Ramtin Arablui

Residente, as in René Pérez Juglar, the frontman of Calle 13, a group he formed with his siblings, Ile and Visitante.

Their first super big, super big hit was Atrévete, Atrévete, Santa de Closetes, Tápate, Quítate, El Esmalte.

Residente had grown up in a revolutionary household, but Bad Bunny had grown up listening to Calle 13, and early on, Residente had given him some advice about navigating the music industry.

And so in 2019, in the midst of the protests, they reconnect, and Bad Bunny, Residente, and Ile make a song.

The three of them each have a role.

Residente and Bad Bunny exchange verses.

Ile does the chorus.

And none of them were together, right?

They all record their components and it comes together.

And then the day, basically, Bad Bunny gets to Puerto Rico from Europe and the song's ready to drop.

So the song is called Afilando los Cuchillos, which means sharpening the knives.

And this song is a takedown.

It is a takedown of Ricardo Rosselló and his cronies.

It is so pointed.

in the sense that they're talking about the protests specifically.

Like all the protesters are in the streets and they're, you know, doing graffiti and defacing and

And Bad Bunny has a lyric where he's like, no, like, this isn't graffiti.

Just like rats, we need to clean everything out, right?

We got to start from scratch because what we have right now is not serving us.

And he and Ile and Residente and other artists like Ricky Martin, they go to the streets and Afilando Los Cuchillos is literally like they're on a truck.