Over the past twenty years, funk has been one of the major cultural expressions of young people from the popular classes in Rio de Janeiro. However, its trajectory is very troubled, while funk earned space in the city s cultural scene, it was also subject to a process of intense persecution and discrimination. This work will focus on the Associação dos Profissionais e Amigos do Funk /APAFunk, created by young funkeiros in order to fight for recognition of funk as a cultural movement and the professionalization of its operators, in order to combat the exploitation of the prevailing funk market today. The central hypothesis of this work is that organizing in an association gives them a new space of vocalization and leadership. The struggle for funk as well as being a struggle for validation and respect for cultural codes produced by these young people is also a struggle for the redefinition of the social position of these young people and the expansion of democracy.