Residente's smile remains half-hearted.
Something prevents René Pérez Joglar (San Juan, Puerto Rico, 45 years old) from being able to smile properly.
His sullen eyes accompany the tired expression of his face, candid and expressive, under the hood of his wool jacket.
It is a cold Saturday morning in December when the Latin rap star—one of the musicians with the most Latin Grammys (he won 21 with Calle 13 and since he has been singing solo he has had 5)—arrives at the location of the photo shoot.
In the forklift he warns: “I have slept little, brother.
I come with a lot of work on me.”
The mist of the street seems to surround him when he sits down to chat in an empty room in which he will confess that he has been on the verge of canceling the interview.
Considered the best rapper in Spanish history, according to the music magazine
Billboard,
and one of the most independent and fierce voices in Latin music in the 21st century, he seems exhausted, so much so that he shows signs of something more worrying: it is as if he had stopped caring about everything.
More than three years have had to pass for Residente to finally sit down to talk to
El País Semanal
since he was going to do so after the publication of 'René', a monumental autobiographical song that is one of the most notable of his career.
It was March 2020, the pandemic arrived and it had to be delayed.
Afterwards, a lot of other things arrived that always prevented there from being an in-person meeting, whether in Puerto Rico, the United States or Spain, to assess the career of this essential artist in the future of Latin American music since he became known in 2004 with Calle 13, the rap and folklore duo with Visitante.
A musician whom the Panamanian Rubén Blades, salsa legend, sees as equal and the Uruguayan Jorge Drexler and the Argentine Andrés Calamaro admire despite their stylistic differences.
The same one that his compatriot Bad Bunny described as his “reference” and for whom he once cried because he let him sing with him.
Or the same one that the latest talents in Latin urban music continue to turn to for his validity and influence, such as the Argentine rapper Trueno, who calls him “spokesperson for the Latin community” and assures that “he has been an example for going against presidents.” and show a message of unity.”
“I don't feel good on tour.
I do concerts because I have to pay the rent, but it doesn't satisfy me," says the musician.Jacobo Medrano
Now, that same musician has been in Madrid for three weeks and has postponed the interview a couple of times.
He doesn't do it because he is allergic to the press, although he doesn't spend much time on the media either.
In fact, he is a good conversationalist and, unlike most stars like him, he does not have supervisors over his words.
He is frank and direct, even close, and speaks without fear of entering into controversies or defending political and social causes.
“I have that anger when I get upset and I don't shut up.
I'm like that,” he says.
The morning of the meeting, the musician arrives to talk about his new album, which will be published on February 22 and is titled
The Letters No Longer Matter
(Sony), his second solo album since he published
Resident
in 2017.
He spent the entire previous day filming one of the video clips that will accompany the release of the new album.
With temperatures below zero, rain and snow, the filming took place at the Granja de San Ildefonso, in Segovia, and included the participation of actress Penélope Cruz and singer Sílvia Pérez Cruz.
According to the musician's team, he has had several days of great stress and work.
To which he adds another drawback: the cold.
“Where I'm from, this doesn't happen,” says the Caribbean singer, pointing with his gaze at the grayish, leaden sky.
The resident acts as an actor and director, as in previous video clips of the songs 'René', 'Problema cabrón' and ' Quiero ser balladista '.
In 'Ron on the Floor' he shows that cinematic passion again.
03:27
Resident Interview
The song could well be a biographical continuation of 'René' in which he reviews stellar moments from his 20-year career.
In the video he sees his own funeral, in a sequence similar to the end of the movie
Big Fish,
in which his mother, his brothers, the mother of his son Milo and all the characters say goodbye. of his video clips.
“I prefer to work in the cinema than get on stage.
I've already started music and I'm not going to leave it, but I'm going to live with both things,” she says.
Her commitment to cinema now surpasses music and materialized with her leading role in the film
In the Summers
, a feature film directed by Alessandra Lacorazza that just premiered, on January 22, at the Sundance Festival, the great film event. independent of the United States.
Previously, early last year, Residente announced that he has embarked on a project with Alexander Dinelaris, co-writer of
Birdman,
to create the script for a film about the Puerto Rican revolutionary José Maldonado Román, known as
Águila Blanca.
Sitting in the empty room, he talks without problem about any matter, but the reasons for his serious and dejected expression seem difficult to distinguish on this Saturday morning.
He says that he is “preoccupied with maturity” and, shortly after starting to chat, he assures that he is quite out of touch both in music and in other aspects of his life.
Death, which marks the emotional video clip for 'Ron on the Floor', seems part of the explanation.
It will not be until days later, in a new conversation, when the singer unblocks the mystery and gives a name and, above all, a number: Valentina, 313. Shortly before he leaves Spain, the musician invites
El País Semanal
to continue the He chats more calmly in the room at the Ritz hotel, where he is staying in Madrid, and watches his unpublished video clips, including the one that is still in the production phase and that he recorded in Segovia with Penélope Cruz.
The latter is the song '3:13', which will also be included on his new album.
Barefoot in the living room of the Ritz
suite
, he explains that this song responds to a number that has had “magical or something like that” connotations.
“The urban genre fights over nonsense and nobody says anything about Palestine.
I don't want to belong to the scene.
Musicians do not lack courage.
It's worse: it's indifference," says the rapper.Jacobo Medrano
That number is linked to the memory of his friend Valentina, a 30-year-old violinist who committed suicide.
The death of her friend, under the shadow of that capicúa number, she explains, caused her anxiety.
“I don't believe in many things, but this number was not normal,” she says.
As she explains, the last WhatsApp message that Valentina sent her before jumping off a cliff was at 3:13 after noon.
She shows the message on the mobile and points the time with her finger.
One day he noticed that time by chance: he was at the reception of a hotel when a pianist started playing and he remembered his dead friend, he picked up his cell phone and saw that the time of the message sent by Valentina coincided with the time of that very moment when I was rereading it.
There was another coincidence: his hotel room was 313. So, the musician made a decision: to call the song he was composing '3:13' in honor of his friend and include the violin of Valentina's sister, who also played him. recommended having Sílvia Pérez Cruz.
Residente paid attention: the song was going to feature the collaboration of The National, but he discarded it and included the Catalan singer.
Already in the recording studio, the last of the coincidences occurred: the producer of '3:13', who was unaware of the story, mistakenly called Sílvia Valentina.
Nobody could explain why.
The album begins with a voice message from Valentina in which she asks to make a song with some verses in French for a future album.
Next, '3:13' plays, a barbaric song with a string symphony and a piano walk in which Residente sings: “We have to live without missing anything, / until the heart explodes, / until they have to take out of the party.”
It's a wish.
Because, currently, the problem is that Residente's heart does not seem to have a strong rhythm nor does he see himself in a party.
Rather the complete opposite.
“I feel like he doesn't care if you're there or not,” he confesses.
“It happened to me when I wrote 'René' and it continues to happen to me since Valentina's death and that of two other friends who died of overdoses.
The bad thing about entering into that idea is that it takes you out of life.”
Resident wants to be in life, but he says that, today, he feels like a stranger in his life.
When she published 'René' in February 2020, she acknowledged when announcing it that she started writing the song the day after she had to call her mother because she had thought about jumping off the hotel balcony.
That terrifying feeling of defeat has not stopped invading him since then.
“I don't know, brother, I have to analyze carefully why this is happening to me.
It's not something as simple as work pressure.
It's more complex.
In general, I think it comes from things in the world.
I don't feel good on tour.
I do concerts because I have to pay the rent, but the whole process doesn't fulfill me,” he explains.
“I went to a therapist in New York, a really cool Iranian woman that I chose because all the other therapists I had were chosen by my partners, and I told her, 'I feel like everything I do is not enough.'
The weeks in Madrid, in the middle of recording the video clip, have passed with the same feeling of inadequacy, he says.
An emptiness that contrasts with the excesses of the night.
"The other day I commented to my brother: 'I think I'm depressed, Gabriel.'
And he asked me: 'Why do you say that, brother?'
Well, because I'm partying and having sex every day with different people…” he says and remains silent for a few seconds.
“I guess I've been so close to death that I feel like I want to live like I'm going to die tomorrow,” he adds.
—What would you do if you knew you were going to die tomorrow?
—The same as last night.
The musician looks up and, with a half smile, shifts a little in his chair: “This seems like a therapy session more than an interview.”
He shrugs his shoulders slightly, puts his hands in his pockets and, with a half smile, finishes: “Okay, although I think this is getting sensational…”.
Resident poses in the elevator of the building for the photo shoot.Jacobo Medrano
Residente has made the personal something artistic, one could even say that his life and his songs are inseparable, as if the musician and René were two profiles that converge.
Everything you hear is everything you see, and vice versa.
Sometimes, it is his virtue;
others, its Achilles heel.
His previous solo album, which was named after him, was inspired after taking a DNA test that revealed he had roots from different parts of the world.
He decided to visit his roots and then record with local artists from Armenia, Burkina Faso, China, France, Ghana, Niger and Russia.
Now, the new album is called
Lyrics Don't Matter Anymore.
He assures that it is a title that he believes in and, at the same time, a statement of intent of who he is.
“I feel outside of what's happening in music,” he says.
“I am in a very different reality than now.
Today's reality is very much about clothes, fashion, magazines... It is something that is deeply rooted in image, in cool
,
more than in what you say and do with your music.
“These musicians have created their own space and for them it is not necessary to do certain things that are important to me.”
—What things are important in music?
-The honesty.
It is the main thing in art.
In this new space, honesty is not valued equally because image matters more.
Honesty, that slippery word.
He repeats it a lot in the interview on the cloudy Saturday morning and in the subsequent meeting in the hotel room.
The word that is a slogan in many of the musical promotions of our days, in it seems to acquire the meaning of a commandment.
It can be seen throughout his career and can also be seen when he comments on any issue.
His level of demand regarding this word seems higher than that of the average star.
At least, Residente feels that this is the case and, he says, he is not deceiving himself, although this means clashes with other heavyweights on the world stage.
Resident wears a wool jacket and his characteristic cap.
“The main thing in art is honesty,” he says.Jacobo Medrano
One of those clashes happened in March 2022. His collaboration with Bizarrap was a rap hit that had a great media impact because it unmitigatedly attacked J Balvin.
The Colombian reggaeton star had called for a boycott of the 2021 Latin Grammy Awards, a gala in which Residente wrote some words full of emotion and admiration for Rubén Blades, one of his heroes and recognized in 2021 as Personality of the Year by the Academy Latin Recording.
The one known as
BZRP Music Sessions #49
consisted of 8 minutes and 39 seconds in which J Balvin was reduced to a pulp.
Residente unleashed a storm of adjectives never before sung: “Asshole liar”, “idiot”, “coward”, “little lamb”, “racist”, “whitey from school”, “imbecile with hair dye”, “failure”… Although perhaps the most commented verse was: “You are faker than a
hot dog
without ketchup or bread.”
The
hot dog
fight —Known because J Balvin responded with a photo on Instagram of him next to a hot dog cart—went viral.
Apart from the fight of egos, he showed two ways of understanding the music business and even life.
Now, Residente avoids entering into further controversy with J Balvin and limits himself to pointing out: “Everything is included in the second verse of my song.”
The verse reads: “I am a little uneasy while the urban genre watches.
/ Peeking out like a crocodile in the Nile River.”
The crocodile is still just as restless, although today he seems more fatigued.
Another reason why this wounded animal of the Latin song pulls out its teeth and erases its smile is because it greatly affects him to belong to a musical environment that he feels far from his principles: “The urban genre fights over bullshit and no one says anything about it.” Palestine.
That's why I don't want to belong to that scene."
And he concludes: “I like J Balvin just like many of today's urbanites.”
His gaze is directed to a recent event: the last Latin Grammy gala, held last November in Seville.
“No one made a single mention of Palestine.
There were kids who told me: 'Well, René, I just don't know what to say.'
And I answered them: 'How do you not know, bastard?'
It's so serious that we should even stop playing.
What do we have left of humanity?
“All this frustrates me.”
—Do musicians lack courage?
—I think it's worse: they have indifference.
As León Gieco's song says, I only ask God that war will never be indifferent to me.
Residente cannot be accused of indifference.
Days after this interview in which he says that he wants to write something against “the massacre”, he will fulfill his promise and publish a message on his social networks denouncing “genocidal bombings” by Israel against the Palestinian population.
Also before the end of 2023, he will publicly apologize for a verse from Calle 13's song 'Atrévete-Te-Te' in which he quotes the Palestinians.
If there is something that has transcended his songs, it is because of a subversive vision with which he denounces inequalities and attacks the abuses of the powerful.
Calle 13 is still remembered as the great duo that launched a renewed social critique in Latin American songs based on the postulates of hip hop and roots sounds.
The duo was censored for four years in Puerto Rico after, at the 2009 Grammy Awards, Residente said on camera that the then governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuño, was “a son of a bitch” for his management of the country and the dismissal of 30,000 employees.
The Mayor's Office of San Juan prohibited his concert from being held at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum when Calle 13 was at the peak of his career.
In 2015, after five studio albums and 24 Grammy Awards (21 Latin and 3 normal), the band dissolved.
Alone, Residente has not remained silent nor has he stopped confronting the Government of Puerto Rico.
In the summer of 2019, he led the protest demonstrations against the management of Governor Ricardo Rosselló during Hurricane
María,
which caused more than 3,000 deaths, and against his sexist and xenophobic attitudes.
The musician mobilized Bad Bunny, Ricky Martin, Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee, Marc Anthony or the actor Benicio del Toro.
In addition, he composed the song 'Bellacoso', which served to celebrate Rosselló's resignation.
“At some point I assumed that social responsibility, but not anymore.
It was good for me to let it go,” confesses the musician who wrote 'Latinoamérica', an anthem that, inspired by Mercedes Sosa, highlights the figure of the region in the face of the political and economic interventions of the United States.
“The Americans are there, sticking their nose into Latin America, although not with the same impetus as in the eighties.
Now, the impetus is in Israel.
“If I had a rock, I would go there and throw it at the tank,” he says.
And he says: “The new generations forget the past.
They are like the algorithm that allows you to see what interests you, but you don't see well.”
Residente directs her video clips and in the last one Penélope Cruz participates and Sílvia Pérez Cruz sings.
“I prefer to work in the movies than get on stage,” he says.Jacobo Medrano
Residente still seeks to combat the mental algorithm with his music.
In
The Letters No Longer Matter
there is a song with a certain apocalyptic air called 'Artificial Intelligent', in which he sings: “The future of history is to be left without a past.
/ Now, he has to see the world with his eyes closed.”
Residente may not be smiling now, but his eyes are still open to the problems of Latin America.
Argentina, a country where he enjoys enormous popularity, is today one of his concerns.
“The left has failed so much that others take advantage of the situation.
It always happens the same,” he reflects.
“I agree zero with Milei, but it is the result of a bad previous Government and a desperate society.
“This is what happened with Trump.”
And he warns of the consequences of covering one's eyes in the face of reality: “The extreme right has always been present.
He caught me in Chile when Sebastián Piñera won.
I went to a club and I remember that on the street I found people shouting: 'Long live Pinochet!'
Currently it is not easy to find in the musical scene artists capable of articulating ideological discourses on political issues, but he was always a different case.
He never stayed away from his ideas and, even without so much energy in his words, he can say: “If the extreme right becomes strong, we will be there with everything to counteract it.
"I'm not going to keep quiet."
Night falls on the street and, on the table in the
suite
, there are half-empty bottles of water and a plate with remains of potato omelette.
Residente gets up to further draw the curtains of the large windows that open onto the Prado Museum.
In the first of the talks, on a cloudy Saturday morning, he said, recognizing that he was out of place in current music and in life: “I am privileged, even more so when I see everything that is happening in Palestine.
I don't even come close to saying that I'm having a bad time.
“I have a family, brothers and my son.”
However, he entered.
As the conversations progressed, he spoke unfiltered about his depression.
He was just a man who recognized that something was wrong with him and that some things in the world affected him too much.
Maybe he did it because behind the character or the artist there is always the person, although this is difficult to see in the music business.
Or perhaps, in this case, there is simply no separation possible.
If so, it would be one more fact that conditions the smile of Residente and René, two names for the same being who, when saying goodbye, said: “I will return, brother.”
He was referring to his return to Spain—where he is scheduled to play in the fall—but, after listening to his new album and spending hours talking, he sounded like something more transcendental.
At that very moment, his smile blossomed stronger than at any other time.
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