What does Dangerous Bunny’s ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’ say about Puerto Rico? : NPR

In Dangerous Bunny‘s sonic universe, Puerto Rican satisfaction could not be extra infectious. The celebrity launched his sixth studio album this week and it is a assortment of joyful rhythms and rallying anthems. Leveraging music previous and current to shine a worldwide highlight on Puerto Rican values and points, Dangerous Bunny proves that in essentially the most sophisticated and painful moments, there isn’t a higher energy than prideful music en resistencia. Right here, we break down the context wanted to totally perceive the burden of this music. —Anamaria Sayre

What’s the album’s message about Puerto Rico’s historical past and future?

DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, even simply in its title — I Ought to’ve Taken Extra Pictures — is grounded in capturing a historic report, one each private and political, of Dangerous Bunny’s dwelling. Documenting that report comes with the fun and sorrows of seeing not solely himself change, however the place he loves most — and never all the time for the higher. On “TURiSTA,” Unhappy Bunny channels his heartbreak into an analogy concerning the tourism trade’s impacts on the island — “Tú solo viste lo mejor de mí y no lo que yo sufría” (“You solely noticed one of the best of me and never how I suffered“) — a message that feels particularly pressing as new luxurious growth tasks, spurred by tax incentives for out of doors traders, are proposed in protected areas, which impartial journalist and Dangerous Bunny collaborator Bianca Graulau has been sounding alarms about.

DTMF additionally connects the dots between Puerto Rico and one other U.S. territory that is suffered related penalties: Hawaii. “Quieren quitarme el río y también la playa,” (“They need to take my river and my seashore“) Dangerous Bunny croons somberly on his most political music but. “Quieren el barrio mío y que abuelita se vaya” (“They need my neighborhood and for grandma to get out.”) In “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii,” Dangerous Bunny makes a robust declaration in favor of independence over statehood whereas unfurling a warning a few future wherein Puerto Rico now not belongs to Puerto Ricans. He acknowledges the exodus of younger folks from the island in seek for higher alternatives and the ensuing tragedies. The accompanying quick movie for the album hits the nail on the top: in it, famend Puerto Rico filmmaker and poet Jacobo Morales wanders his gentrified neighborhood in shock as he realizes that People have taken over and turned it into a spot locals can hardly acknowledge or afford.

However as a lot as DTMF laments the island’s previous and current colonization, it is primarily a rallying cry of resistance for Puerto Ricans in every single place. The again cowl of the album options the colours of Puerto Rico’s independence flag, whereas within the visualizers for all 17 tracks, Benito affords complete historical past classes concerning the island with an help from Puerto Rican and Caribbean historical past scholar Jorell Meléndez-Badillo. “De aquí nadie me saca, de aquí yo no me muevo,” (“Nobody’ll kick me out of right here, I am not going anyplace“) Dangerous Bunny sings within the closing monitor. “Dile que esta es mi casa donde nació mi abuelo” (“Inform them that is my dwelling, the place my grandfather was born.”) —Isabella Gomez Sarmiento

How has Dangerous Bunny traditionally been or not been politically concerned?

DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS is steeped in references to the political actuality of Puerto Rico, and the precision, intentionality and urgency with which he expresses these themes shouldn’t be precisely shocking coming from a pop star whose repute rests on a politicized musical persona.

The worldwide celebrity has launched plenty of politically specific tracks by means of the years, together with “El Apagón” from his 2022 album Un Verano Sin Ti which referred to as consideration to persistent energy grid failures and ensuing blackouts in Puerto Rico, in addition to the protest music “Afilando Los Cuchillos” calling for the ousting of then Governor Ricardo Rosselló. Final yr he launched the one-off single “Una Velita” to drum up power for the approaching election and as soon as once more name consideration to a crumbling infrastructure on the island.

Traditionally, nevertheless, not all of Dangerous Bunny’s music has been overtly political. In actual fact, most of his music lives solidly within the celebration and heartbreak areas (extra typically masterfully towing the road between each). Beneath disco lights, on tear-stained cheeks, his strongest messages shine. Monitoring again to earlier days the place he started pushing and bending conversations round gender expression and changing into an advocate for the LGBTQ+ group, he dove into the sexual politics of reggaeton with 2020’s “Yo Perreo Sola” by embodying femininity as a problem to machismo and a cry for liberation.

Whereas the 30-year-old singer insists he isn’t making an attempt to be political — simply expressing what he feels — Dangerous Bunny is as soon as once more capturing international consideration for imminent Puerto Rican struggles by making the private political. Rising problems with gentrification and irresponsible tourism are leveraged for emotional expression, evaluating the detrimental fallout of tourism on his island to his very personal expertise as a jilted lover. As he sings about unrequited love, a tattered Bunny personifies each the island and a scorned partially post-colonial Latin America at massive. Collective visibility is Benito’s revolution. —Anamaria Sayre

What musical references is that this album making and what’s the political historical past of these sounds? 

Beginning the album off with a pattern of a the 1975 hit “Un Verano En Nueva York” by the long-lasting Puerto Rican salsa band El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico was a acutely aware shout out to the affect Puerto Rican musicians, composers and arrangers on and off the island had on the explosion of the Afro Caribbean dance type often called salsa.

All through the early late Sixties and early 70s, the Puerto Rican diaspora in New York Metropolis (self recognized as Nuyorican) was key to updating the sound and really feel of Cuban son, guaracha and mambo, most notably by means of the Fania Information label. By referencing a go to to New York for only a summer time with a music by a band that now has over 60 years of longevity, Dangerous Bunny appears to be celebrating the music that for a few years gave the impression to be the life drive of the island till the later growth of reggaeton.

Whereas Puerto Rican musicians fairly often celebrated their very own folks music inside salsa’s dynamic, jazz-influenced preparations, it wasn’t till later that precise folkloric types started to realize traction past the agricultural communities the place it was born and thrived. Puerto Rican folks music, which will be heard right here in Smithsonian’s Folkways Recordings, could be very distinct from different Afro Caribbean musical types within the reliance on extra stringed devices than others.

At varied locations all through the album there are references to 2 distinctly Puerto Rican folks kinds: plena and bomba. Plena music options what’s principally a string group made up of devices which might be variations on the guitar that the Spanish introduced with them as they colonized the so-called “New World” within the sixteenth by means of nineteenth centuries. In actual fact, the Puerto Rican cuatro has been designated because the nationwide instrument of the island (see musician Fabiola Méndez play the cuatro on her Tiny Desk Live performance right here.)

Whereas gentle percussion is featured in plena, bomba is rather more percussion centric and options drums with West African origin which might be used particularly for the bomba dance type. (See El Laberinto de Coco carry out an up to date type of bomba of their Tiny Desk Live performance right here.)

In each plena and bomba, dancers are as intrinsic to the types because the musicians themselves. And whereas bomba goes again to the period of colonial plantation and plena is a more moderen growth of the early twentieth century, each types have been used for social messaging in addition to a approach to keep Puerto Rican identification first amidst Spanish colonialism, then U.S. imperialism. —Felix Contreras

What’s the historical past of reggaeton as a type of resistance in Puerto Rico? 

Whereas its roots are in Panama, reggaeton started to take form as what it is recognized in the present day from the streets of marginalized Afro Latino communities of Puerto Rico within the early Nineteen Nineties. A mix of hip-hop, Jamaican dance corridor and a few Afro Caribbean rhythms, the style began as a automobile to precise frustration about racial inequality, dismal financial alternatives and the lasting impression of colonialism and imperialism.

Reggaeton pioneer Ivy Queen took on the misogyny of the largely male music group in addition to a patriarchal Latino society with “Quiero Bailar” in 2003. What began as an underground motion born on mixtapes handed hand handy has develop into a multi-billion greenback music trade. Many standard artists nonetheless use the shape to problem authority and query societal injustice even because it turns into a worldwide, mainstream style. —Felix Contreras

DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS is being referred to as Dangerous Bunny’s “most Puerto Rican album but” — what does that imply and the place does this album sit within the context of his profession/private growth? 

There’s an simple little bit of irony to the truth that nearly precisely two years in the past to this point one of many greatest stars on the earth made headlines for appearing uncharacteristically superstar-ish. Folks sounded off throughout the web protesting and questioning whether or not the infamous man of the folks had let the celebrity get to his head. His crime? Taking a fan’s cellphone out of their hand and throwing it for making an attempt to take an image. This previous week he is been making headlines for “throwing” images once more. In DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, the verb tirar can actually translate to “throw” as in “I ought to’ve thrown extra images” (maybe a understanding nod to his notorious second of tabloid fame). A extra correct translation can be “I ought to’ve taken extra images,” a pointed assertion on his values and his insistence on sustaining his repute as a person of his folks.

Each new album marks a brand new period for Dangerous Bunny. Un Verano Sin Ti was a Caribbean pop-tinged report ripe good for disfrutando the total technicolor results of heartbreak and the summer time solar. His final album Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana was delivered as an homage to his lure period, full of proclamations about stardom that felt a bit out of contact, but quintessentially genuine for his cellphone throwing period. The Dangerous Bunny on this new album who’s preoccupied with the passage of time and preservation of reminiscences is a stark and welcome distinction to the previous. This report introduces his grown up self, reflective and re-centered on what issues.

Throughout the context of being on the island, Dangerous Bunny’s love for Puerto Rico is not any extra vital than the love many Puerto Ricans have for it — however it takes on a brand new significance on a worldwide stage. In a spot that traditionally and at the moment is in a combat to protect its tradition, there are restricted selections for genuine creation that do not embody figuring out your self as Puerto Rican first, endlessly and all the time. Dangerous Bunny’s artistry is his potential to attract international consideration to the lucha with nonchalance. In Dangerous Bunny’s musical panorama, there isn’t a higher reply to Puerto Rico’s future than cultural satisfaction and freedom. Time and time once more Benito has confirmed that he is strongest creatively when he anchors himself to the island and if DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS is to be believed, house is the place he is insistent on staying. —Anamaria Sayre