(Credit: Imagine It Media)
(CNN Spanish) -
The Argentine rapper Thunder presented last Friday "Good or bad", his second record production.
A job, he tells Zona Pop CNN, with which he shows the evolution of his project and how his sound and lyrics have matured.
"It is an evolution of all of us who are part of the project, of my music and what the project entails in general. Both me as a person, who is experiencing different things and maturing and having new questions and new musical curiosities; and both my producer that also evolves at the same pace as everyone and that we are in a constant search all the time," Trueno told CNN Pop Zone.
It is an album of 15 songs divided into two sides: good and evil, and a side 0, which could feel like a neutral zone between these dualities and contains only a "freestyle manifesto".
In this
track
, Trueno serves as a mirror of Argentina and talks about the current situation and the culture of his country.
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This reflection, of telling the story of his people through hip-hop, led the rapper to participate in important festivals such as Lollapalooza in Chile and Vive Latino in Mexico and to be part of the Quilmes Rock Festival in Argentina, where he presented part of his new album as well as previous successes before some 60,000 spectators.
And after his performance at that festival, he also shared the stage with the British group Gorillaz.
Trueno, together with Damon Albarn, the band's vocalist, performed a bilingual version –with Argentine slashes– of one of the group's biggest hits, "Clint Eastwood."
Damon Albarn (left), lead singer of Gorillaz with Trueno (right) during the Quilmes Rock Festival in Argentina.
(Credit: Imagine It Media)
The beginnings of Thunder
It is understandable if this is the first time you are hearing or reading from this artist.
Trueno's project as such was born in 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, the year in which he released his debut album, "Atrevido", at the age of 18.
This album was literally the cover letter of who he is and his influences.
"The first [production] is a bit like all the way, since I was a child and I dream of everything that I have to live today and for everything I tried," the rapper explains to Zona Pop CNN.
And just as he says, his career began long before he came of age.
He was already known in the Buenos Aires rapper circuit for his participation in cockfights, crowning himself champion in the 2019 edition of the contest organized by Red Bull.
However, this love for hip-hop comes almost from his mother's womb.
His dad is also a rapper and Trueno grew up influenced by that culture.
"I come from generations," he says.
"I'm going to defend the genre that gave me everything it gave me until I die and that's my only code," she adds.
The Argentine rapper was born in 2002, at a time when Latin America was discovering a new sound that came from Panama and Puerto Rico, reggaeton.
An urban sound that was taking more and more presence, something that inevitably influenced the sound identities of his generation.
And despite Argentina being very far from the Caribbean, urban and hip-hop culture was lived to the fullest in southern lands.
"Hip-hop in Argentina has been around for a long time, since the Argentine Hip Hop Union, since Illya Kuryaki. Today we have a lot of representatives like Wos, Acru, Baby Luca. There are a lot of rappers and rappers continue to emerge Not to mention the old school bands, like the people from La Conneción Real, Comuna 4", he says.
"There really is a giant hip-hop scene, very respectable and with a very long history. And for me, Argentina – it's not because I'm from here or anything – but it has a very strong hip-hop culture and old-school rappers. They are very good rappers. I love knowing that we also do it ours, because I feel that Argentine rap is super Argentine and that we have our stamp and that we defend our ideals and make it our own," Trueno told CNN Pop Zone.
your codes
Despite his young age, Trueno already envisions his long-term career.
He doesn't have specific plans but he knows one thing: "I'm going to make music until I die, because if I don't I'm going to explode".
Coming from a musical family left him with a deep love and respect for the profession.
He tells Zona Pop CNN that he cannot live without music, that he collapses.
And from that love his codes are born, which he applies in his career and his songs.
"The manners that they taught me, the way of being, the message that I have to give, the things that I have to protest, the things that I have to celebrate and the fight will always be in the middle. Nobody can censor me, nobody can say what to say, how to say it and when to do it," the singer tells CNN Pop Zone.
Have you ever been afraid of being canceled for something you say?
Thunder says no, that the key to his success is the openness with which he speaks on his topics.
"There can always be consequences, there will always be people who like it, who don't like it. People will want to shut you up. But today the strongest thing we have is our own body, our own voice, our own expression ", he adds.
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