2005 Rolling Reggaeton Thread

You got reggaeton in my salsa

I'm listening to last year's Daddy Yankee, although the "Gasolina" video is still getting tv play.

I want to learn how to say that as fast as Daddy Yankee.

Dance-hall. Lately though I've been overhearing some stuff that sounds kind of interesting. Also, some of the Latin nights I go to play some dance-hall (is this term even used any more?) with Spanish lyrics, or something of that sort, and it's okay. There's some genre called reggaeton, but I'm not sure what that is.--what got you out of jamaican music?

(Brilliant, eh?)

LUNY TUNES!
DADDY!

zzzzzzzzz

zzzzzzzzz

zzzzzzzzz

What are the summer 2005 reggaeton hits? I see Lo Que Paso, Paso by Daddy Yankee is gaining on the Latin chart...

As far as I know, the Hot station around my parts (93.7 CT!) is playing Daddy Yankee and some NORE tracks (mostly the one w/ Nina Sky on it) (does that count?), and that about it. (Not so much "Gasolina" right now, tho it was getting OVEROVERplayed between March and May.) There is a reggaeton show on Saturday or Sunday nights, tho, and those tracks I mentioned get LOTS of play.

No, I agree with Mike O.: the music seems to have spread to all North American Latino youth; there's a reggaeton/Spanish hip-hop station here in Denver, though our Latino population is far more Mexican than Puerto Rican. The station is pushing a crossover feel (announcers speak English, there are lots of hip-hop remixes with Spanish raps added and some English-language tracks by Latina artists, e.g. Ciara's "1,2 Step," so you get to hear Missy Elliott imitating Teena Marie on Latino radio). Also - and this confuses me (and may just be my ignorant misinterpretation) - "reggaeton" seems on its way to becoming the generic term for the whole general mishmash, including the stuff that's way closer to hip-hop or to Latin pop or to rappified salsa than to dancehall. This may be appropriate, since really even the dancehall-style stuff has a character that's very very distinct from dancehall in a way I wish I could put my finger on; it may have to do with the rhythm of spoken Spanish not sounding much like the rhythm of Jamaican English. A reason the term "Latin hip-hop" isn't prevalent (at least isn't prevalent from what I've heard) might be that the phrase "Latin hip-hop" meant something very different fifteen years ago: Exposé, Company B, Judy Torres, the Cover Girls, Cynthia, Sa-fire, Corina, Noel, "Point of No Return," "Fascinated," "Come Into My Arms," "Inside Outside," "Change on Me," "Boy I've Been Told," "Temptation," "Silent Morning."

Whatever it's called, I find the whole phenomenon exciting, an ongoing appropriation/evolution (e.g., Lil Jon's hopped onto the trend, and his productions and his yelps are almost as omnipresent on the reggaeton station as on the hip-hop/r&b).

Getting a lot of airplay is Johnny Prez's very good "Tu Pum Pum."

If you want to hear what this stuff sounds like, the station streams its signal here: Mega 95.7: Latino and Proud.

#1 lo que paso - daddy yankee
#2 la tortura - shakira
#3 pretty girl - nb ridaz
#4 la camisa negra - juanes
#5 mayor que yo - mas flo all stars
#6 bumper - voltio
#7 just a lil bit - 50 cent
#8 ven tu - domenic marte
#9 tu pum pum - johnny prez
#10 mira mira - tweaponz

Her most recent dad-argument song is called "La Reyna Del Mall"; you can see a video of the earlier one, whose name I don't remember. The song's not nearly as good as the Mall song, but the video does a nice job of building her persona.

I never thought that reggaeton, despite its name, sounded more dancehall reggae than hiphop. Its beats per minute are a little more in tune with dancehall than most current hiphop though.

Another factor worth mentioning is that La Mega Communications and one or 2 other companies have been buying up radio stations throughout the US and their programming decisions affect a bit what the kids or whomever are listening to.

btw 'el tren' is from yaga and mackie's hot new album 'la moda', which i am liking better than wisin y yandel's 'pal mundo' and ivy queen's 'flashback' of recent r-ton albums. but don't ask me exactly why just yet. zion y lennox's might be out soon or out now but i'm looking fwd to that too. all the duos!

other ppl talk about the ysis now! also what do ppl think of the new nina sky?

[Oh, fuck...I skipped over the very best line]

If you're flat-assed, then shake yr back/spine

[implying of course that American white girls have no junk in the trunk...within context, it's golden]

Do you believe in fascistic sonics, rs? 'Straight', tonal chords, have been thought of as such and used as some sort of justification for serial music.

(Liking 'el tren' more than 'rakakakaka'...er. But I actually like both, its just that 'el tren' is faster and the bit where the beat is on this flickering motion is good.)

(Listening to fragments of the new nina sky: 'Vamos'is kinda ace huh? Its actually more unexpected - salsa in yer reggaeton and all that.)

Culo: the all-important booty

I've been told that "culo" means "asshole," and "cola" would be a better translations of "booty."

LAUGHING ALL THE WAY
By CELIA SAN MIGUEL

ODD COUPLE

"Calle 13" (White Lion/Sony BMG) is in stores now.

If being able to chuckle at one's self is a sign of mental health, then the members of Puerto Rican rap/reggaet¢n duo Calle 13 are setting new standards for sanity.

Stepbrothers Eduardo Jos‚ Cabra Martinez (El Visitante) and Rene Perez Joglar (Residente Calle 13) are dabbling in the macho world of urban music, but there's no hardcore bravado at work - their zany songs are loaded with double entendres, irreverent observations and playfully mish-mashed sonic arrangements.

"When our song 'Te Vale To-To' started getting radio play, some people were like, 'This is so weird,' and other people were like, 'This is dope!'" recalls 27-year-old Residente, the duo's MC. "But [at least] it's not like they listened to it once and that's it."

At first glance, Residente looks like most rappers - he has the number 13 shaved into his head and boasts numerous tattoos on his arms - but the Trujillo Alto rapper will gladly don bright yellow sneakers and a checkered belt for a quirky photo shoot.

El Visitante, meanwhile, sports long hair and hipster clothing that make him look more like a member of Los Amigos Invisibles than a gifted urban producer.

The duo's penchant for parody and innovation made them an alluring act to White Lion Records, the premier reggaet¢n record label in Puerto Rico. In February, after listening to Calle 13's demo, execs decided to sign the quirky act.

"White Lion is the place to go if you want to release something different," Residente says. "They're willing to take that risk."

But will audiences be thrown off by their eccentricity? Residente hardly thinks so.

"As long as you do something different, people will listen. You won't go undetected."

Nice long article about the Megaton festival in NYC and producers Luny Tunes by Jon Caramanica in the Sun 12-4-05 NY Times. Here's part of it:

"Mr. Saldana (he's Luny) and Mr. Cabrera (he's Tunes) were born in the Dominican Republic, and in their teens both moved to the suburbs north of Boston, where they met. The local Hispanic community there was small and not fully assimilated. "Since most of the Latin people there didn't speak English, and we were all together, we had to listen to our own thing," Mr. Cabrera said.

This meant listening to reggaetón - albums sent by friends in Puerto Rico, then quickly bootlegged and passed around. "Compared to New York and many other places, Boston was one of the places that was the most up to date with reggaetón," Mr. Cabrera said. "At that time, there were lots of singers, lots of rappers there who were very into the music."

The friends worked in a dining hall at Harvard, but in their spare time they tried their hand as producers. In 2000, Mr. Saldana went to Puerto Rico and met DJ Nelson, a noted reggaetón producer, who offered him work in his studio. He agreed, as long as he could bring his old friend.

Not only were they fluent with reggaetón; after years spent in the United States, they had also imbibed lessons from American hip-hop. "There was no sound quality in reggaetón at that time," Mr. Saldana said. "We wanted to make a clearer sound."

Mr. Cabrera added: "There was no melodies. Rappers were just rapping. And producers, they used to sample a lot, and we didn't like that. They were just copying. Back in Boston, we used to say, 'If only they did this, if only they changed that - the melodies, the lyrics - it would be better.' And when we got to Puerto Rico, that's what we did."

They bought the latest studio equipment - then a rarity in Puerto Rico - and set to work in a studio provided by DJ Nelson. "The artists there noticed that we were always up to date with our technology," Mr. Cabrera said, "so it didn't take long for them to want to work with us." Eventually they struck out on their own, and built their own studio - by hand. "We had to grab a shovel and help dig the dirt," Mr. Saldana recalled.

With Mr. Saldana focusing on drum patterns and sound engineering - "He's the guy with big ears," Mr. Cabrera said - and his more excitable partner on the melodies that dress them up, they quickly homed in on an unabashedly commercial and easily identifiable style. Luny Tunes records stay true to the boom/ cha-boom/ chick beat that reggaetón inherited from dancehall reggae, but also manage to reinvent it, seemingly on the fly. They sound alive, changing structure every eight bars or so, with synth riffs that shift shape as the song progresses and drum sounds that adjust to a song's mutating mood. A Luny Tunes record is an alluring mix of shuffle and melody, attitude and sentiment, simultaneously upholding and denaturing reggaetón tradition.

In contrast to American hip-hop, where rappers usually occupy the spotlight, reggaetón producers have often been more famous than the rappers they supported. In Puerto Rico, appearing on compilations by DJ Blass, DJ Dicky and DJ Playero - until recently, producers were often referred to as D.J.'s - was the surefire way for a young rapper to get noticed.

Following that tradition, Luny Tunes have released several compilations of their own - "Mas Flow" (2003) and "Mas Flow 2" (2005), named for their record label; the all-instrumental "Kings of the Beats" (2004); and "La Trayectoria" (2004), a hits retrospective covering much of their early work, some of which is still receiving play on reggaetón radio. Both "La Trayectoria" and "Mas Flow 2" have been certified Latin platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, for 200,000 units shipped. And a track from the latter, "Mayor Que Yo," figures prominently in "Latinologues," the first Broadway production written, acted and directed entirely by Latinos.

One Luny Tunes song in particular, Daddy Yankee's "Gasolina," has become the calling card not only of their distinctive sound but also of reggaetón in general. Thanks to the song, a sly ode to a captivating woman, Yankee's album "Barrio Fino" - produced in large part by Luny Tunes - has sold almost a million copies in the United States, and Yankee has become the most prominent Spanish-speaking artist, apart from Shakira, getting airplay on English-language radio.

"Reggaetón is now a part of hip-hop, and is not going anywhere," said R. Kelly, who solicited a beat from Luny Tunes for "Burn It Up," a track on his latest album. "When I heard the Luny Tunes' talent and skill, it confirmed in my mind that reggaetón was going to be around for a very long time."

Now working out of a new studio in the city of Carolina, near San Juan, the two producers, and their growing team of associates, have no shortage of work. In addition to the forthcoming American major-label debuts of Daddy Yankee and Tego Calderón, as well as a host of projects for other reggaetón acts, they are collaborating with an ever-growing number of American artists. They will have a track on Enrique Iglesias's next album, and they teamed with Will.I.Am from the Black Eyed Peas on a track from Ricky Martin's new album.

"Working with the Luny Tunes was a dope experience," said Will.I.Am. "Because of the language barriers, it was all about the music. I played keys and bass lines, they made beats, and we communicated through head nods."

The rapper Fat Joe recently flew to Puerto Rico to discuss their potential involvement with one of his protégés, Cien. There has also been talk of working with the hip-hop production heavyweights the Neptunes, and some unlikely collaborators are knocking: "Jessica Simpson's father wants to work with us, too," said Mr. Saldana, some combination of bewildered and grateful.

As for recent rumors about their role in the forthcoming Jennifer Lopez album, the duo are mum. But Rene Lavan, a producer and cast member of "Latinologues," is negotiating with Ms. Lopez's film company to produce the soundtrack for a film he says is "a sort of reggaetón '8 Mile,' " and he confirms that Luny Tunes are set as executive producers of the soundtrack.

"We have to be honest: the outside people have helped reggaetón," said Mr. Cabrera. "On the news, when they say Ricky Martin is doing a reggaetón song, that's a big thing, and we benefit from it."

Having hit records, however, can also hinder creativity. Sean Paul, one of dancehall reggae's biggest stars, recently called on Luny Tunes. "I sent him beats," Mr. Saldana recalled, "and he didn't like them. He's like, 'Oh no, it's not what I'm looking for.' The thing was, he wanted something like 'Gasolina.' "

Mr. Cabrera, though, is savvy enough to make light of the situation. "Now we did the R. Kelly track," he said. "It's a hit and it's everywhere, so now they're all like, 'We want that R. Kelly track!' So every time that happens, we'll just keep changing."

At Megaton, while Luny Tunes were backstage being besieged by cameras from the Latin media, new alliances were being formed onstage. Midset, Daddy Yankee brought out Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes. They sang a duet of the Snoop Dogg hit "Drop It Like It's Hot" and then an as-yet-unreleased collaboration, "Mamacita," produced by Mr. Williams. It was as if, granted stardom, Yankee was free to move beyond his roots, to drive in somebody else's well-appointed ride for a change.

Luny Tunes, meanwhile, have the rest of the genre to worry about. Having brought American influences to bear on their island sound, they're now watching as the influence cycles in the reverse direction. As reggaetón increasingly comes to emulate the structure of American pop, giving priority to performers over producers, Luny Tunes may find themselves not the kingmakers that producers in the genre have always been, but just one option on a palette of available sound. Or, as the United States becomes increasingly Hispanic, pop music may increasingly resemble - or altogether assimilate - Latin pop.

For the time being, Luny Tunes do not seem terribly worried. "Now, everyone has heard reggaetón at least once," Mr. Cabrera said. "And we'll be in the studio working, doing our best to keep it alive. We can always control the beats."

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Off topic, weren't you wondering about the African roots of the tango? At the afropop.org site, Ned Sublette interviews the knowledgeable and eccentric Yale professor Robert (?) Farris Thompson about that.

Go Papa Joe!

National "Son" Music Gathering Winds Up in Eastern Cuba
By Maribel Flamand/ 16-11-2005

In what will go down in records as an historic event, a national gathering of groups that play the traditional Cuban music of Son came to a conclusion in the island's eastern city of Mayari, in Holguin province.

Presentations were made at the gathering's colloquy titled "Tendencies of Son Music in Eastern Cuba," attended by both prominent musicians and devotees of the art form.

Well-known artists who participated in this seventeenth annual celebration asserted that Son music has no rival.

Popular recording artist Cesar "Pupi" Pedroso stated that "everything related to that kind of music is important, because it is our music; it is part of our identity. This gathering is to recognize Son, orchestras and talent that defends and sustains it. This must be done in order to prevent our music's roots from being distorted."

Adalberto Alvarez [one of the major living son songwriters, whose material also gets covered by Puerto Rican salsa bands pretty frequently] pointed out, "The gathering is worth even more in these times when we are going through a crisis in popular dance music with the emergence of tendencies that contaminate everything and are acting to displace us. We don't know how to achieve a balance; we either fall short or go too far. This doesn't mean that we're at odds with "Reggeton" (Latin Reggae) for example, but everything has its time and place." He added, "The festival is significant because it keeps alive a genre that has seen a million of those musical tendencies come and go, while it continues to live."

Continued:

http://www.ahora.cu/english/SECTIONS/holguin/2005/noviembre/16-11-05a.htm

Incidentally, Cesar Pedroso is hardly a purist. In my opinion, he's coming up with some of the newest sounding music within Afro-Latin music.

Just as it seemed that timba was limping towards the grave; it jumps right back up on its feet and starts temblequeando (seriously shaking its hips). Y gracias a dios! It's not like I enjoyed being a harbinger of doom ... It's just that with the perpetual and monotonous beats of reggaeton dominating the Havana music scene, I was becoming seriously depressed.

But timba lives - as some of us say at timba geeks (or wear on t-shirts):

Timba o muerte - Venceremos!

Leading the way - as he has done since he left Los Van Van in 2001 - is Pupy y los que Son Son. The group released two great albums during the past year - Buena Gente and Mi Timba "Cerra" (currently near the top of my itunes playlist: Del Trabajo a la Casa. . .

Source: http://yemayasverse.blogspot.com/

National "Son" Music Gathering Winds Up in Eastern Cuba
By Maribel Flamand/ 16-11-2005

In what will go down in records as an historic event, a national gathering of groups that play the traditional Cuban music of Son came to a conclusion in the island's eastern city of Mayari, in Holguin province.

Presentations were made at the gathering's colloquy titled "Tendencies of Son Music in Eastern Cuba," attended by both prominent musicians and devotees of the art form.

Well-known artists who participated in this seventeenth annual celebration asserted that Son music has no rival.

Popular recording artist Cesar "Pupi" Pedroso stated that "everything related to that kind of music is important, because it is our music; it is part of our identity. This gathering is to recognize Son, orchestras and talent that defends and sustains it. This must be done in order to prevent our music's roots from being distorted."

Adalberto Alvarez [one of the major living son songwriters, whose material also gets covered by Puerto Rican salsa bands pretty frequently] pointed out, "The gathering is worth even more in these times when we are going through a crisis in popular dance music with the emergence of tendencies that contaminate everything and are acting to displace us. We don't know how to achieve a balance; we either fall short or go too far. This doesn't mean that we're at odds with "Reggeton" (Latin Reggae) for example, but everything has its time and place." He added, "The festival is significant because it keeps alive a genre that has seen a million of those musical tendencies come and go, while it continues to live."

Continued:

http://www.ahora.cu/english/SECTIONS/holguin/2005/noviembre/16-11-05a.htm

Incidentally, Cesar Pedroso is hardly a purist. In my opinion, he's coming up with some of the newest sounding music within Afro-Latin music.

Just as it seemed that timba was limping towards the grave; it jumps right back up on its feet and starts temblequeando (seriously shaking its hips). Y gracias a dios! It's not like I enjoyed being a harbinger of doom ... It's just that with the perpetual and monotonous beats of reggaeton dominating the Havana music scene, I was becoming seriously depressed.

But timba lives - as some of us say at timba geeks (or wear on t-shirts):

Timba o muerte - Venceremos!

Leading the way - as he has done since he left Los Van Van in 2001 - is Pupy y los que Son Son. The group released two great albums during the past year - Buena Gente and Mi Timba "Cerra" (currently near the top of my itunes playlist: Del Trabajo a la Casa. . .

Source: http://yemayasverse.blogspot.com/

incidentally, i used both shorthands back in my 'so many snares' post, and bbc's 'the world' has me singing it in the lil radio piece they did on reggaeton back in late summer.
http://wayneandwax.blogspot.com/2005/08/we-use-so-many-snares.html
http://audio.theworld.org/wma.php?id=08252005

good to see it continuing to turn up. (i think there was a pareles piece that also employed something like that.) still, i wonder how much explanatory power it has for someone who's never heard the stuff. (no less, i suppose, than 3+3+2.)

(which is why, in 2005, I still think reggaeton is corny.)

at any rate, i concede that "3+3+2" is a clunky descriptor, but i definitely feel the same fundamental syncopation in reggaeton that one finds in son and salsa--kick drum or no kick drum.

the corniness, i'd say, emerges more from the pre-set synths and schmaltzy vocal timbres. but maybe that's just me. no se.

http://www.videocodezone.com/videos/c/calle_13/se_vale_to_to.html

... which kinda visually answers most queries ppl might yet have about him maybe. it's kinda fun tho i suppose. so he's still a wordhop rapper basically, and wrt to enjoying him i think what i said earlier applies: i personally just can't catch the linguistic nuances of either flow nor (i think crucially here) content. in terms of how well he's doing with ppl that do understand him i think ppl are also struggling with his plain rap tempo in a r-ton context, but i wdnt like to be overpresumptious.

(haha soz but i cant help finding it amusing that ilm's toedip into reggaeton instantly managed to find the world's only artschool hollertronic aesop rock undie guy!! and without seeing the pic first! i dont mean it in a bad way like but u gotta laff)

(actually nah the biggest joke is that voltio / calle 13's 'ojalai' what started this all off has been rerecorded for voltio's album proper as 'chun culy chunfly' and now features THREE 6 MAFIA looooool diplo will be stoked)

Don't blame all of ILM though, it's only me (and I should hate all this stuff anyway). However, as I mention above (or somewhere around here), I only discovered Calle 13 because a friend in Puerto Rico (who I'm pretty sure isn't going out of her way to find backpacker reggaeton) asked me to download a particular song for her & then send it.

i think ppl are also struggling with his plain rap tempo in a r-ton context, but i wdnt like to be overpresumptious.

Tego Calderon raps at about the same tempo, and I hear a lot of similarities between Residente and Calderon (I can't bring myself to just call him Tego). If anything Residente seems like a Tego Calderon who doesn't put me to sleep.

calle 13 is all over the radio here, 2 or 3 songs in constant rotation on 94.1

residente was even on an Xmas special doing 2 cuts of the new cd

i don't have the inclination to get involved in the tech chat BUT i find swizz beatz's subtle reinterpretation of dembow on his rmx to don omar's 'dale don dale' (feat fabolous) really kinda interesting; he's rebuilt like his own sorta r-ton toolkit by the sounds of it and softens the dembow so's he can wrap a synth melody around it. he also seems to make a point of switching the beat up periodically, which instantly brings in a whole bag of outside refs of 90s ragga/rap breaks - when u also take daddy yankee's megastar stab 'rompe' into account i think it's saying something tentative about reggaeton's possible modes for wider appeal. this is further along the lines addition to what was being said on the 'i hate reggaeton and salsa' thread too btw, which i can't be bothered to find.

http://s37.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=064X26WZ8X0OD0PJM9Y90OMGE2

http://s37.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=045O590GLKJDJ3MRZ8LEFZSFBB

Nah. There is a world of difference between the quarter note pulse existing (which yeah, of course it does) and being explicitly stated. It's not stated in most dancehall, Afro-Cuban, New Orleans, etc. music. There's also a big difference between stating it on top with a cowbell or cymbal than on the bottom with the bass drum.

I think of clave as encompassing more than 3:2 or 2:3 or son or rhumba. "3+3+2" or two dotted eighth notes + an eighth note or however you want to think of it is just a one-bar clave, maybe the simplest and most primal one. It's there in reggaeton, yeah, but it just sounds to me like the grossest oversimplification that I can think of.

http://www.newyorker.com/critics/music/?051219crmu_music

Articulos de coleccionista para los verdaderos fans del Reggaeton.

Las Gorras oficiales de Daddy Yankee. (Solamente 2 disponibles)
La camiseta official de Daddy Yankee. (solamente 1 disponible)
Los tennis oficiales de Don Omar. (Solamente 1 disponible)

Todos autografiados.
Termina Hoy!
Apurate Solamente Faltan Minutos.

Esta es tu ultima oportunidad solamente faltan horas se los llevan rapido.
Se los llevan rapido!

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i need the board's relevant experts to convince me that the sound-loop in this song isn't a bunch of massed mush-mouth cockneys chanting "mustn't grumble"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7wyISC0Z50