Karina Del Valle Schorske
Appearances
It's Been a Minute
Bad Bunny & the battle for Puerto Rico
Not to quote Malcolm X's letter to the grassroots, but land is the basis for all independence. When somebody like Larry Ellison can buy an entire island of the Hawaiian archipelago, that's the very fundamentals of a place, right? So if you don't have native ownership of the land, you've lost the battle. Yeah.
It's Been a Minute
Bad Bunny & the battle for Puerto Rico
I mean, I do. I feel like I wanted to echo also something, Brittany, you were saying about Detroit, right? Detroit and Puerto Rico have in common people around the world enjoying their music, whether it's Motown or techno or salsa or reggaeton, without having any curiosity about the conditions that produced that music. And I feel like Bad Bunny is beginning to try to sort of
It's Been a Minute
Bad Bunny & the battle for Puerto Rico
mend that connection between the sounds that we all love and enjoy and the kind of reality of the people and place that produced that sound you said it all with that karina alana i have just treasured this conversation so much thank you both so much thank you just an honor and a delight
It's Been a Minute
Bad Bunny & the battle for Puerto Rico
you have to talk about these rhythms, right? Many people would not have guessed that a salsa song would be the number one song in the world. But that's what Baile Inolvidable is. It's a salsa song. And I think he's clearly trying to place himself alongside dance floor classics like Lloraras or La Vida es un Carnaval or something like that.
It's Been a Minute
Bad Bunny & the battle for Puerto Rico
But also, you know, older rhythms like Plena, which is a folk music that's often called the singing newspaper. Great artists like Rafael Cortijo, who would narrate contemporary issues through this folk music. He has a few kind of references to Plena on this album, but probably the
It's Been a Minute
Bad Bunny & the battle for Puerto Rico
One of the most straightforward is Café Con Ron, which is completely imbued with the classic call and response between the sonero and that really tight coro. The backup singers he has there... It's on the surface sort of simple. It's like, come up to our little mountain town and party. We'll have coffee in the morning and rum in the evening.
It's Been a Minute
Bad Bunny & the battle for Puerto Rico
But I actually see it as part of this kind of broader land back politics that Alana was alluding to, because it's talking about how getting up to the mountains isn't easy, right? The politics of presence require effort. And I feel like that's what Bad Bunny is talking about.
It's Been a Minute
Bad Bunny & the battle for Puerto Rico
You know, if the beaches are being taken over by tourists, as he says in a bolero later on the album, in the green interior, you can still catch a breath.
It's Been a Minute
Bad Bunny & the battle for Puerto Rico
Yeah. That's a great parallel. I wouldn't have thought of that.
It's Been a Minute
Bad Bunny & the battle for Puerto Rico
A distinction I would kind of make with Cowboy Carter, though they're both very scholarly archival projects and very innovative sonically at the same time. I think a point of difference is the way kind of those politics are lived out explicitly in the public sphere. Because, you know, everybody wants to ask Bad Bunny about Trash Island or about the Latino vote.
It's Been a Minute
Bad Bunny & the battle for Puerto Rico
But that's not really relevant in Puerto Rico where people can't vote for president. What is relevant was the major election for governor that happened also in November of last year. Juan Dalmao was a candidate supported actually by an alliance between the old Independence Party and a younger kind of decolonial coalition.
It's Been a Minute
Bad Bunny & the battle for Puerto Rico
Yeah, he bought billboards across the country, you know, and he showed up to a rally with artists like Residente, who's been a musical mentor, and artists from the 70s like Roy Brown, who was kind of part of this left populist folk music movement back then. And there's this photograph of Bad Bunny embracing Roy Brown.
It's Been a Minute
Bad Bunny & the battle for Puerto Rico
And I think where the older generation had often been very critical of reggaeton and stuff like that, he's kind of making a play for their support in this moment where it feels like Puerto Rico needs unity.
It's Been a Minute
Bad Bunny & the battle for Puerto Rico
Assuming that that's the liberal position.
It's Been a Minute
Bad Bunny & the battle for Puerto Rico
I think Bad Bunny is definitely saying we need to revive these older genres. All of this is also part of the Puerto Rican legacy, and we need to continue listening to what it has to say as we move forward together.