Bad Bunny's new album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, has struck a chord with fans worldwide. He's always expressed a deep love for Puerto Rico, but his latest work takes it to new heights. In his fusion of old and new genres, he speaks to the shared experiences of the Puerto Rican diaspora and looks to their collective past as a way forward. Writer Carina del Valle Schorske and La Brega podcast host, Alana Casanova-Burgess join the show to break down the function of shared nostalgia and explain the backstory to Puerto Rico's symbols of independence.Support public media and receive ad-free listening & bonus content. Join NPR+ today.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What is the significance of Bad Bunny's new album?
It's a rich, sonic, cultural text that blends traditional Puerto Rican genres like salsa and the pulsating reggaeton Bad Bunny is known for.
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.
Chapter 2: What themes of nostalgia are present in the music?
But this album is way more than just good beats. In the sounds of the Cuatro and the call and response of the Plena, Bad Bunny is highlighting Puerto Rico's complicated political history and present. He sings about gentrification on the island, the neglected infrastructure, and the possibility of Puerto Rican independence.
He says, like, I want them to put on a song of mine the day that Hostos returns. And Hostos was a Puerto Rican independence activist.
Chapter 3: How does Bad Bunny address Puerto Rico's political issues?
Is that who the community college in New York is named after? Hostos? Yes, girl. I didn't know that! In a time where speaking out about politics feels like a minefield for artists, Debí Tirar Más Fotos has come out swinging. So I called up writer Karina Del Valle-Shorsky. A delight. And the host of the podcast La Brega, Alana Casanova-Burgess. Thank you for having me.
To get into Bad Bunny's Ode to the Island and to break down if this nostalgia is for something being lost or something being taken. What's been happening in Puerto Rico recently that makes this album so potent right now?
Well, I'm talking to you from San Juan. And I think what's been happening in Puerto Rico has been happening for a really long time. There's been a housing crisis. There's been, I guess you could call it a brain drain. There's been just a lot of young people leaving the island. That's been happening since Maria, but it's been happening before that because there's been an austerity crisis here.
And in fact, there's even a generation called Generación de la Crisis, Hijes de la Crisis, right? Like children of the crisis. On the album, there's a track called Boquete, which means pothole. And that is because, you know, you drive around and there are so many potholes. The electricity goes out all the time, right?
Chapter 4: What cultural symbols does Bad Bunny incorporate in his album?
There was, I think people probably saw in the news, New Year's Eve, there was an island-wide blackout that lasted for some communities several days. There's just this sense of abandonment by the government. that kind of wants to invite people from the U.S.
and from abroad to enjoy tax incentives here so that they can move here, not really contribute financially to the island, and that that displaces people who are from here. And so that Debí Tirar Más Fotos, there are several references on the album to leaving, right, to like, being gone. And there's like a romantic sense to it. But it also is really about what is happening to PR today.
To that point, Bad Bunny has called this album his most Puerto Rican album. I wonder, what are some songs or references made in this album that really stood out to you as quintessentially Puerto Rican?
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Right. For listeners who don't know, Puerto Rico's beaches are, by law, supposed to be open to the public. But luxury hotels and investors, possibly lured in by tax incentives, have been coming in and building on the coast, which not only affects the environment, but also displaces locals and stops them from accessing a beach that's always previously been available to them.
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Chapter 5: What is the importance of the jibaros in Puerto Rican culture?
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You mentioned, Alana, that he's a very intentional artist, and it sounds like both in some of the major ways that he's expressed his politics and also, I mean, in real life, and then also through his art, especially on this album, there is a lot of intentionality with how he's approaching a lot of these references and thinking through things. But I want to kind of zoom out a little bit.
A lot of our listeners are based in the mainland United States, and... may not, for various reasons, understand the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States. What are some of the assumptions that people should be aware of coming into this album?
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Chapter 6: How does Bad Bunny engage with contemporary political issues?
Mm. Mm. Mm.
Okay. Dale, Alana, you go. I was going to say, please share with the class.
All right. So we were just talking about him endorsing an independence candidate. And what's important about that is that here, the political parties are organized around status.
As in the literal status of the island, like whether the island should continue to be a territory of the U.S. or should become a U.S. state or should become an independent nation.
And the independence party in Puerto Rico has been so attacked and suppressed for so long, not only by the United States, but also by other political parties here. The other two being one that's pro-statehood and one that's pro-status quo, colonial status. And so I think what you hear in the states is, oh, why couldn't Puerto Rico be a state?
Assuming that that's the liberal position.
Assuming that that's a liberal position. However, the statehood party here is very conservative. And, you know, it's complicated. There are shades of that, but that's what's happening here. And it did not escape anybody's notice that Bad Bunny not only was endorsing an independence candidate in this election, but also he showed up to vote in a light blue shirt and
People know what the Puerto Rican flag looks like, probably, because Puerto Ricans, we can never stop waving it. But there are actually several, right? And some Americans don't know this. So the one that you see most often in the States probably is like one that has the blue of the U.S. flag, like that kind of navy darker blue.
Yeah, like in the triangle with the white star in the middle.
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