On many occasions the lyrics of the urban scene have been criticized. That if they are sexist, that if they have no content, that if only sex is present… it has been said that what matters is being able to dance and that the lyrics no longer matter. And that is the title, precisely, that he gave it Resident to his first album in six years: The letters don’t matter anymore.
But how does he define what he does? In your case it is quite the opposite, the message, what it says, steals the spotlight from the beat and the melody. He has things to say and he does it, without rules or commitments, without expected structures or filters that some consider necessary. And the words come out in torrents for this Puerto Rican and he defends the causes that he believes are just and that are shared without barriers, open-minded.
His thing is to expose himself as is, and whoever likes it well, and whoever doesn’t, also. And he does it in a work with 23 cuts and multiple collaborations and as he says in one of his lyrics, “Maybe my music is mere ideology and I hate the result, I enjoy the company”. And here there is a lot of company and a lot of weight of the passage of time.
Valentina
The album opens with a voice message, Valentina’s, a violinist friend of hers who died after jumping from a cliff in the Mediterranean and which is remembered in several moments of the album. A start that makes it clear that this work, like all of his, is personal.
313
Valentina is still present in this topic whose title is the number that Rene associates it with her friend, the one she has not stopped seeing everywhere since she died and always in reference to her. A connection beyond death in which she speaks in a song where time takes center stage and that she shares with Silvia Perez Cruz which replaced Bon Iver which was the initial start and features the violins of Valentina’s sister.
Although we liked the song, the video, along with Penelope Cruz it goes too far. An authentic masterpiece full of sensitivity and filmed at the Granja de San Ildefonso, here in Spain.
Discontent in culture ft Silvia PĂ©rez Cruz
This is one of the short films in which he reviews what culture is for him. “You don’t define culture, culture defines you”, he assures. “Culture evolves from having few neurons to a brain that reasons”, he adds about what having culture gives you.
Of course, he makes it clear that his culture, his culture, has no rules, that that is for architects, because his thing is to break with all structures. “Rap was always politically incorrect”, he assures.
I don’t know, but I know ft SFDK
Opening with Spanish guitar, let it be clear where the inspiration comes from. And not just because I mention Sabina and I dedicated a verse to the south: “There are many places to visit in Andalusia, there are many places where one day someone said they saw, and not the beach but the Virgin Mary.”. It has that flavor of Spanish rap with the choruses that make SFDK while they repeat that: “I know that there is only one life, but in the end I want it”.
And the Puerto Rican who snaps at the Instagram politicians or the priest who gets with the talkative child reflects on that life, but reflect on life and the passage of time“I’m already over 40 and my girlfriend is 21.”. And yes, she admits that she is afraid of getting old.
banana jargon ft Nino Freestyle
A song full of sounds that are not made by a computer but with human voices. A complete street dictionary. Because not everything is literature and academicism, you also learn from life and in Puerto Rico they have their own vocabulary.
Now we know that a cod is someone without talent, that if I’m completely crazy it’s because I’m crazy, that the bug is the boss of the neighborhood, the butter or lard is the heroin, the bochinchero is the one who tells everything to the neighbor and a caripelao is a cheeky one. Now it will be easier for us to understand some lyrics that use these street words.
Brain ft Busta Rhymes
He is always at war, he contradicts himself, that’s just who he is and he declares it openly. And a worm governs his brain that is killing other rappers who make so much money for funeral homes. But not to Busta Rhymes to which he adds to leave this duel of legends who compete to see who is capable of speaking faster over such a slow pace. And uffff, it’s hard to decide on one.
Damn problem ft Wos
This is another of the topics that we already knew, the first collaboration with Wos whom years before he had invited to sing with him live. A way to admit that he is a troublemaker and he has accepted it.
And if the song already leaves its mark, the video clip goes further. He has always made it clear that he likes to direct audiovisuals and this is an example. More than ten minutes of footage in which the Puerto Rican and the Argentine have a large cast of renowned actors whom we have seen in series such as Paco’s men, The Money Heist either Narcos: Michelle Jenner, Sandra Escacena, Alberto Amman, Darko Peric, Patrick Criado and Mario Rebollo.
under the rubble ft Amal Murkus
Always on the side of those who suffer injustice, a song about Palestinian children with Amal Markus could not be missing. “Under the rubble are the celebrations of the one who shoots from afar, of the one who pressed the red button and did not dare to look me in the eyes.” he raps.
This is not America ft Ibeyi
America is not just the United States. He makes it clear in this 2022 issue where appeal to unity and denounces the great division created.
It collects your brain waves the brain waves of worms to develop emphatic waves of electronics mixed with your rap, the voice of Ibeyi and Puerto Rican percussion, the result of a study with professors from Yale University and New York University.
The Afro-French Cuban twins do not stop repeating like a mantra: “Here we are, we are always here, we did not leave, we are not leaving. Here we are to remind you if you want my machete bites you”.
and yells at Childish Gambinoin response to This is America: “Gambino, my brother, this is America”
in size ft AI1 El Aldeano
The Cuban joins this song that raises parallels between the status of Puerto Rico as a US territory and the repression of Cuba, denouncing government corruption. Social denunciation has never been lacking in RenĂ©’s work.
yesterday’s gunpowder ft Christian Nodal
A bit of regional Mexican that has become so globalized in recent times to sing about how important it is to live, that easy, to live taking advantage of life. Because there are many things to do and many things to try and it seems that Christian Nodal and Rene Perez They are clear.
“In 2700 they will celebrate the date of our fucking birth“, the two shout at the same time after the Mexican makes it clear that “there is no time to waste here”.
Without Lu ft Rauw Alejandro
“That ass shapes me, without a catwalk, it is blessed by grandmother, in the darkness it rebels, that ass is educated in the best schools“, the song starts, making it clear that you can talk about everything, sex included. RenĂ© also talks about asses and what better than with someone who knows about this, Rauw Alejandro. Bad Gyal Don’t twerk with him, but Residente doesn’t think about it.
let it flow ft Arcángel
“We don’t need to get married, what we need is for you to risk it, for us to risk it, for us to bet on it without fear like extreme sports. We go against the current, without oars, you don’t have to be my wife“Sings RenĂ© in a song that at a slow pace talks about love and also about sex in which Arcángel keeps asking to let it flow.
Free style ft Big Daddy Yankee, Vico C
Although Residente proposes the breaking of structures, leaving the established and trying new things, there is also a bit of tradition and pays tribute to vintage hip-hop in this song in which he revives samples from the 80s with Big Daddy Kane and Vico C.
I want to be a balladeer ft Ricky Martin
In his trap cosculluela and company in Bass and drums, the Puerto Rican claimed that he wanted to “be a balladeer like Ricky Martin” and he has achieved it. We already saw the video clip shot in black and white where he is shot and then resurrected and launches rhymes of self-praise directed at those who would like to see him dead.
wink to Almodovar making clear the great connection it has with our country. “They call me AlmodĂłvar without having a written script because I don’t live for rap, rap lives in the skin I live in,” he raps.
“I don’t want to do any more dirty tricks, I want to walk my dog ​​on the sidewalk… I want to stop shooting down artists and stop heads from rolling on the dance floor.”, he says with the satire that dominates the topic. And we see that sense of acid humor in that short film in which Ricky Martin he becomes a murderer and urinates on her recumbent body.
The meeting ft Jessie Reyez
Yes, there are also ballads on the album and not only with the irony of the one he sings with Ricky Martin. The one she shares with Jessie Reyes is just that, a light-hearted ballad about love that persists.
leoni
More spoken interludes, this time, in French about two strangers before dawn.
Rum on the floor
“I feel old when the kids now call me legend, may God rebuke them, I am just as young, but with fewer dates on the agenda“, he says in this song where he recognizes the need to assimilate the passage of timesomething that affects everyone.
It is an elegy for a cousin, Julianwhich revolves around thoughts about growing up and going from rebellious sensation to legend.
Intelligent artificial ft Silvia PĂ©rez Cruz
Life is about breaking the rules and if we talk about music, even more so. RenĂ© does not match the puritanism of some sectors that do not understand fusion. Here he slams those rappers who don’t understand that you have to do different things. And he does it with this very atmospheric string section.
From the napkin
“With letters I am obsessive compulsive and the alphabet is on the verge of collective suicide”, he says as soon as he begins. Once again the way of expressing himself without rules once again highlights his role as a composer. Once again the rope is present again to generate atmosphere. “I’m a rapper, even if I only use a guitar“, he assures to make it clear that there are many ways to be in the genre without entering into the established. If anyone needs to have what rap is explained to them, it is served to them on a plate here.
8
A kind of haiku about the coincidences of a number. For someone who believes in few things, it seems that numerology is sending him signals.
The letters don’t matter anymore
Here it does honor the title of the album and the lyrics do not matter, it is more the feeling of anguish that the song transmits in that incessant counting, in different languages, which reflects without words the vertigo that the passage of time gives us.
Rene
He closes the album with a song that impacted the entire world in 2020 and that starts with the voice of his mother singing a children’s song, one of many that she created so that he could learn the lesson at school. A song from the past in which your friend Christopher He was still alive before he was beaten to death by Puerto Rican police, a time when they watched pornography together. She is still dreaming about him.
He is a singer, producer, composer, creative, activist, audiovisual director… and everything he sets his mind to and with this album, the second of his solo career, he has proven it.
