Calle 13 (band)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Calle 13 | ||
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 Lead singer Residente Calle 13
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| Background information | ||
| Origin |  Puerto Rico |
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| Genre(s) | Reggaeton, Urban, Latin Rap | |
| Website | LaCalle13.com | |
| Members | ||
| René Pérez, a.k.a. Residente Eduardo Cabra, a.k.a. Visitante |
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Calle 13 is a 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 (on the single "Tango del Pecado")
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[edit] Biography
[edit] The "Residente" and "Visitante" tags
Residente and Visitante come from a family with very 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.
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.[1] The pair named themselves Calle 13 after the street where their house sits in.
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 gave Residente the inspiration 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 earned a reputation as a tough, quick-witted hip hop lyricist. Inspired mainly by Tego Calderon's alternative approach to rap, where he tried to consciously minimize the use of braggadoccio-charged clichés and open confrontation with fellow rappers (known in Spanish as "tira'era", or tiradera) in favor of Puerto-Rican centric language allegories and musical style, Residente developed a lyrical style that favored sarcasm, parody and shock value, while Visitante provided a musical framework that was not afraid of using diverse musical styles, besides hip-hop. In some of their early beats, jazz, bossa nova and salsa elements can be heard. Later songs have featured cumbia, tango, electronica and even easy listening elements.
In some interviews, Residente claims that he favors hip hop over reggaetón, and as proof, he reminds people that Calle 13's first album only had four reggaetón songs. However, since the duo's greater hits have been reggaetón cuts, he pursues the style, stating that he does not dislike it, but is not necessarily too fond of it (or, more specifically, its stereotypes).
[edit] Rise to international fame
As their first album was being mixed, the Federal Bureau of Investigations killed Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, the leader of the Puerto Rican revolutionary group, Los Macheteros (the armed wing of the Puerto Rican independence movement, which is to be distinguished from separate political organizations such as the Puerto Rican Independence Party and the MINH in a botched (some argue intentional) attempt to arrest him regardless of whether he end up dead or alive.
Angered by the FBI's action, Residente asked his record label to allow the duo to release the controversial single Querido FBI ("Dear FBI"[1]), written, produced and released about thirty hours after Ojeda's killing, to the public domain, via the Internet. This song showed the more political concerns of Calle 13, as evidenced by their lyrical allusions to 9/11, the U.S. government's involvement in the Ponce Massacre as well as in the Cerro Maravilla assassination of two members of the Puerto Rican independence movement. The duo was criticized by some who believed the lyrics promoted violence against U.S. authorities. Calle 13 stated that the song was not meant to be taken literally and merely opposed U.S. military and federal-police intervention in Puerto Rico.
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!. Some people then claimed "Querido FBI" had merely been released as a publicity trick, something that Residente vehemently denies.
After their 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), and with the Three 6 Mafia in the remix, singing or co-writing songs. At the end of 2005, they released their first album, Calle 13, which received great critical praise and has been hailed as a cornerstone in Puerto Rico's musical history.
In December 2005, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Anibal Acevedo Vilá, admitted to listening to Calle 13 because his son had copied some of Calle 13's songs to his iPod; Acevedo then claimed that his children were his "ground wire" to the reality of Puerto Rico's youth, and that songs such as Calle 13's were eye openers to him. 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, and since community advocates had demanded action from the government, 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. The single, Ley De Gravedad (Law of Gravity) was released as part of a public-service campaign. Some political adversaries of Acevedo dismissed this as a trick to ingratiate himself with Puerto Rican youth and pro-independence advocates, but the campaign was effective in reducing the injured, from twelve (and one death) the previous year, to three the year the campaign was run.
The year 2006 was an even better year for the duo and harbinger of yet more triumphs to come. They broke into the 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.
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. The apparent character mismatch between the two has fueled controversy in Puerto Rican media.
On November 2, 2006 the band won three Latin Grammys, earning Grammys in the categories for Best New Artist; Best Urban Album, for their self entitled album, Calle 13; and, also, Best Short Version Video, for the song Atrevete-te-Te!, which was directed by Gabriel Coss and Jorge Rodríguez and featured dozens of "Marilyns" (Marilyn Monroe-types) dancing on a straight line and invading both a neighborhood and a dance club. 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.
Calle 13 is currently working on their second album. The songs on the album are being 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 those countries the duo has visited, hoping to learn local slang and street stories in the process. As part of the album, Calle 13 filmed the video for their first single off the album, "Tango del Pecado", on February 25, 2007. The video suggests a surreal sequence where Residente and Quiñones are married in a garden, with a barbed wire physically separating their families, Sunshine Logroño (considered by many the enfant terrible of Puerto Rican comedy) dressed as an archbishop to marry them, and various peculiar characters surrounding them. Gustavo Santaolalla intervened in the song's production.
Calle 13 announced in their website that their new album, "Residente O Visitante", will be released on April 24, 2007.
[edit] Members
- Residente (born as René Pérez on February 23, 1978 in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico) is the lead singer. Despite his rebel, slacker veneer, Residente has achieved a degree in arts and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Computer Animation from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Georgia. He chose the name Residente because it was one of the options the security guard to the access control point to his home in Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico forced visitors to choose whenever they tried to gain access to the complex, something that he considered a minor annoyance. He bears more than six tattoos on his arms and chest, several piercings, and his head is almost always partially shaven or decorated to display elaborate designs.
- Visitante (born as Eduardo Cabra 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 whenever he went to visit his half-brother, René. He has fewer tattoos and piercings than René, and typically has long hair and a beard.
[edit] 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 and Matisse on his arms." -The New York Times, Monday, October 29, 2006.
[edit] Awards
Calle 13 received 3 awards at the Latin Grammys 2006:
- Best New Artist
- Best Urban Music Album
- Best Short Form Music Video for Atrevete-te-te!
MTV Latin:
- Best new artist 2006
[edit] Albums
- Calle 13 (White Lion/Sony, 2005)
- Residente/Visitante (TBR: April 24, 2007)
[edit] Singles
- "Querido F.B.I.", 2005
- "Se Vale To' To", 2005
- "Ley De Gravedad", 2005
- "Ojalai", (aka "Chulin Culin Cunflai") with Voltio, 2006
- "Chulin Culin Cunflai (Street Mix)" with Voltio and Three Six Mafia, 2006
- "Atrevete-te-te!", 2006
- "Suave", 2006
- "Suave (Blass Mix)", 2006
- "Japón", 2006
- "No Hay Igual" (Nelly Furtado featuring Calle 13), 2006
- "La Jirafa", 2006
- "Tango Del Pecado", 2007
- "La Peleita" (Alejandro Sanz featuring Calle 13), 2007
