Buraka Som Sistema (BSS) are a Portuguese collective who specialise in a unique strain of Kuduro inspired dance music. The core team are J-WOW, Riot, Conductor and MC Kalaf along with a whole host of booty-shaking dancers and electrifying MCs.

School friends João Barbosa and Rui Pite, AKA producers J-WOW and DJ Riot, started their West-African tinged musical odyssey from their Enchufuda (or 'plugged in') studio in Buraca, Lisbon in 2005. They brought in DJ/Producer Andro Carvalho AKA Conductor for the ride as well as lyrical maestro Kalaf, an Angolan ex-pat MC and writer.

As a foursome, the group set off with a base of Kuduro, an Angolan party beat and mixed in other worldwide influences like electro, dubstep, grime and drum n bass along the way.

With their starting manifesto of “making people dance like hell, sweat like hell and scream like hell” BSS harnessed the global sound-scape through tracks Yah and Sound of Kuduro feat M.I.A. Their biggest hit to date Kalemba (wegue wegue) was Christmas number 1 in Spain in 2009 while they picked up key supporters and collaborators in the likes of Diplo, Reso, Switch and Hot Chip enroute.

BSS ramped up their live show to include physics-defying dance troupes and rotating rapid-fire MCs, exporting the unhinged mayhem across the world. The explosive show garnered them glowing reviews from everyone from the blogosphere to the broadsheets, as well as picking up best Portuguese act at the 2008 MTV Europe awards.

Since their debut album Black Diamond in 2008 the collective have been following solo projects; João has become part of Red Bull Music Academy team where he mentored in London 2010 and Rui has been producing bad boy drum and bass. The group are now working on their second album, due for release in autumn 2011, and set up shop at the Red Bull Studios London recording with a host of the cities finest MCs and vocalists.
 

Buraka Som Sistema