During a folkloric research mission in the Northeast Region of 1938, the writer Mário de Andrade noticed that, in rural areas, the term "samba" was associated with the event where the dance was performed, the way of dancing the samba and the music performed for the dance. The Urban Carioca Samba was influenced by several traditions associated with the universe of rural communities throughout Brazil. The folklorist Oneida Alvarenga was the first expert to list primitive popular dances of the type: coco, tambor de crioula, lundu, chula or fandango, baiano, cateretê, quimbere, mbeque, caxambu and xiba. To this list, Jorge Sabino and Raul Lody added: the samba de coco and the sambada (also called coco de roda), the samba de matuto, the samba de caboclo and the jongo.

One of the most important forms of dance in the constitution of the choreography of the Carioca Samba, the samba de roda practiced in Bahia's Recôncavo was typically danced outdoors by a soloist, while other participants of the roda took charge of the singing – alternating in solo and chorus parts – and the performance of dance instruments. The three basic steps of Bahian samba de roda were the corta-a-jaca, the separa-o-visgo and the apanha-o-bago, in addition to the little one danced exclusively by women. In their research on Bahian samba, Roberto Mendes and Waldomiro Junior examined that some elements from other cultures, such as the Arab pandeiro and the Portuguese viola, were gradually incorporated into the singing and rhythm of African batuques, whose most well-known variants were samba corrido and the samba chulado.

In the São Paulo State, another primitive modality of known rural samba developed, practiced basically in cities along the Tietê River – from the São Paulo city, until its middle course – and traditionally divided between samba de bumbo – with only instruments percussion, with bumbo – and batuque de umbigada – with tambu, quinjengue and guaiá.

Essentially made up of two parts (choir and solo) usually performed on the fly, the partido alto was – and still is – the most traditional sung variant of rural samba in Rio de Janeiro State. Originating in the Greater Rio de Janeiro, it is the combination, according to Lopes and Simas, of the Bahian samba de roda with the singing of the calango, as well as a kind of transition between rural samba and what would be developed in the urban environment of Rio from the 20th century.
In its beginnings, Samba was heavily criminalized by the Brazilian government. Born in the Favelas, it was a distinctly Afro Brazilian musical genre that brought people together in community and celebration, but that, to the Brazilian elite, was threatening. Samba's incorporation of African drumming was thought to be a connection to Afro Brazilian cults.

Many early composers were thought to be leaders of African cults and for this connection, samba faced policed persecution. Any Samba gathering was swiftly shut down, with musicians arrested and their instruments destroyed. As a result, Samba had to go underground; it relied on community members to assume the risk of persecution to have Samba parties out of their homes. Ultimately samba became a hallmark of Brazilian culture, highlighted at Carnival, but it was not …

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A political and socio-cultural epicenter of Brazil, based on slavery, Rio de Janeiro was strongly influenced by African culture. In the middle of the 19th century, more than half the population of the city – then capital of the Brazilian Empire – was formed by black slaves. In the early 1890s, Rio had more than half a million inhabitants, of whom only half were born in the city, while the other part came from the old Brazilian imperial provinces, mainly from Bahia. In search of better living conditions, this influx of black Bahians to Rio lands increased considerably after the abolition of slavery in Brazil. Called "Pequena Africa" ("Little Africa") by Heitor dos Prazeres, this Afro-Bahian diaspora community in the country's capital settled in the vicinity of the Rio de Janeiro port area and, after the urban reforms of Mayor Pereira Passos, in the neighborhoods of Saúde and Cidade Nova. Through the action of black Bahians living in Rio, new habits, customs and values of Afro-Bahian matrixes were introduced that influenced the culture of Rio, especially in popular events such as the traditional Festa da Penha and Carnival. Black women from Salvador and Bahia's Recôncavo, the "Tias Baianas" ("Bahian aunts") founded the first Candomblé terreiros, introduced the cowrie-shell divination and disseminated the mysteries of the African-based religions of the Jeje-Nagô tradition in the city. In addition to candomblé, the residences or terreiros of the aunts of Bahia hosted various community activities, such as cooking and the pagodes, where urban Rio samba would develop.

Among the most well-known Bahian aunts in Rio, were the Tias Sadata, Bibiana, Fê, Rosa Olé, Amélia do Aragão, Veridiana, Mônica, Perciliana de Santo Amaro and Ciata. A place for meetings around religion, cuisine, dance and music, Tia Ciata's home was frequented both by samba musicians and pais-de-santo as well as by influential intellectuals and politicians from Rio de Janeiro society. Among some of its members regulars were Sinhô [pt], Pixinguinha, Heitor dos Prazeres, João da Baiana [pt], Donga and Caninha [pt], as well as some journalists and intellectuals, such as João do Rio, Manuel Bandeira, Mário de Andrade and Francisco Guimarães [pt] (popularly known as Vagalume). It was in this environment that Vagalume, then a columnist for Jornal do Brasil, witnessed the birth of "O Macaco É Outro" in October 1916. According to the journalist, this samba immediately won the support of the popular people who left singing the music in an animated block. Donga registered the work in sheet music and, on 27 November of that year, declared himself as its author in the National Library, where it was registered as "carnival samba" called "Pelo Telefone". Shortly after, the score was used in three recordings at Casa Edison record label. One of them interpreted by Baiano [pt] with the accompaniment of classical guitar, cavaquinho and clarinet. Released in 78 rpm format on 19 January 1917, "Pelo Telefone…

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