Bad Bunnys ‘DTMF’ is a love letter to Puerto Rico
The opening track from Bad Bunny’s sixth studio album “Debí Tirar Más Photos”, which was published on January 5, does not begin how many of us expect typical reggaetón songs at the beginning. There are no heavy synthesizers who underline the intro, no brave “Wite” melody (as Puertorican relates to the legendary melody, which was tried from Jamaica’s “Bam Bam” Riddim) and no throbbing Dembow bass line. Instead, “Nuevayol” begins with a sample from the Salsa Classic “Un Nueva York” by El Gran Combo, the first sign in which we are for something else. And when the 17 tracks of the album are over, we were recorded on a tour of Puerto Rico’s rich music history. This is the most Puertorican and emotionally vulnerable album from Bad Bunny, where he uses the island’s musical sound landscape as a canvas to comment on its many sociopolitical problems and at the same time cultivate the musical terroir of Puerto Rico’s future.
“Deb; with the same administration that the island has contributed to corruption and expires again in order to be his office again, there is no guarantee that our traditions or our lifestyle is not directly influenced. This is the march of the Time, and the effects of over 500 years of colonization cannot be understood.
Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez, seems to understand this better than most others. The album is easily framed by the idea that the singer enters the new year alone and has a lost love that can easily correlate with the loss of agency, sleep and promising future with which many Puertoricans are apart. Our beaches are slowly poisoned. Our countries are sold to crypto billionaires. And our lights will still not remain a hell.
Under these circumstances, it is not difficult to see how nostalgia can serve the past as an escape. But Martínez, while his character may drink Pitorro and remembers an ex, nostalgia is not lost. He uses it to close the gap between the past of the island and its future. During the opening track with a salsa sample, the Puertorican legends such as Salso Willie Colón and the owner of the last standing Puertorican Social Club in NYC, Maria Antonia Cay (known as toñita), calls the second song on the album, calls “Baile calls” Inolvidable, “says Martínez in his typical Urbano Cadence about the horns, keys and typical salsa orchestration of Libre de Musica San Juan. This is followed by traces that were borrowed from less commercial genres such as Bomba y Plena, Música Jíbara and Bachata. While the sound landscape of “DTMF” of the island is a lot to be found, the voices they have is prepared for the musical tradition of the island for the coming years.
Puerto Rico’s next big thing, Rainao, is on the “Parfümito Nuevo” route, a sexy, optimistic reggaetón number with vibrant, alternating Dembow rhythms that are perfect for a day trip via Puerto Rico’s sunbakedes carreteras. The next track, “Weltito”, takes care of the emerging Latin jazz, the tropical fusion quartet Chuwi.
Martínez may be a unique superstar, but he always understood. And with that a certain responsibility comes. Martínez knows that every artist he shows is moved into the spotlight, and he uses his platform accordingly to ensure that tradition will continue long after his way.
There was a movement that swept in PR about the underground scene over the underground scene, with new artists who experiment with more traditional sounds that showed the artists on the album, including Chuwi, Rainao, Omar Courtz and Dei v . Part of. Even Rauw Alejandro has on his last album with a cover of ‘Tú Con el “by Frankie Ruiz. It is no surprise that after” Nadie Sabe Lo Lo Vas a Pasar Mañana, “Nadie sabe lo que vas a Pasar Mañana, one Surprising homage to the diaspora on his last album with a cover of ‘Tú Con el “to devote and pay attention to a more classic style. “The trap master class, which was his last album, Martínez ‘the latest project would go in a more versatile direction and use its platform to press the sound of the island in this direction.
But in many ways, Bad Bunny is also a kind of anti-superstar. While it often means being a pop star who acts in a more cultivated sound for something that appeals to the masses, Martínez has done the opposite. The more his fame has grown, the more his musical trajectory has been rejected by typical pop -Ruhm and led him on the way of the author and the activist, similar to the hip shop artist and rapper Kendrick Lamar. Similarly, his albums, as its fame has grown, have become less accessible and more insular. “DTMF” is not an album that is aimed at the outer audience. It is not intended to address tourists what the artist touches on the “Turista” route, a warning story about falling in love with the superficial, but not being willing to accept the imperfections of a place or to live with one person Or, in this case, to a place.
But maybe the most effective trace is on the CD “Lo Que Le Paso a Hawaii”. Bad Bunny examines the similarities between Hawaii and Puerto Rico, as both were made to us in 1898 and how the transition from colony to state served in the American interests and at the same time increased the cost of living and the marginal native Hawaiians. It is an incredibly similar parallel to what Martínez sees in Puerto Rico today: the influx of American ex-Pats, the gentrification of cultural centers and the government’s advance. No wonder that the artist was brought into tears on a recent visit to San Juan on a recent visit to San Juan. The album is filled with bittersweet feelings like this.
When “Unano sin ti” was a love letter to the Caribbean culture (Spanish and not Spanish speaking), and “Nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana” was a homage to the street life of Puerto Rico, then “DTMF”, then “dtmf “Is a celebration of who we are as humans, proof of our Grit and our contribution to music as a whole. Sure, the traditional genres are well represented here, but there are also a breath of house and spoken words that remind us of the roles that we played when increasing these arts.
Martínez swings nostalgia as a weapon here and aims at those who would see us who pushed us out of our country and deleted from history, and he does it in the most Puertorican way: by making noise. He came into his own as an artist and visionary. And this vision brings his island and people to everything he does. As he says on one of my favorite tracks from the album “Eoo”: “You hear Puertorican music. We grew up and sing this. In the projects, in the hoods. Since the 90s, in the 2000s up to forever. ”
Miguel Machado is a journalist with specialist knowledge at the Latine Identity and Culture interface. He does everything, from exclusive interviews with Latin music artists to opinions on topics that are relevant for the community, personal essays associated with his Latinidad, and thought pieces and features regarding Puerto Rico and Puertorican Culture.
