Older songs typically chopped up freestyle samples for the melody, or had none at all. Tamborzão beats use samples of Brazilian hand drums, particularly the atabaque, in arrangements that are close to the same as those used in Maculelê capoeira. Now, funk rhythms use tamborzão rhythms in addition to the older drum machine loops. The most common drum beat was a loop of DJ Battery Brain's '808 volt', commonly referred to as 'Voltmix', though Hassan's 'Pump Up The Party' is also notable.

The rhythms of funk in its early days were mostly loops of electronic drums from Miami Bass or freestyle records, while a few artists composed them with actual drum machines. Social analysts believe that the funk is a genuine expression of the severe social issues falling on the poor and black people in Rio. Funk songs discuss topics as varying as poverty, human dignity, racial pride of black people, sex (breaking its moral values), violence and social injustice. From mid-1990s it was a mainstream phenomenon in Brazil. The funk popularized in the 1980s in Rio de Janeiro shanty neighborhoods called favelas. Miami is a popular plane stop for Rio DJs to buy the latest American records. The reason why these genres, very localized in the USA, became popular and influential in Rio de Janeiro is due to proximity.

Funk is a direct derivative of Miami Bass and freestyle (another Miami-based genre) music from the United States.

Funk carioca drum kit