícias have banned baile funk parties because of its close association with the drug factions, a musical genre known as funk da milícia has begun to emerge. Funk da milícia praises the informal sovereignty of the milícias. For instance, the funk song 'O Batman voltou' (Batman has returned), praises the infamous Liga da Justiça paramilitary group, which uses the symbol of Batman as its marker. This paper analyzes the recent emergence of funk da milícia to argue that certain artistic genres/music styles that have already been marked as popular forms to express and enforce (informal) sovereignty, can subsequently be used by others groups and organizations to oppose and contest such sovereignty and possibly replace it by another. Aesthetic enforcement of sovereignty by means of funk is not confined to the drug gangs or milícias. Funk music is also increasingly used a means to legitimize state violence in favelas. The infamous special operation battalion of the military police (BOPE), which became the symbol of the state 'war' against drug-gangs, is openly cherished in particular funk songs (Rocha et al. 2009).