He was seventeen when he first started using software to make his own music. DJ K is 22 now, but has since become one of the biggest and most distinctive names within the baile funk scene, the dance genre born in the favelas of major Brazilian cities. The style builds on the deep bass sound of Miami Bass from the 1980s and is driven by Afro-Latino rhythms and seasoned with raps and assorted samples.

DJ K grew up in Heliópolis, the largest favela of São Paulo with over 100,000 people living there. After putting his music online, he quickly became a regular at Baile do Helipa, the biggest street party of Heliópolis. He currently leads the Bruxaria Sound collective, which consists of 17 artists, including MCs, producers and DJs. Over time K developed his sound into bruxaria, an extreme subgenre that emerged in 2019 characterised by distorted, aggressive sounds which spread from São Paulo all throughout Brazil. Bruxaria sounds sinister, harsh and tests the limits of what the body can endure in terms of sound. It is looked on as capable of making eardrums bleed and destroying headphones with its intensity.

DJ K also adds Arabic vocals, loud kickdrums and noisy sound textures to his tracks, until all the dials are in the red. An important part of his sound is the notion of tuin. A shrill, piercing tone/ that irritates initially, but is also a simulation of the auditory hallucinations caused by lança perfume, a widely-used drug in baile culture. All this results in a highly original sonic alchemy of one of the major exponents of Brazil’s dance scene.