Leo Justi Gives Us the Track-by-Track Rundown of ‘HVY BL NSS PRR’

You know we’ve got love for Brazilian baile provocateur Leo Justi around here. We premiered his Heavy Baile Mixtape just a couple months ago, and the Waxploitation affiliated party-starter is back in THUMPistan with an EP titled HVY BL NSS PRR. In typically Justi fashion, it’s rowdy, upfront, and is a perfect fit your your next favela rager. We got Leo to give us the rundown on the release, track by track. Ch-ch-check it:

hvy bl nss prr
“What I recall from the process of composing this one is that I was feeling light and easy. I had one basic idea in my mind, for weeks in my head: that bassline over that vocal 3 note sample. It worked badass in my mind, and I began to experiment with some synths.”

O Homem Mau
“This track samples a 70s brazilian western style storytelling vinyl from Leo Canhoto & Robertinho, which was sampled A LOT in the 90s era of Baile Funk, in the “Montagens Ao Vivo”, that is, the live sampling sets that are the roots of the baile funk style. I added the Baltimore that I love to it, and a kinda guitar-like synth.”

Devil’s Horns
“This is a instrumental VIP of my collab with Emicida, “Gueto”. It was an honor to work with one of Brazil’s best rappers. Originally Emicida had composed a melody that was more in a old school samba vibe, but with Guime it got more of a contemporary baile funk vibe. Plus the trap stuff i put in, snare rolls, 808 bass singing, etc.”

Gaitero
“A 2011 track like ‘O Homem Mau’ samples Leo Canhoto & Robertinho, so it connects with the old school baile funk fans, it has a screaming chicken on a triplet pattern at the drop, a pattern which is a mark of later baile funk (post 2001), plus it links with blues/american grass roots music which i love, with the harmonica riff.”

Beef Riddim
2011 too, a banging dirty tambozao beat with a hot berimbau riff. I sent this to a lot of rappers, M.I.A. loved it, but didnt come up with a song for it, also Telli from Ninjasonik and Tasleema told me they were gonna get on it, but never did… then i remembered Marcus Price had told me back in 2011 that this was a great instrumental… so i just decided to put it out as such!

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