“Say what they say, reggaeton changed the history of music”: Bizarrap, the Buenos Aires star who triumphed from his bedroom

The Argentine DJ, composer and producer Bizarrap.

Bizarrap told in an interview with ICON in 2021 that it was not easy for him to get his Instagram account verified.

”I remember that I tried to get out in any media outlet, I didn't care about television or a newspaper, because Instagram asked me for an interview to verify my account, because there were a lot of guys who pretended to be me.

So I wanted the blue

, and the only thing the person who could provide it asked for was a note.

I requested it from the media and they denied it to me, because they underestimated me, what do I know.

Then everything started to grow and they gave me the verified.

So everyone I had asked and they said no, they asked me.

And I did them because I have no resentment with anyone, ”he said then.

Bizarrap, during the concert "Oh My Goal!"

organized by LaLiga held this Saturday at the RCDE Stadium, in Barcelona.Marta éerez (EFE)

Today, that account has 13 million followers.

Bizarrap was the most listened to Argentine artist on Spotify in 2021 and his

videos of original songs he performs with urban vocalists, always exceed 10 million views on YouTube, many are around 100 and the most popular, the one he did with Nathy Peluso, goes for 313. “At first I edited videos of rap battles.

But when I started with the

the visits increased.

And with Nicky Nicole's, everything exploded: she was the most listened to in Argentina.

I looked at the Spotify top 200 and there were 11 songs of mine.

I investigated and there was no precedent.

There I said to myself: 'Well, that's it, I have to dedicate myself to this

.

Because if I am dedicating a third of my time to it, imagine if I give it the whole day'.

So we come to what is happening now.”

The last of the sessions that he published, four days ago, with Villano Antillano, a Puerto Rican transsexual

-tag , coinciding with LGBT Pride month, has already exceeded 12 million visits.

Very far from the settling of Residente accounts with J Balvin, which he published in March and has already exceeded 107 million.

In 2021 he said that of the new artists he had heard the most impressive was the Spanish Babi.

“I always say it's amazing, because it's amazing.

I would like to do a session with her as soon as I can.”

And he pointed out that he wanted to record a more organic, more physical album, with instruments.

At the moment there is no news.

Right now he is on tour in Spain.

In Barcelona he performed in front of 23,000 people.

At the Dreambeach festival in Villaricos (Almería) 25,000 are expected.

Everything from Ramos Mejía, a residential municipality in the metropolitan area of ​​Buenos Aires, where he still lives and where he has his studio at home.

“It is a small city about 40 minutes from the capital.

This is a quiet neighborhood, there is no noise at night, everything is quiet.

Generally, people who come to Buenos Aires do not visit it.

There was a square here, the Plaza Miter, not so much now, but in 2012, which was when I started, they came to rap from the capital and from other provinces.

It was a place where, I don't know why, there was a lot of rap”, explained Gonzalo Julián Conde (Buenos Aires, 24 years old).

When he hides behind big sunglasses and a cap, nails painted, dressed in dark sportswear, he is the most famous producer of urban music in the Latin world.

“He considered me a musician and composer.

Nowadays it is not necessary to know how to play all the instruments to be a musician.

But I'm all the time with the piano.

Today I do

of the songs, I show them to the artists.

First we think about which side we want to go.

If a

, a rap, a reggaeton… the lyrics are things of the artists, I help, but it is almost 100% theirs”.

He recorded in his home studio.

“Now I work in a studio of my manager in the center, so as not to make people always come.

Some don't want to come, others, however, just want to work here”, he recalled last summer.

There is a lot of talk about his talent for marketing, the skill with which he manages his social networks and how he has managed to take off everything from them, but there is a reason.

For more than two years, from 2017 to 2019, she combined marketing studies at the university with a position at Warner Music, one of the great record multinationals.

“He used to work in the music industry.

He was A&R [Artists and Repertoire initials, sort of like a headhunter].

I entered when I was little, I was 18 years old and I learned a lot.

I entered by luck, it was strange: I already had Bizarrap and they called me for an advertisement, they wanted me to announce a song.

I went to their offices because they wanted to pay me to do an Instagram story.

Then they played a song for me and I said: 'It's good'.

Then another: 'It's more or less' and another...

I gave them my opinions and it looks like they liked it.

I told them that I was studying marketing near the offices and they asked me 'Hey, don't you want to work here?'

And I told them: 'Come on, hit it'.

That's how I learned tricks and secrets of the industry.

It was like an advanced course, a crash course in meeting people from YouTube, from Spotify, from magazines.

People from other record companies, I traveled to Miami and met a lot of producers… Although I earned more doing the Bizarrap videos.

And it was a beating.

From 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. I went to the faculty, from 2 a.m. to 6 p.m. to Warner and then at home to produce until 2 a.m.

So one year.

It messed with my head."

a crash course in meeting people from YouTube, from Spotify, from magazines.

People from other record companies, I traveled to Miami and met a lot of producers… Although I earned more doing the Bizarrap videos.

And it was a beating.

From 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. I went to the faculty, from 2 a.m. to 6 p.m. to Warner and then at home to produce until 2 a.m.

So one year.

It messed with my head."

a crash course in meeting people from YouTube, from Spotify, from magazines.

People from other record companies, I traveled to Miami and met a lot of producers… Although I earned more doing the Bizarrap videos.

And it was a beating.

From 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. I went to the faculty, from 2 a.m. to 6 p.m. to Warner and then at home to produce until 2 a.m.

So one year.

It messed with my head."

It was that infernal rhythm that led him to focus on Bizarrap.

“I was late, for fear of failure.

he thought: 'Look, if people don't like it...'.

And he was not clear that he was going to dedicate myself to music.

Maybe to videos on YouTube, but to music”.

He did it and it went well with an artisan structure, he says: “I'm not in a multinational, but my manager has his own label, Airplay, which is also Nicky and Duki.

And it's a small stamp but we

and we all throw it to the same side.

I love it, it's where I feel most comfortable and most represented.

Although we also work with multinationals.

I did everything: he made the songs, he edited them, he uploaded them with my computer.

I can't do that anymore, but I feel close to that feeling.

This is a more boutique record company, centralized, in which we work hand in hand so that everything comes out as well as possible”

can be lowered ,

a genre that when he started was linked to marginality, without seeming plastic.

“I feel like it has evolved here.

At the time there were artists who represented only the hardest part.

There are still some, and it's good, because that's where it comes from in the US, but in reality now, as one critic said, pop as a genre doesn't exist, it's sticking to other genres.

It already happened with reggaeton and now it happens with

It is not a bad thing, it is becoming more commercial and consumable for everyone: Before, the

It couldn't be eaten by just anyone.

Now, the kids, the adults... anyone can consume it, because it's well done.

Being more pop, the lyrics can't be as explicit as they were.

But in Latin America it was known how to change and that it is not a genre related to crime.

And I also feel that reggaeton deserves much more recognition, for everything it has fought for.

Whatever they say, reggaeton changed the history of music.

Reggaeton made Americans dance in Spanish.

It is done".

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