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CD Review: Calle 13’s Residente o Visitante

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By Jesus Rodriguez, Reggaetonline.net

June 04, 2007

In listening to Calle 13’s latest album, you are going to know pretty soon whether you are a Reggaeton fan or a Calle 13 fan. The reason is that this album focuses on the group’s greatest asset, which is to make creative music that challenges Reggaeton to be different. And by challenge, I mean that Residente is a lyrical warrior that takes the battle right to the conventional Urban artists, who in his view are not innovating the genre by performing with the same style and words. Meanwhile, Visitante lays down the score for the soundtrack with music inspired by their tours around Latin America, with Cumbia, Tango, Flamenco and Jamaican influences. The result is not your typical perreo album, but a complex, satirical look at the world through the eyes of the group, in an all-out effort to make the listeners choose what direction this upcoming genre should take: melodic hooks over repetitive Dembow beats, or the alternative, which Calle 13 is single-handedly defining.

Although this album is mainly addressed to the Urban crowd (and its current artists) this is not a Reggaeton album. By my count you will only find 3 or 4 Dembow beats in the whole record, and they are innovative beats at that. Uiyi Guaye’s beat is simple, yet doesn’t repeat itself – showing the extra attention paid in the production, while ‘Cumbia De Los Aburridos’ is the required Latin-fusion established by ‘Atrevete-te-te.’ The rest is a blend of sometimes simplistic beats meant to let Residente’s lyrics deliver more wallop like in the track ‘Pal’ Norte’ where he describes the restrained feelings of an immigrant in the land of opportunity. Meanwhile, in the socially charged ‘Llegale A Mi Guarida’ it becomes a showcase of Visitante’s musical genius where the music seems to be pushing the rapper to deliver his lines while squaring off against the tone-setting tunes. Overall, ‘Residente o Visitante’ is a remarkable effort from a musical standpoint in that it delivers a fresh and diverse sound, unlike the usual Reggaeton album. If not for Residente’s ability to grab your attention with his words, this album would be a showcase for Visitante’s underappreciated beat-making skills. However, the attention that Residente is so good at attracting seems to be misplaced this time around because of the content of his lyrics.

All things considered, Calle 13 has a history of going against the grind in terms of music and lyrical content, and the latter part of this formula often lands them on controversial ground (see ‘Querido FBI’.) In this album, the power of Residente’s lyrics is misplaced as a means to get more attention. The point has always been to be different, and by doing so, they separated themselves from the rest of a genre that was bordering on stale and boring. But it seems like Residente went out of his way to emphasize their uniqueness by using vulgar language and remarks that seem unnecessarily crude. While it works in tracks like ‘Mala Suerte Con El 13,’ where he verbally duels (and abuses) Mala Rodriguez in the context of an aggressive love relationship, it doesn’t work in the dancehall tune Uiyi Guaye which discusses his need to please himself because of a hot woman. The difference is that in the first example it is necessary to establish the animal nature of the relationship described, with fetishes and raw analogies abound. Meanwhile, the second example starts as a regular guy being attracted to a woman, and then it dives into all the ways he can masturbate while thinking of this same girl. While it might be what many think about (and obviously don’t usually discuss), it seems somewhat pointless considering we heard Residente hit the right notes before. In the hit song ‘La Aguacatona’ from their first effort, the same situation was spun with a more satisfying (if not expected) ending.

In the end, this album will be looked as envelope-pushing, although not groundbreaking - their first album already did that. Some tracks will be welcomed as tapping into Calle 13’s undeniable potential for doing really well anything they set their minds to (‘Un Beso De Desayuno’ comes to mind), while others will be seen as strictly controversial, ignoring their satirical message as in ‘Tango Del Pecado.’ The downside is that great tracks like the Latin Rap fans’ dream ‘Sin Exagerar’ with Tego Calderon, and the polarizing yet brilliant ‘Algo Con Sentido’ (where he unleashes his wrath against the Reggaeton status quo) will get lost in all the commotion. The genius is still there, mainly because the group is comfortable with who they are and don’t mind rubbing it in. More importantly, you feel what they convey in their music, even if you don’t agree with it. It makes you have an opinion, and the way traditional Reggaeton is being streamlined, causing any type of reaction is better than being numb to that Dembow beat.