Superstar DJ Fatboy Slim is bringing the sounds of Brazil's poorest slums to Britain.

Rio funk is the music of choice for armed drug gangs and the impoverished youth of Brazil's shanty towns, known as favelas.

Fatboy Slim, from Hove, has remixed one of Rio de Janeiro's hottest tracks and is hoping to storm the charts with the single Follow Me, Follow Me on Brighton record label Mr Bongo.

Critics say the single, originally recorded by Brazilian funk trio Tejo, Black Alien and Speed, will make Rio funk a hit in the UK.

In Brazil, Rio funk has been described as a movement which allows the city's poor and marginalised youth to express itself.

Each weekend for the past seven years, hundreds of youths from the slums have gathered at up to 500 parties across Rio to dance, sing and fight to the sound of Rio funk.

Stigmatised as the music of the city's drug wars, it is played at rave-like funk balls put on for Rio's 200,000 poor teenagers by the gangs who control the favelas.

There are dozens of deaths each year as rival gangs line up on opposite sides of a funk ball and fight in the thin corridor of space between them.

Most Brits will have heard Follow Me, Follow Me - originally called Quem Que Caguetou?, meaning Who's The Snitch? - in a more mainstream context.

It is the soundtrack to the Nissan X-Trail TV ad, in which the car leads runners through muddy urban streets.

Fatboy Slim, also known as Norman Cook, has remixed his own version of the track.

Mr Bongo spokeswoman Jane Cudworth said: "The guys from the group come from the tough streets of Rio and their track is indicative of the new wave of funk and hip hop sweeping across the Rio favela party scene.

"It is a mixture of hip hop, Miami bass and electro."

The single, which Fatboy played for 400,000 people at his Big Beach Boutique in Rio on March 7, has already been given airtime by high-profile DJs including Jo Whiley and Steve Lamacq.

Jane said: "This unique track is starting to get the radio play it deserves, so expect to hear it gracing the airwaves of Radio 1 any day now. We have been holding back on the release of this great track to wait for the inclusion of the blinding Fatboy Slim remix. It was well worth it.

"As well as the Fatboy mix, there are two remixes by Mr Bongo's own Sao Benitez, as well as an a cappella version."

Mr Bongo has just completed a video, which it says is something along the lines of the Brazilian film City Of God meets hip hop band the Beastie Boys.

Despite its name, Rio funk - pronounced foon-kee - sounds nothing like Seventies funk and is best described as a fusion of late Eighties electronica with hip hop and techno.

Jane said: "It's a brilliant track in its own right, as well as having interesting social and cultural angles and being about excellent new innovative music.

"The boys from Mr Bongo have just been over to Brazil to meet with Black Alien and Speed and also to attend the Salvador Carnival.

"Mr Bongo also runs a charity called Street Angels in a favela near Salvador where we help run a school and health clinic, contributing a percentage from sales of albums to the project."