ABSTRACT
The global image of Rio as the “marvelous city” of the 1960s and 1970s was based on a cultural production that bore witness to Brazil's emergence into modernity and on the overwhelming cityscape characterized by the rustle and bustle in the glamorous quarters of Ipanema and Copacabana. Today this image has been replaced by that of the favela—seat to the worldwide famous samba schools, the paramilitary, and the local drug trade— the symbol of the divided metropolis ridden by violence. During the last two decades, in reaction to the increasing domination of the drug complex, new cultural practices and political actors have emerged in the favelas. Baile funk, for example, developed into one of the favela's most significant subcultures in the mid-seventies. In the 1990s, a political branch of hip-hop split of from the baile funk party culture and produced what is today the favela's most important social movement.
