Reggaeton: Voltio & Residente Calle 13

I haven't had time to listen to the entire thing, but the first singles of Voltío's self-titled album are quite promising. It's acutally a kind of re-release of his first solo album, Voltaje A/C, with a couple of new songs. "Chévere" has a nice dancefloor flow, and the melancholic voice of co-rapper Notch makes it an exceptional reggaeton track. "Chulin Culin Chunfly" (whatever that means) is a duet with Residente Calle 13. It's a very typical reggaeton song, meaning: heavy beats, annoying horn sounds instead of a REAL melody, and lyrics praising the female body. Not my favourite, but the song's hot in Latin America AND features Residente Calle 13, the new reggaeton hype.

I like Residente Calle 13 because they don't take reggaeton serious. Their approach is very realist, like the genre is all one big joke. Exactly my thoughts ;) A few lines from "Atrévete-te":

Yo se que a ti te gusta el pop-rock latino
Pero es que el reggaeton se te mete por los intestinos
Por debajo de la falda como un submarino
Y te saca lo de indio taino [...]
[...] ¿Que importa si te gusta Green Day?
¿Que importa si te gusta Coldplay?

You can apply this to both rappers, Residente and Visitante: what does it matter that they are middle-class and white? Or that they went to art school instead of dealing drugs? Their music is an evolution of reggaeton, and I like it.

There's a nice article about Residente Calle 13 in the Miami Herald.

Voltío ft. Notch - Chévere mp3 buy@iTunes
Voltío ft. Residente Calle 13 - Chulin Culin Chunfly mp3 video buy@iTunes
Residente Calle 13 - Atrévete-te mp3 video