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Mayan rap ambassadors in 'Wakanda Forever'

2022-12-06T11:11:35.682Z


The group of Mexican artists ADN Maya Colectivo contributed two songs for the soundtrack of the most recent Marvel film, which delves into pre-Hispanic mythologies


“A picture is worth a thousand words”, goes an old adage.

However, the writer Susan Sontag stated that most of the photographs are not true.

Maybe she was right.

What seemed like a normal portrait on the edge of the beach in the town of Chicxulub Puerto —in the State of Yucatán— for Jesús Pat Chablé, Guadalupe de Jesús Chan Poot, Roy Góngora and Antonio de Jesús Chan, actually hid a great secret.

That March 24, 2022, the four rappers from ADN Maya Colectivo did not tell anyone, but they were there to record with the composer Ludwig Göransson, responsible for the soundtrack of

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

, the most recent Marvel movie. .

Pat, Chan Poot, Góngora and Chan, better known by their stage names Pat Boy, Chan Lupita, Yaalen K'uj and All mayan winik, respectively, are Yucatecan artists who, through rap in Mayan, seek to raise awareness of this indigenous language and that now they have managed to place two songs on a soundtrack that for this sequel had Rihanna as the artist in charge of the main song.

Laayli

'

kuxa'ano'one

(

We are still alive

, translated from Mayan)

,

by Pat Boy, Yaalen K'uj and All mayan winik, as well as

Mi Pueblo

, by Chan Lupita, have each accumulated more than one million views on Spotify .

Pat Boy, who is wearing a T-shirt of the rapper Tupac and a Raiders cap, spoke to EL PAÍS through a video call from Felipe Carrillo Puerto, in the State of Quintana Roo, still static due to the reach they obtained with his song.

"I never imagined having that number of reproductions with this song and the truth is, I'm excited, for all this work over the years that we've been breaking down stones and I think the time has come to enjoy it," says the 30-year-old musician.

In

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

, the character of Namor is introduced, played by Tenoch Huerta, a reinterpretation of

Kꞌuꞌukꞌul Kaan

, a deity of Mayan mythology, replacing the origins of the character in the comics —from Atlantis—, with the underwater city of Talokan, located in the Yucatan peninsula.

The film also draws on the mythology and culture of that people.

It is for this reason that, following in the footsteps of the first soundtrack, inspired by sounds from Africa and produced by rapper Kendrick Lamar, for this new musical production Mexican sounds and artists were included in the mix.

Members of the rap group ADN Maya Colectivo during a recording session with Ludwig Göransson. Courtesy (ADN Colectivo Maya)

Pat Boy realizes that the opportunity

came through the Internet.

Göransson had already been recording in Mexico, experimenting with Mayan sounds through shells, flutes, and when they already had all the tracks, through Camilo Lara —artistically known as the Instituto Mexicano del Sonido (IMS)— the call began to find Mayan rappers. .

It was through the IMS page that the announcement was published and the name ADN Maya Colectivo came up in more than one response.

Lara told them, as Pat Boy recalls, that if they wanted to participate in a soundtrack for Marvel, that they would be on the peninsula for three days and that it was the sequel to

Black Panther

.

Whether they wanted more details depended on her response.

Three days later they traveled to Chicxulub Puerto and recorded with IMS and Göransson.

They signed a confidentiality letter.

Together Yaalen K'uj and All mayan winik created the lyrics, intervened in the style of the chorus and put their ideas on the table to the producers, still not knowing if the song would make it to the final cut.

Chan Lupita had a similar process the same day.

She graduated in literary creation seven years ago, she is a poet and director of Culture of the municipality of Sotuta, in Yucatán, according to what she told EL PAÍS.

She has been linked to ADN Maya Colectivo for approximately eight months and, soon, she will venture into rap in Maya on the record that the producer of her fellow musicians is preparing.

She wrote a poem in the Mayan language for the film.

She recorded her recitation by the sea and three hours later, including the time in the house that served as a recording studio, her participation in the soundtrack had been recorded.

On October 28, the preview of the song

Lift me Up

by Rihanna came out and with it the confirmation that the group was waiting for.

Both compositions, the song and the poem, were part of the soundtrack.

“Suddenly we saw that we were there and, a few hours later, we received an email saying 'Congratulations.

The song has been approved for the movie.”

Although the song does not appear during the footage as such, it is at the end of the credits.

On YouTube and TikTok there are many videos edited by the same users with fragments of Namor showing off his power and with the song in the background.

“We were singing in the cinema very happy to hear it, even if it was at the end.

The truth made me quite excited.

It made me prouder than I already am of my culture.

This is not enough, we must continue promoting our customs, our language and traditions”, says Chan Lupita.

According to data from the Government of Mexico, about 860,000 people speak the Mayan language, it is the second in the country after Nahuatl.

So much for

Pat Boy and Lupita Chan see the Mayan culture and the film's interpretation of their roots makes them proud.

“The simple fact of having heard Namor speak in the Mayan language for the first time, saying his war cry

'

Xene'ex ba'atel

'

[go fight], and hearing our language in a movie is very cool,” he says. Chan Lupita.

Now ADN Maya Colectivo wants to take advantage of the film's momentum to continue its work of disseminating and promoting new talents in the Mayan rap genre.

They have projected that the fourth album they produce with the third generation of young people from the peninsula will be published at the beginning of next year.

“We are the resistance and that is why we continue to be proud of the traditions and language of our people”, concludes Pat Boy.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-12-06

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