DJ Dayeh
Rap Blog is a weekly showcase of a standout rap song written by Vivian Medithi and Nadine Smith.
While Brazil’s contemporary baile funk scene is one of the most boundary-pushing and forward-thinking movements in music today, it’s still unfairly dominated by male producers. You might frequently hear female rappers on the mic spitting scandalous bars, but it’s not as often that you see them actually producing baile funk tracks — like far too many music scenes around the world, baile funk can still very much be a boy’s club, where female artists are viewed as little more than an appealing voice or flashy accessory to be hypersexualized.
But a growing number of outspoken female producers are knocking on the doors of baile funk, mixing beats that are just as explosive and cutting-edge as their male counterparts, if not more so. In a scene filled with a million stylistic variations, “bruxaria” is one of the most bewitching, a horrorcore-like blend of extreme beats, industrial edges, and demented cackles — fitting, since the term literally translates to “witchcraft.”
Though the term was popularized by fellow São Paulo producer DJ K, it’s DJ Dayeh who is the real witch behind the boards of bruxaria. Her new track “Bruxaria das Faixa Rosa” is jagged and metallic, a propulsive engine of bass, that taunts you with witchy laughs and chopped-up chants. A co-production with DJ K, the intense funk banger fits right in alongside the gleeful rave nightmare of his debut album PANICO NO SUBMUNDO, as hard-hitting as it is hallucinatory. MC Soffia — who first emerged as a prodigious 12-year old rapper at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, before completely reinventing herself — unleashes a flow that’s equally ruthless over DJ Dayeh’s production, with an edge of menace to her elastic voice.