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From npr music. This is not latino. I'm felix contreras.
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And I'm ana maria sayer. Let the chisme begin. FELIX I actually have chisme this week and I'm really, really, really very excited about it.
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B
Okay, I'm ready.
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C
So, as you know, I decided to just randomly go to Bogota for a weekend because Milo Hota was performing in Bogota. I haven't actually seen him in one of his concerts on this tour. I really wanted to, so I was like, I have to figure out a date that works. Bogota, for whatever reason, I guess made sense. He played two nights sold out at the Movistar Arena. He's touring all arenas. He did a stadium in Peru. So really big shows. And I went to the show, Felix, and I was like, oh my God, this show gives me hope for the youth, for the future. It was really like one of the most stunning, stunning crowd experiences. I would maybe even say it rivaled or was not more impressive, like energetically than Bad Bunny's residency.
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B
Wow.
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The energy of the public and specifically the way that they stayed with him energetically, it was like they sang every word to every song. They knew every single song. And he starts on his trap stuff and then he goes and he takes you on this whole journey through this latest album that's all very folkloric. And still they're screaming every single word. These like 15 year old kids in Colombia screaming every word to the folkloric songs of a 19 year old kid from Argentina. And they're literally Felix singing collectively Mercedes Sosa. And then all of a sudden you pivot and two seconds later they're moshing to his trap song. To me, if you ever want to say that the youth of today don't care or that they don't value good art or that they aren't complex, like to see that, to witness how excited they were, it was like irrespective of whether it was folkloric sounds or quote, like urban or contemporary sounds, they were excited, emotional, involved, engaged. It was really beautiful. Felix really beautiful.
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I wonder what that says on a very deep level about what's going on with young people in Latin America right now, specifically Bogota.
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Well, I don't think it's specifically Bogota. And that's where I think it gets interesting. And actually that leads quite nicely into the first track that I brought today because I brought in a few songs off of the new record of an Argentine, another Argentine rapper. His name is Trueno. He's been around longer than Milo Jota has, but is still pretty young. I going to play you one of the songs from his album and then we can kind of get into it. So this album is called Turo and this song is called.
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Chopped and Screwed Tango.
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Yeah.
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Wow.
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With bars like that also, because he has an amazing flow and he always has. I mean, Felix, he started like in the really early streets of Argentina, like rap battles, type of scene. Like, he very much comes from, you know, the barrio. The thing about Argentina is obviously we know them quite well for the role that they have played, the fundamental role that they've played in the proliferation of Roque and espanol. But they've also always had a really important developing hip hop and rap scene. And what artists like Trueno and now Milo Hota, Although Milo Hota is also, you know, moved away from that, but not, you know, he still holds it. True to himself is they've put Argentina on the map for those things as well, which I think are feeling like a very fitting expression right now for what it is that they're doing. Treno specifically, to me, is one of the most impressive young rappers in Latin America right now. Maybe like the most impressive. He. Every single album he's released, Felix, it's like, I hear that record and I'm like, oh, my God, this is invention. This is something different. His last record was kind of this, like, homage to hip hop across all the Americas. He brought in a lot of like, R and B concept into it, a lot of kind of American rap kind of sounds. This record is much more firmly rooted in South America. It has some Caribbean elements. He brings in a good amount of funk, too. He always loves to play with funk, but it's Argentina, you can hear it. And I want to play you another track from this record because it is with our very own Milo Jota. This song is the two of them, and it's called Pumas.
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You know, with few exceptions, my own personal preference for hip hop is always from Latin America because the background music that they use the beats is, to me, is just a little more creative. Than what I hear in other places. But that's just me and my hip hop tastes.
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And what you hear in there, Felix, is that very much traditional, Andean, indigenous, you know, instrumentation and sound. It's. It's signature of Milo Hota. I mean, talking about that, that concert, right? Like he has a moment where that, like that flute that you hear, there's like a whole flute solo of exactly that, like traditional, indigenous Andean flute. And people are screaming like these young Colombian kids are screaming at this flute solo. And I think what's fascinating to me, Felix, to, to your earlier point is artists like Trueno and artists like Milo Hota, it's so natural to them to incorporate these elements, these concepts. What they're talking about too, in this song is like fighting for who they are, for where they're from. And I tried to ask Milo why. I was like, why do you do this type of folkloric thing, the traditional thing, talking about. He talks so much about the importance of identity and home and family. And he was so lax. He was so nonchalant about it. He was. I don't know, I just like do it. Like that's just something I have to do. Like it was very. Just like, you know, we talk about a Benito, for example, who had to go on this journey and then come home in this new, new, new generation. To answer your earlier question, Felix, it feels like they were raised in fuego, like not just Colombia, but all of Latin America. Like they were raised in this fire. And so it's just in the music without thinking about it. Like they don't think about it, it's just there, you know.
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Curiously, just the other night I saw this great band also from Argentina, the Argentine Orchestra of Indigenous instruments and New Technologies. The version that I saw was strictly all indigenous instruments and a lot of those flutes. Their thing is from all over Latin America, all over Spanish speaking world, Central, even North America. But that specifically that night I heard the flutes that I heard in this track right now.
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Yeah, Trano specifically, he brought in so many legends from roquenol, Andres Calamaro, P.T. alvarez. I mean these are like big names he has on this particular song. It's the last song I'm going to play you. It's called Uruguay. He brings on the legendary singer Ruben Rada At 82 years old, Felix, he's singing on this song. That was a couple of tracks off the new Trueno album.
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I'm trying to think of a segue to my first track. And you know what? There is no segue. Let's just get right to it. I'm bringing. I'm bringing in some music from New Mexico.
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All right?
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Right. Which stands out not only in the Spanish speaking world here in the United States, but. But also in terms of Spanish language music. Because New Mexico is its own little, little world. Right. There's a band called Lon. They've been doing this music of northern New Mexico for about 10 years. We're going to hear more about that music and the band, but first let's hear a track from their upcoming album. This track is called El Tecolot.
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Sam.
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Music from New Mexico, for me, is both familiar and distinct. Right. The history of that part of the Southwest. It places New Mexico at the crossroads of, like, Mexican cultures, indigenous cultures, European immigrants, white Americans. That's the history and the folklore. And the music is slightly different than neighboring Arizona and Texas and Colorado and Utah, the places where it all connects. And then when you get to the 20th century, you add things like Western swing, African American musical influences. Man, New Mexico really stands out on its own. And this band, Lon Pinon, calls itself a string band. So there's fiddles, upright bass guitars, accordions. And they remind me of a group like Los Sensotles in California and other folk groups where there is no desire for crossover. It's strictly a group expressing and building on that cultural history and background. What I like about these bands is that they don't treat the music like museum pieces, like it's behind the glass and it'll always stay lifeless. Bands like l', Impignon, they absorb all of their contemporary stuff, Right. And it may not reflect it directly in the music, but it's certainly there in their artistic identity deep, deep down,
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the DNA, you know, Felix, I love that you bring up this idea of the like, distinct local. The local distinction of New Mexico. Because hearing this, I was like, it does. It sounds like things kind of I've heard before, but not quite. And we talk a lot about too, you know, when we think about the other songs of the border, right across the border really, from New Mexico. And we think about, you know, Banda Este and the specific region of the mountains and all of these things. It is kind of very European in nature too, is something we've talked about. And that's some of what I heard with some of the tempo, the instrumentation, but it's all interconnected, obviously.
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Super interesting music from New Mexico with the band Lonpin. Their album is coming out at the end of May. It's gonna be called Hot Carnes Seca. And we heard a track called El Tecolote.
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Okay, so my next pick, actually, Felix, kind of very nicely transitions from what you just did. It's like, if we're talking about, like, Mexican plus something else or like, a variant on Mexican, these both fall into that category. So I'm going to play you a little bit of this track first without saying anything. Okay. This song is called Mi Superona.
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Okay, explain
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what? Oh, my God.
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That's like flamenco Mexican, regional. Oh, my God. Okay, talk to me. Talk to me.
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I will explain. I will explain. I will explain. So this is the debut album from a duo named Chanela Clica, and that song was called Mi Superdona. Now, Chanela Clica is a duo from Spain, from Madrid, who became very good friends with a certain Karin Leon.
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Oh, my God.
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Now, if you'll remember, Karin Leon and Pujo Settingana are really good friends. They've collaborated on a couple Musica Mexicana flamenco type of tracks. Through this process, Karin Leon becomes obsessed with flamenco, and he starts talking with all these Spanish producers, and they're like, there's just such an incredible, you know, marriage between what is Spanish music and Mexican music, and maybe we can make something. So they fly out this whole crew of Spanish producers and their whole crew. They specialize in making flamenco music to Hermosillo in northern Mexico, where they create an album called Puro Chanela. And it's all collabs. They brought in all these musica Mexicana banda singers, and it's all these collabs that fuse exactly this literally find those fusion points of flamenco music and Mosica Mexicana. It is such an amazing album, Felix. So this track in particular features Leah Kali. I don't know if you remember her. She came in and sang with El A Dio Carrillon, the Puerto Rican rapper. She's a Spanish singer. Beautiful, beautiful voice. It features Israel Fernandez, Adriel Favela, who's a huge, huge Mexican singer. It's like all of these crazy pieces coming together. I don't even know where to begin about this record, but I am gonna play one more song that's actually not off of this record, because now, of course, this whole world of fusion has bled into other people's music. So Adriel Favela has an album that's going to be coming out called Cobra, and he released a song that has very much this style, includes Chana La Clica and it's Amor the Trafficantes. So what you're hearing is legendary Spanish rapper Mala Rodriguez, one of the, like, Most instrumental female rappers in Spain rapping over a corrido tumbado with flamenco elements. Like what?
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You know, my first reaction is, you know, you saw me with my mouth open just completely like, what is this? This is incredible. And the other thing that I was thinking about is it was just something I saw recently and it was an old TikTok video of someone complaining about Rosalia and cultural appropriation. It swerved into, you know, the colonizers and all the history and all that stuff. And while all that stuff is legitimate, this is that moment where the Mexican artists are like, you know what? Screw that colonization stuff and that attitude. Let's bring it on. Let's like, Spanish blood is part of the Mexican existence. So these guys are bringing that music together in a way that is just completely blowing my mind. This is really some of the most amazing stuff I've heard ever. I'm just blown away. That mixture, it works perfectly, man.
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We heard a song off of the new Chana La Clica album as well as a song from the upcoming new
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Adriel favela album that was so intense. We need to take a break so I can absorb it. We'll be right back.
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Okay, we're back. Anna. We're going to start this next segment with my hidden hip hop roots. Okay. The iconic hip hop group Cypress Hill has a new record coming out. It's their first ever in Spanish. This particular track features Mellow Man, Ace this track is called Campiones. Check it out,
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Felix. Yeah, that's what that is.
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You know, we've talked about Latinos in the earliest days of hip hop here on the show. And they were one of the earliest examples of using Spanish language in hip hop. Up with their track Latin lingo back in 1991. This is what that sounded like real quick. You know, Cypress Hill was here for a tiny desk in 2023, and I had a chance to talk to Sin Dog, and he was really interested in returning to Cuba to explore his roots, because he and his brother Melo Man Ace, they were born in Pinal de rio in the 1960s, and their family came here, the United States, on the West Coast. And when you also consider that Be Real is Chicano. Eric Bobo, who joined in 1994, is Nuyorican. He's the son of pioneering Latin percussionist Willie Bobo. They're bonafide as a Latin hip hop band. You can't argue with that. What fascinates me is the Latin presence is not like it's not prominent. You can hear it in this stuff right here. But it's just a part of the DNA of their individual expression. You could hear so many things. Like you said Sonidaro, you hear accordions, you hear all this stuff. The Spanish language, the reference, the colloquialisms. The whole record is like this Ana. It's really a fascinating exploration of their roots for the first time since they debuted back in the 90s.
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But this, I mean, this to me feels really like this is the sound. Like this is what you would find, right, if you go out to, like a cumbia party in Mexico City, let's say, like incorporating, like, hip hop Sonidero, like, that is the sound of that. It has such a strong legacy. It's been incorporated in a lot of ways. It kind of reminds me of almost like a caminolar portejemplo, something like that. But it's its rich own genre, like the mix of cumbia and hip hop, that doesn't really find its way, I think, into the mainstream that often. But it's so widely heard and known. Really, really beautiful track.
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That track was called Campiones. It features Mellow Man Ace. The album's called Dios Bendiga. It's gonna come out in July, so they'll sprinkle out a few more singles along the way. The band is Cypress Hill.
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C
Okay, so obviously I'm going back to Brazil. Felix, get used to it, because, oh, my God, every time I go to look for good Music. I'm sorry. This artist, his name is Leo Milea, and this track is called Atabake. So Lido me, then, born in Rio de Janeiro, now lives in Barcelona. So a lot of his music, actually, speaking of Spanish fusion, incorporates a lot of Spanish sound. This is his sixth album that he's released. He's been releasing music since 2014. And what I love about his sound, I mean, this is an album that's three different languages. It incorporates everything. I mean, he talks. He describes his music as being kind of global. It's fun. It feels like you're in Rio. It feels like you're in the summer, but it still has kind of like a lot of these more deep and untraveled sonic elements. I'm going to play you one more song. It's called Praia Vermelha Dosul, Brazil.
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I mean, how could you not smile listening to that?
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Literally.
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Okay.
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No, it's great. It's happy, it's party. It's summer. It's fun. Those were a few songs from the new Leo Midea album, Noticias de Puglia.
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Okay. Keep your Portuguese handy.
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C
Oh, no.
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Okay.
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What Portuguese?
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My last track today is also Brazilian music. This is a track from a group called Mandinga Beat. And this features the percussionist Victoria dos Santos. This track is called Crianza Rica. Okay. This is from a record label called Puto Mayo, and from since 1963, they have been releasing music from around the world, and they lean heavily on folk traditions. Their latest album is called Afro Roots, and it's a compilation of music and artists from the Salvador region of Brazil. And this particular band, Mandinga Beat, is a Brazil African collective that explores all kinds of stuff. I've listened to all the tracks on this record, and you just can't go wrong. This particular track was called Krianza Rica featuring Mandinga Beat with Victoria dos Santos. You have been listening to haute latino from npr music. Our audio editor is noah caldwell.
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The executive producer of npr music is
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soraya mohamed sonali mehta is executive director of npr music. I'm felix contreras.
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And I'm ana maria sayer. Thank you so much for listening.
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Obrigado portuguese.
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Foreign. Feel like there's always something new that everyone's talking about. Ever feel like you're always out of the loop? Over at Pop Culture Happy Hour, the roundtable pop culture podcast, we've got you every episode. We discuss everything, movies, books, games and shows. So you'll never feel like you're missing any part of the conversation. Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour only from npr. Wherever you get your podcast.
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This message comes from the John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur foundation, recognizing extraordinarily creative individuals whose ideas, solutions and discoveries expand people's expectations of what's possible. Macfound.org.