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Calle 13 (band)

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Calle 13

Calle 13 is a three-time Latin Grammy Award-winning and Grammy Award-nominated Puerto Rican hip hop and alternative-reggaeton duo formed by step-brothers who call themselves Residente (lead singer, writer) and Visitante (keyboards, vocals, writer, beat producer). Their sister Ileana (aka PG-13) has contributed the female vocals to some of their songs, and so has Residente's mother, Puerto Rican actress Flor Joglar de Gracia (on the single "Tango del Pecado")

Band History

Early Years

Residente and Visitante come from a family with strong ties to the Puerto Rican arts community. Residente's mother, Flor Joglar, was an actress for "Teatro del Sesenta", a renowned local acting troupe; their mutual father is a lawyer, but at one time was a painter.[citation needed]

When they were children, Eduardo would visit his brother at the Calle 13 (13th. Street) of the El Conquistador subsection of Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico every week. The pair named themselves Calle 13 after the street where their house sits in.[1]

Residente originally studied to be an accountant, and his brother finished a computer science degree. However, neither of them felt happy with their career choices. An art course prompted Residente to pursue a career as a multimedia designer, and Visitante became a full-time musician and producer. Besides this, Residente was a die-hard fan of what was then called "underground rap" in Puerto Rico, and started earning a reputation as a lyricist. Meanwhile, Visitante participated in a rock group called Bayanga and a Brazilian batucada group.[2]

After Residente finished studying in Georgia and returned to Puerto Rico, both of them started working in their music. They claim they initially did it as a joke, but they still managed to get some of their songs heard around.[2]

The First Album

At one time, Residente and Visitante sent a demo tape to White Lion Records and they offered them a record deal.[2] While their album was being mixed, Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, leader of the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Group (known as Los Macheteros), was killed in the middle of a botched (some argue intentional) ambush-killing by the FBI that were trying to arrest him. Details about this raid still remain unclear.

Angered by the FBI's action, Residente wrote a song about what happened and asked his record label to allow the duo to release the controversial single titled "Querido FBI" ("Dear FBI" [3]), written, produced and released about thirty hours after Ojeda's killing, to the public via the Internet. The song started what would be the band's rise to local fame.

Soon after this, the duo rose to fame in 2005 with two back-to-back hits on Puerto Rican radio stations, first one being "Se Vale Tó-Tó" and "Atrevete-te-te!", both of them included later on their eponymously titled debut album.

After this rise to fame, the duo was sought by other reggaeton artists, and they collaborated with artists such as Voltio in the song "Ojalai" (also known as "Chulin Culin Chunfly", whose name is a minor variation of a song written by Mexican comedy writer Roberto Gómez Bolaños, of whose comedic characters Residente is a fan)[citation needed], and with the Three 6 Mafia in the remix, singing or co-writing songs. At the end of 2005, they finally released their album, which received great critical praise and has been hailed as a cornerstone in Puerto Rico's musical history.

In 2006 the duo kept on working as they broke into a wider-music scene with at least three more smash hits that were played throughout Puerto Rico and U.S. Urban music radio and television stations, including the Colombian cumbia-style song "Atrevete-te-Te!", "Japón" (Japan), and "Suave" (Soft/Slow). The group also had their first massive-venue concert on May 6, 2006 at the Jose Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan. They also toured Central and South America, filming a video for their song "La Jirafa" in Peru, playing "Atrévete-te-te" before an ecola de samba in Venezuelan television, and also visiting, among others, Guatemala, Chile, Honduras and Colombia.

Rise to International Fame

Soon Calle 13 started collaborations with other artists, Nelly Furtado and Alejandro Sanz among them. Residente was also linked romantically with Denise Quiñones, Miss Universe 2001[4]. The apparent character mismatch between the two has fueled controversy in Puerto Rican media, and Quiñones parents have still refused to meet with Residente.[4]

On May 19, 2006, the band celebrated their first international concert held in Panama City to a crowd of 5,000. During the summer of 2006 Calle 13 was featured on MTV's My Block : Puerto Rico.

On November 2, 2006 the band won three Latin Grammys (Best New Artist; Best Urban Album; and Best Short Version Video, for the song Atrevete-te-Te!.) They later filmed a video along Voltio for "Chulin, Culin, Chunflai", where Residente, dressed as a priest and later as Bruce Lee, is given a severe beating by a gang.

On April 24, 2007, their most recent album Residente o Visitante was released. The songs on the album were recorded in Puerto Rico and in other nations throughout Latin America and the American Hemisphere. This is part of a conscious effort by Residente to stay in tune with the local reality of the countries they have visited, hoping to learn the musical cultures, local slang and street stories in the process.

Members

File:ResidenteCalle13.jpg
Residente Calle 13
  • Visitante (born as Eduardo José Cabra Martínez on September 10, 1978 in Santurce, Puerto Rico) is the pianist and vocalist. He also has a degree in arts and paints regularly. He chose the name Visitante because that's how he had to identify ("visitor") whenever he went to visit his half-brother, René, at his home in Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico (see above.) He has fewer tattoos and piercings than René, and typically has long hair and a beard.

Quotes

  • "[a] glimpse of Residente Calle 13, an art school graduate who has become the island’s first intellectual-styled reggaetón star. He wears tattoos of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Matisse, and Raven Dranat Díaz Calderón on his arms." -The New York Times, Monday, October 29, 2006.

Musical style

Although most people labeled Calle 13's music as reggaeton, they've tried to distance themselve from that particular style. And while some of their songs carry a reggaeton beat, they mix it with many other rhythms from various countries. Visitante, being a professional musician, tries to fuse each song with diverse styles. Their early songs featured elements like jazz, bossa nova and salsa, while recent songs feature cumbia, tango, electronica and others. In their recent tours around Latin America they've added different musical elements according to the place they're playing in.

Singer Residente is reluctant to label their music in a specific genre, instead calling it plain urban style. He has a clear preference of hip hop over traditional reggaeton and both he and his brother justify it by saying that only three songs in their debut album feature reggaeton beats.[1].

Residente's lyrical style is inspired partly by artists like Vico C and Tego Calderon's approach, trying to minimize what they refer to as "clichés" of the genre like open confrontations with other rappers (known in Spanish as "tira'era", or tiradera) and using instead lots of Puerto-Rican slang and allegories. Residente has then developed a lyrical style full of sarcasm, parody and shock value.

Critical Reception

Ever since Calle 13 first single ("Querido FBI") was heard on radio, they have been praised mainly for what many consider to be a unique musical and lyrical style. This was evidenced by the acceptance received by their debut album.

The acceptance of the music of Calle 13 has even reached the Governor of Puerto Rico, Anibal Acevedo Vilá who, in December 2005, admitted to listening to Calle 13 because his son had copied some of their songs to his iPod. Acevedo claimed that "songs such as Calle 13's were eye openers" to him. As a result, since the country had a chronic problem of people being unknowingly injured or killed by stray bullets fired to the air on New Year's Eve, Acevedo felt compelled to invite the duo to La Fortaleza and to have them record a song against shootings bullets in the air as a way of celebrating the holiday.[5]

The single, "Ley De Gravedad" (Law of Gravity) was released as part of a public-service campaign for that matter. Some political adversaries of Acevedo dismissed this as a trick to ingratiate himself with Puerto Rican youth and pro-independence advocates, and was criticized by the local press due to the fact that an artist who seemingly promoted violence with their "Querido FBI" song was now supposed to be a role model for anti-violence. However, the campaign was thought to be effective in reducing the injured, from twelve (and one death) the previous year, to three the year the campaign was run, though many members of the artistic community contributed to this effort in separate campaigns.[6]

As the duo has rose to fame, other international artists of various genres have sought them. In 2006 and 2007, they recorded songs with Canadian Nelly Furtado and Spanish Alejandro Sanz. In their recent album, they feature contributions with such diverse groups like Orishas (from Cuba), Argentinian Vicentico (from Los Fabulosos Cadillacs), and La Mala Rodríguez (from Spain), among others.

Awards

2006 Latin Grammys:

2006 MTV Latin:

  • Won: Best New Artist

2007 Billboard Latin Music Awards:

Albums

Singles

References

  1. ^ a b c Latin Hip Hop Interview - "Calle 13 Cross Spanish Rap's Musical Borders"
  2. ^ a b c Latina.com Interview - "A Night Out with Calle 13" by Nuria Net
  3. ^ YouTube.com Link of the Video "Querido FBI"
  4. ^ a b NY Daily News - "Down 'n' dirty, South America way"
  5. ^ Zonai.com Article about Calle 13 and the Governor of Puerto Rico "Residente Calle 13 en campaña contra las balas"
  6. ^ Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular "Calle 13 en campaña de la oficialidad"
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