Funk carioca is a popular type of music in Brazil, produced and consumed mainly by the youth in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, known as favelas. More than entertainment and work, funk is a form of identity for the youngsters dwelling in the favelas. This paper combines linguistic analysis with ethnography in order to demonstrate that identities forged along such lines rely on a specific language in which funk performers re-signify their own social experiences and build a new cartography of the city. In such language, the slum is no longer a space of barbarism. It is instead a neighborhood where many of these young people live and enact their everyday practices.
funk; African diaspora; identity; language; race; space