The brand new single, produced by veteran duo DJ Urba and Rome (a.ok.a. Los Evo Jedis), arrives as the peak of reggaeton’s evolution. What started as a political and uncooked motion that emerged from the underground in Puerto Rico — by the use of the reggae in Español pioneered in Panama — has exploded to a worldwide style within the streaming period.
Followers have been clamoring for the legendary rapper to launch new music past the handful of collaborations he’s achieved since releasing the Latin Grammy-winning album “El Que Sabe, Sabe” (“He who is aware of, is aware of”) in 2015. His discography, which launched together with his 2002 debut “El Abayarde” — and included now-established reggaeton classics, together with the party-ready, oft-referenced “Pa’ Que Retozen” — has been outlined by socially aware, pro-Black lyrics.
Regardless of his hiatus, Calderón has been within the information fairly a bit recently following controversial feedback made by Dangerous Bunny in a latest Time journal interview. Within the March cowl story, the rapper was requested whether or not colorism and racism has affected profession trajectories in reggaeton. “As a result of I haven’t seen it or lived it, I can’t say,” Dangerous Bunny advised the journal. “It’d be irresponsible of me to say sure.”
Dangerous Bunny cited Calderón — and the comparisons which have been made between their careers — for instance. “They requested me about if Tego Calderón would’ve been greater if he wasn’t Black,” he advised Time. “However in my eyes, Tego Calderón is the most important singer within the trade.”
The ambivalent response drew a backlash, partly as a result of the variations of their trajectories are demonstrable. Dangerous Bunny, who rose to fame after breaking out on SoundCloud in 2016, has carried out (alongside Shakira and Jennifer Lopez) on the Tremendous Bowl and was the featured musical visitor on an episode of “Saturday Evening Reside.” After a record-breaking yr on the charts and on tour, Dangerous Bunny was named Billboard’s Artist of the Yr in 2022 — turning into the primary musician who performs primarily in Spanish to earn the distinction. He equally turned the primary Spanish-language artist to land a nomination for Album of the Yr on the Grammys ceremony, which he opened earlier this yr in a full of life set.
Dangerous Bunny made Calderón and his basic, genre-defining debut a outstanding a part of his latest set at Coachella, the place he turned the primary Latino artist to open the annual competition (as a solo act). “In montages of between-song video clips, he made pointed efforts to focus on Celia Cruz, El Common, Tego Calderón and others who laid the inspiration for his huge success right this moment,” the Los Angeles Instances’s August Brown reported. “He deftly linked Puerto Rico’s polyglot music to the grim colonial circumstances that introduced Spanish, Black and Indigenous individuals collectively on his island.”
Whereas Calderon is revered by reggaeton followers, his profession has not been as extensively seen as that of Dangerous Bunny or different light-skinned Latinos in Latin hip-hop. And the rapper, additionally recognized for his cameos within the “Quick and Livid” franchise, has spoken out about combating for management over his music and being inspired to dumb down his work for (equally underestimated) listeners.
However within the streaming period, the recognition of reggaeton and its offshoots — Latin entice and urbano — has been unattainable to disregard. The style has helped to gas unprecedented development for Latin music, which — in keeping with a latest Recording Trade Affiliation of America (RIAA) report — topped $1 billion in income final yr.
Calderón seems able to embrace the digitally pushed method of his successors in selling his new music. Earlier this week, the 51-year-old rapper joined TikTok, the place he teased “La Receta,” with a snippet from the track’s music video, anticipated to drop Friday afternoon. The video unfolds on a tennis courtroom the place Tego — wearing all white — is surrounded by lovely Black girls, palm bushes and a bar cart.
Calderón is getting into a brand new period of his profession, however his music — particularly within the arms of Urba and Rome — is rooted within the old-school reggaeton he helped introduce to the world greater than 20 years in the past.
