Tres Coronas

Tres Coronas (Three Crowns) was a rap group formed in early 2001 in Queens, New York by Dominican rapper, founder and former member: Reychesta 'El Arma Secreta/Secret Weapon'. The group currently consists of Colombian-American rapper P.N.O. 'El Guajiro' & French-Colombian rapper Rocca 'El Chief'. Their music addresses the struggles and issues of everyday life.

Formation and early career

New York producer Spank introduced Reychesta to P.N.O, whom then introduced Reychesta to Rocca, who he had met through one of Rocca's cousins. The group begins with a common goal that unites the three members: to popularize Rap en Español, starting with places such as Colombia, Costa Rica, United States, France, Venezuela and Spain. The three would record tracks together, do freestyles in studios and on the streets of New York once getting to know each other, and in 2001 they decided to put all their recorded material into a single mixtape. Reychesta came up with name for the group and so, upon completion of the mixtape, Tres Coronas was formed. The group recorded several albums as a three piece such as their debut "Mixtape" in 2001, the "New York Mixtape" in 2003, and "Nuestra Cosa" (Our Thing) in 2005. They then released "Nuestra Cosa: Deluxe Edition (CD/DVD)" in 2006 with 17 tracks in total (including two new tracks), plus a DVD with 5 videos and a documentary about the group. Tres Coronas have been labeled pioneers of Rap en Español, no other group doing of the same genre has managed to reach the level of popularity Tres Coronas has reached.

Departure of Reychesta

Shortly after the release of "Nuestra Cosa", the founder of Tres Coronas, Reychesta, left the group. It is unclear as to what the official reason for him leaving is, for he states one thing and the others state another.

Reychesta's Side

In some of Rey's videos on Youtube, he claims that one of the reasons was that Machete Music payed $100,000 for the group's new album but Rocca and P.N.O did not give a fair share to Reychesta. Another reason was that they (Rocca & P.N.O) cut Reychesta out of two songs, the first being "Otro Día" where Reychesta was the last to rap on the track, which featured 'Negro Jetro.' The second being the song "Vamos A Jugar" featuring Kafu Banton where Reychesta was the first to rap on the track. These would supposedly be the only two songs played on the radio at the time. Another reason was that the song "La Hacemos", where all three rap, was not released because Rocca and P.N.O traveled to Puerto Rico without Reychesta where they asked TNB, who's specialty was Reggaeton, to produce the track, even though Rocca and P.N.O denied being fans of the genre. The final reason was that Rocca and P.N.O (artists, producers and owners of Parcero Productions) wanted Reychesta to sign only with Parcero Productions, thus they would also make money from Reychesta's solo albums. After leaving the group, Reychesta continued his career as a solo artist.

Conflicts between the artists continued after Rey's departure due to Rocca and P.N.O continuing to use the name Tres Coronas (Tres meaning Three in Spanish) which Rey was against due to giving the group its name and because there are only two of them remaining. In 2007, they released 'Street Album' in which they re-recorded and re-mastered the song "Lecciones" which originally featured a verse from Rey and renamed it "Las 5 Reglas" featuring Macko in Reychesta's place. From their 2011 album "La Música Es Mi Arma" they released an intro track called "Aquí Llegamos", the instrumental used for this track was produced by one of Rey's former producers whom he worked with before starting the group. He released a video on Youtube that same year showing a recording of a him rapping over an instrumental similar to that of "Aquí Llegamos", but without any drums or percussion. The recording also shows Reychesta teaching Rocca how to mimic his flow and deliver his lyrics in the same manner. In Rey's 2012 album "Mixtape U.S.A", two diss tracks aimed at Rocca are featured, those being "Rocca Inmigrante"(Immigrant) and "Disparando Novatos" (Shooting Amateurs). He has also dissed Rocca indirectly in various other tracks.

Rocca's Side

In an interview from 2007, Rocca shares his side of why Reychesta was kicked out of Tres Coronas. He claims that it was because Reychesta began working with Chosen Few, a reggaeton movement and record label, and signed with them behind the other members' backs. Reychesta remained quiet about this for about 6 months, only telling the others about it right before the release of "Nuestra Cosa". Once aware of the situation, against the concent of the others, Reychesta kept on working with Chosen Few and so, as Rocca puts it 'to not cause him any harm or do something nasty to him, we let him go'. Rocca then goes on to explain that, even though Reychesta contributed to the success of their first three albums, "Tres Coronas is Parcero Productions, and Parcero Productions and Tres Coronas are P.N.O and I, The two Colombians that started everything, Rey was just a companion who took the opportunity and is now simply complaining on Youtube". In another interview Rocca and P.N.O state that the name Tres Coronas actually refers to three places: New York, Paris and Bogotá, which were the cities where their careers were based when they met (before they formed the group with Rey) and that they thought it would be easier for the public to accept the idea of three members instead of just two going by the name Tres Coronas, so they agreed to form the group with Rey. They then state once again that the two of them have always truly been the foundation of Tres Coronas. Rocca also claims that he and P.N.O wrote all of Rey's lyrics therefore it wasn't difficult to get rid of him in addition to maintaining the quality of their music. Finally they state that since he left, in short, their music has been much more successful.

After Reychesta's Departure

'Street Album'

Following the departure of Reychesta, Tres Coronas carried on as a two piece rap group, keeping the name and continuing to work on new material. The group released an album in 2007 named "Street Album" in which they began to experiment with other sounds from Latin America, for example a remixed version of the track "Mi Tumbao" originally featured in "Nuestra Cosa" where only Rocca performs, is featured in this album with P.N.O performing on the second verse and Michael Stuart singing a new chorus mixed with lyrics from Rocca's original chorus. This track is a mixture of Rap, Hip-Hop and Salsa, which marked the groups journey into experimenting with these types of genres. This track also earned the group a nomination for the Latin Grammy Award for Best Urban Song. Other tracks where the experimentation is evident is in the first track "Más Fuerte" where the song starts with the sound of a Colombian Gaita used widely in the traditional folkloric music of the country. Another is the track "Princesa" in which they feature a softer sound with Colombian Drums rather than the usual sound of the drum beats in Hip-Hop.

'La Música Es Mi Arma'

They released another album in 2011 named "La Música Es Mi Arma" (Music Is My Weapon) whose cover shows P.N.O and Rocca surrounded by many different instruments from Latin America and The Caribbean. In the album many tracks feature elements of genres from these places, such as Salsa, Cumbia, Samba, Reggae, Mapalé etc. They stated in an interview that they do not plan on doing this kind of music throughout the rest of their career, but that they wanted to bring something original to the hip-hop scene because they didn't see the point in "performing the exact same music the Americans listen to in a language they do not understand, because the public will not buy or listen to our music if it's similar their music already in English". This project allowed them to perform for people who weren't familiar with their music and introduce them to what they call on the album 'Rap Latino' and allow people who were familiar with the genres incorporated in this album to listen to their music.

Discography

Studio Albums/Mixtapes

• 2001: "Mixtape" (Parcero Productions/5-27 Records)

• 2003: "New York Mixtape" (Parcero Productions)

• 2005: "Nuestra Cosa" (Parcero Productions)

• 2006: Nuestra Cosa: Deluxe Edition (CD/DVD) (Parcero Production/Machete Music)

• 2007: "Street Album" (Parcero Productions)

• 2011: "La Música Es Mi Arma" (Parcero Productions/Musicast)

Live albums

• 2005: "La Etnnia & Tres Coronas" - "Stress, Dolor & Adrenalina (En Concierto)" (5-27 Records/Parcero Production)

References