Of all the DJs and producers who have contributed to the decade’s Brazilian funk resurgence, few have reached a wider audience than DJ Ramon Sucesso. Since he began his Sexta dos Crias series (which translates as something like “Homie Fridays”) in 2021, Sucesso has become a rare export from the underground Rio scene—a touring heavyweight and a critical favorite. If he became known internationally for his iconic videos of DJ controller abuse, where his fingers pound away at distorted vocal chops and explosive drums, his 2023 mix album Sexta dos Crias proved his buzzy mixing style had deeper substance than his short videos might have suggested. On its sequel, Sexta dos Crias 2.0, Sucesso upgrades nearly every part of his frenzied funk, setting himself apart as the style’s most kinetic practitioner.
Sucesso’s style is laid bare on snaking side A-side “Rompanedo o Espaço-Tempo” (“Breaking Through Space-Time”), which centers both his precise production chops and songs from likeminded peers. Distortion is key to Sucesso’s heavyweight funk beats, though they’re nowhere as brutal as the mandelão and bruxaria—two haute underground funk subgenres—of contemporaries like d.silvestre and DJ K. Instead, along with his grimy experimentation, Sucesso has always grounded himself in foundational aspects of funk carioca, the hip-hop–inspired sound innovated by DJ Marlboro, though his beats are nowhere as melodic or bubbly as popular funk contemporaries like Anitta or even underground peers like DJ Ramemes, who contributes production on the record. Poking through the constant chaos, Sucesso’s selections share crucial similarities with mainstream funk: repetitive, bass-heavy, and sexy. At its core, funk is a party music and Sexta dos Crias 2.0 feels like a celebration from start to finish.
With much credit to Sucesso’s exacting curation of dozens of voices and his constant chopping and filtering to keep repetitive lines fresh, the vocalists are the clear stars of “Distorcendo o Universo” (“Distorting the Universe”), the mix’s B-side segment. The lineup of vocalists—some brash, some beautiful, all aggressive and confident—center some of the most memorable funk rapping and melodies in recent memory, recalling the gorgeous vocal work of funk royalty like Tati Quebra Barraco and MC Bin Laden. Around the 13-minute mark, a female vocalist delivers a melody so indelible that when it’s repeated by Sucesso, it feels like hypnotherapy. Popular funk vocalists like MC Nito and MC Marlon PH make boisterous cameos, but the barrage of voices on Sexta dos Crias 2.0 creates a whole that doesn’t ever hinge on any one performance. It’s unclear who most of these vocalists and producers are, anyways; the record solely credits Sucesso for “music and mixing.” So just like that fire track that Shazam couldn’t ID last weekend at the club, there’s no knowing what Sucesso pulled from to put Sexta dos Crias 2.0 together, but it all makes good on the B-side’s implicit promise of making Sucesso’s take on funk bigger than himself.
Sexta dos Crias 2.0, as the title may suggest, improves and upgrades on nearly every aspect of its preceding iteration. Whereas the original Sexta dos Crias boasted incredibly minimal rhythm lines and many interruptions from the DJ, the sequel incorporates a wider palette of samples, melodies, and rhythms, while reducing his time on the mic to allow the music to speak louder for itself (changes he credits to the critical feedback he received after the first edition). Sucesso delivers tighter mixes of fiercer tracks with mixing that ignores the easiest blend or chop in favor of more difficult but rewarding options. Certain limitations occasionally reveal themselves; when a classic dub echo effect kicks in, anyone who’s been near a Pioneer DJM mixer can picture Ramon turning its knob. But for how extensively Sucesso’s style has been technologically determined by his controllers, he’s made remarkably vibrant use of the palette available to him.
Sucesso’s approach to funk has been largely atypical of its local manifestations: Whereas uploading full sets of funk mixes is fairly common among Brazilian DJs, he’s the first to press one to vinyl and present mixes in the LP format. Even his fame, sprung from videos filmed in an empty room, happened a world away from the packed dancefloors where funk thrives. It’s this unconventionality that’s set Sucesso apart from his peers, especially as funk continues to grow in popularity abroad. But at its core, DJ Ramon Sucesso is still focused on what’s made funk great across generations and now borders: infectious beats, melodies, and basslines that are dissected with surgical precision.
