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INSIDE REGGAETON - Exclusive!
Calle 13
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OTHER INSIDE EXCLUSIVES
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June 29, 2007
Calle 13 is on a mission: Subvert the established order, shock, entertain and inspire the masses, aggravate the intellectuals, and frustrate expectations on every side. Its the kind of mission that usually gets sidelined once the awards and accolades start flowing. But for the duo that radicalized reggaeton and became a sensation in the process, success is just a vehicle. Music can change things, says Rene Perez -- Residente -- the pairs outspoken rapper/songwriter. Its fun to write music, its fun when people react. They like it or they get mad.
But Im taking this seriously. If I get tired Ill get tired of it for real, send it to hell, and make art. But for now I feel Im enjoying it. But also, like, Ive got an opportunity in my hand that I have to take advantage of. Says Eduardo Cabra -- Visitante -- the duos quiet composer/musical director: Most of what you hear on the radio is totally stupid, without any substance. But there are also people who are changing, protesting, struggling. Its really important for music to have a message. The purveyors of what Residente gleefully calls Satanic music in Tango del Pecado (Sin Tango) play their first full-scale, public concert tonight at the West Dade club La Covacha.
Unlike most reggaeton acts, who take the stage with just DJ and dancers, Calle 13 performs with a full band, including percussion and horn sections. Tonights performance is their chance to show South Florida their stuff on stage, without video concepts or TV-glam production -- to show whether Visitantes turbo-charged, increasingly wide-ranging musical fusion and Residentes ever more radical lyrics can lift up a crowd. Calle 13 rocketed to prominence by being provocative. Their self-titled 2005 debut mocked and subverted reggaeton, then at its swaggering height, even while using its energy and street credibility.
Atrevete-te-te (approximately translated as Get Wild-d-d), the break-out hit, was a carnival of hilariously sexy, punning lyrics that celebrated reggaetons booty-pounding power, adding a whole new musical palette to the styles infectious beat that put it worlds away from anything else in the genre.
Calle 13 became the buzz of the Latin music business, guesting on songs by pop stars like Alejandro Sanz and Nelly Furtado, and winning three Latin Grammys last fall, including Best New Artist.
The sheer fun of Atrevete, and the irreverent humor in almost everything Calle 13 has done -- Residente rode a bicycle through the air for a Univision awards show, in mockery of Daddy Yankees celebrated entrance on a flying red Lamborghini the previous year -- obscured how radical they were.
On their first promotional visit to Miami and the United States in early 2006, Residente was up front about his mixed feelings about reggaeton. I didnt like the lyrics, he told The Miami Herald. What I liked was that it was the poetry of the street, and its been accepted by everyone.
During that visit they seemed almost stunned by the attention for what started out as a personal website project. But their success soon gave them confidence. Their spring follow-up CD, Residente o Visitante (the title refers to immigration status as well as their performance names) goes much further than their debut. Residentes lyrics are more aggressive, darker, stranger, more sexual, political and serious. Some songs are almost hallucinogenic poetic riffs.
He challenges his musical challengers, sings about immigration (Pal Norte, with Cuban rap trio Orishas) and Latin Americas relationship with the United States, disses pop commercialism in La Era de la Copiaera, mocks sexual machismo and European prejudice against Latin Americans in Mala Suerte con El 13 (Bad Luck with 13), with Spanish rapper La Mala Rodriguez. Tango del Pecado, the first single, was his sarcastic response to the enraged public reaction to his going out with countrywoman Denise Quinones, a former Miss Universe.
Visitantes music ranges all over the pop and Latin spectrum, barely touching the basic reggaeton beat.
We did what we wanted with the music and with the lyrics, Visitante said in a late April interview in the Miami Beach offices of their label, Sony-BMG, as the group prepared to perform at the Billboard Latin Music Awards in Coral Gables. We enjoyed it to the max. In the other record I was really afraid to make a mistake. This time I wasnt.
Says Residente: For me each song is like a movie -- a love story, a violent Tarantino film, a comedy. People are taking it literally, saying Im crazy, were crazy.
This is a record to listen to and think about. For me it was really important to show that we werent going to come out with a happy record like the other.
This past winter they traveled in Latin America, playing and recording music that was incorporated on the new CD, and filming what they say will be a documentary -- a sort of hip-hop Motorcycle Diaries, with some of the same political inspiration.
There are places in Latin America that are really screwed because of the U.S., says Residente. Its a problem that I havent forgotten, but that many Latinos have forgotten because they put them on MTV. Its a people that have been screwed, but that have a major future, a lot of power. Id just like to return some of that self-esteem to Latin America.
Whether that will translate to mass success is still up in the air. Residente o Visitante, released in late April, is No. 11 on Billboards Latin Album sales chart, down from No. 1. Its a respectable position, but the CD hasnt aroused the buzz that Atrevete did.
Theyve set themselves apart, says Nahum Madrid, music and content producer for batanga.com, an online radio station and music website that caters to young Latinos. People dont know how to view Calle 13 because its not really the reggaeton that people have become used to.
Instead, Madrid says, Residente wants to use the genres popularity to send a different message.
He is very aware, and he knows that he can use any kind of mainstream vehicle to get out something different, something with meaning. What he wants is for people to be more socially conscious and get a message out there besides bling bling it up.
The trick is doing that via pop music.
Im the kind of guy who wants to be a poet, but Im also going to go on a red carpet because I want to communicate with everyone, says Residente.
Concert Information:
July 13 Nokia Theatre Times Square New York, NY
July 22 The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas Las Vegas, NV
For tickets:
Calle 13 NEW YORK:
http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/00003EBF9AE566F8?brand=aeglive
Calle 13 VEGAS
http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0A003EDAABC85C2B?brand=
