born in rio de janeiro's favelas, funk carioca is today one of the most popular music rhythms in the city - perhaps more importantly, the genre is now one of the main cultural representations of brazil, directly related to the lifestyles, heritage, and everyday experiences of the youth in rio de janeiro's favelas and urban contexts.

funk carioca has been a hugely liberating genre for residents of favelas, giving them a medium through which to describe their social landscape and discuss issues relating to drugs, crime and poverty- the style  has been around for over thirty years, but it only gained relevance in the brazilian mainstream music scene in the last fifteen years.

despite the name, today's' funk carioca  has only a nominal connection to american funk - the main influential genres that lead to the rhythms of funk carioca were freestyle and miami bass, two types of hip-hop.