Ordinary Culture and Marginalized Art: São Paulo Funk as an Intersectional Expression of Peripheral Youth

Abstract

This article aims to sociologically analyze the musical compositions of four artists representing São Paulo funk: MC Hariel, MC Dricka, and Irmãs de Pau. Considering the long history of criminalization surrounding the genre and drawing on the analytical poem study methodology proposed by Antonio Candido (2006), as well as the concept of structures of feeling developed by Raymond Williams (1979), this analysis focuses on examining the claims and demands expressed by young people within the funk universe. The selection of the artists was based on the principle of intersectionality, a theoretical and critical framework proposed by Patricia Hill Collins (2022), which seeks to understand how interrelations among different forms of oppression manifest materially. In turn, the choice of the six songs was guided by their dialogue with the central themes discussed in this work, such as economic scarcity, racial prejudice, and issues of gender and sexuality. In this context, the biographical trajectories of the selected MCs provide an overview of the aspirations and expectations of São Paulo's peripheral youth and their relationships with issues of race, gender, and sexuality, as these artists are understood as interpreters of the reality in which they are embedded.