[APWW PGM #689} World Cup mania continues in Brazil. The games are a source of great national pride, as well as bitter dissent due to the fact that billions were spent on stadiums, rather than schools, hospitals and public transport. What does the music community think? We check in with the latest baile funk from Rio’s favelas. Label owner Renato M2 introduces us to a new style–the slowed down Afro-Brazilian tinged rasterhina. In São Paulo, the cosmopolitan city of 20 million where musical innovation is always happening, we hear Ba-Boom–afoxé mixed with dancehall. From Bahia, we hear the latest from tropicália legend Caetano Veloso and introduce Russo Passapusso, who is reviving the 1970’s MPB sound. Long neglected in Brazil, female MC’s are finally getting their due–we check out Karol Conka and Pearls Negras. Up the coast in Recife, we catch up with Siba and Zé Brown, veterans of the mangue bit movement, who are ably mixing local roots music with international sounds. We’re introduced to the active Brazilian avant garde by Chico Dub. Our last stop is Belém on the Amazon River, where we hear innovative brega artist Felipe Cordeiro. Produced by Jesse Brent.