Hot Webcam Action: Calle 13

Transcript.

Manuel: Hey.

Residente: Hey.

Manuel: How are you?

Residente: How are you? What's going on? Everything OK?

Manuel: Yes, yes.

Residente: Can you hear me?

Manuel: Yes.

Residente: What's your name?

Manuel: José Manuel Acevedo.

Residente: Oh.

Visitante: Oh.

Manuel: I’m not related to Anibal, OK?

(laughter.)

Residente: OK. OK. OK. Very good. Where are you from? From here?

(whispers.)

Manuel: Rosemead, almost East L.A.

Residente: Ah, OK. Fuego. Fuego. It’s a pleasure, very nice to meet you.

Manuel: Thanks. How was the show yesterday?

Residente: What?

Visitante: Cool, it was cool.

Residente: Ah, cool man. We played a couple of songs, we played “Tango del Pecado,” “Atrevete,” “La Crema,” and which other one? “Suave” as well. And “Se Vale To-to”, we played a couple of old tunes and also from the new record. It was cool, cool, a lot of people there getting down, happy. Lots of joy.

Manuel: Cool. I'm gonna ask you the questions in English, because my Spanish is like ...

Residente: No, it's OK. Dale, dale. I understand English.

Manuel: Eduardo, you are the music man, what is your favorite instrument to play?

Visitante: The piano. The good thing about the piano is that it has different scales, the higher and the lower notes. It is a very complete instrument. [Unintelligible] me curo bastante.

Residente: I'm going to translate, he likes the piano, it is a very complete instrument. And he like to play piano. Nice!

Manuel: I understand.

Residente: Yeah, for everyone else.

Manuel: Like in your lyrics you talk a lot about food. And...(laughter) how you make fried yucca, because I tried making it once and stunk up the house and smelled like oil...

Residente: Yucca frita, yucca frita. You take the yucca and you fry it and you fry it, it is very easy. There is not much to do. The important thing is the mojito – what you soak it in. You understand? But, I mix food a lot [in my lyrics], cause I like really like Latin food. And I eat a lot. And if you mix them up with sexual things, you get some interesting results. With food and sex a lot cool things can happen.

Manuel: You guys travel a lot, you have been traveling. Is there still countries you wanna go to...that you are dying to go to? Some countries...

Residente: Some countries that...well,

Manuel: that you haven't...

Residente: ...we want, we have traveled to many. But in the summer we are gonna travel to Barcelona to play at the Sonar Festival, in Spain. We haven't gone to play in Barcelona.

Visitante: Argentina, I want to go to Argentina.

Residente: Argentina and Brazil.

Manuel: You still have not gone to...

Residente: We have gone everywhere, except Argentina and Brazil in Latin America, so we want to go there now. But [we've been to] all of Central America we have gone to [most of] South America. And now we are going to Barcelona, Spain. And that is good because nobody in the genre has gone to Spain to play in a festival of that magnitude – nobody. They just go to the Canary Islands, which are cool, but it is different than going to Barcelona or Madrid, which are big cities. Know what I mean? We're crazy about going there.

Manuel: How do you two feel when the U.S. Navy left Vieques in 2003?

Residente: Ah, I felt very happy and a lot of Puerto Ricans, too. I think that it was very important that they left Vieques, because they were ruining the land...

Visitante: But there is still a lot of work to be done there, they have to clean. I believe that they still don't want to do the job. I think that they are the ones that need to clean it and leave it as it was. I don't think it is going to be the same as before, but it would be good to leave it as best as possible.

Manuel: Some people died there?

Residente: What?

Manuel: People died there...

Residente: Yes...

Visitante: Yes...

Residente: That is the way things started there, with a bomb that killed an innocent person. But before that person died, many more had died. They used to do experiments there with Puerto Ricans, with pregnant women to test contraceptive pills, they added chemicals to the beach where they bathed. They used to do a lot of experiments with us as if we were lab rats.

Visitante: The worst thing of it all is that there is a high rate of cancer, and it's still affecting the people that live there.

Residente: Yeah, the contamination that was made to that little island...

Manuel: Mmm hmm...

Residente: You know...but they're gone now and little by little it is being rebuilt. That same way in other Latin and South American countries they have gone in there and in some way things are being rebuilt and things get better.

Manuel: The De La Hoya match is coming up, he's been training in Puerto Rico, his wife is Puerto Rican and his son was born in Puerto Rico, who are you guys going for?

Residente: De La Hoya

Visitante: De La Hoya...and I just learned today that he is climbing up to the ring with the Boricua flag...no, no...

Residente: I want De La Hoya to win. I don't like Mayweather, he is a pendejo and he talks a lot of shit. And he is undefeated. And to me, he already lost to Jose Luis Castillo – in the first fight, not the second one. To me he did not lose but they gave it to Mayweather. I'm a fan of boxing, you can ask me anything about that. I want De La Hoya to win. Just so Mayweather's record is fucked up, not so much for De La Hoya. Yeah, De La Hoya, but more because I want Mayweather's record to be fucked up.

Manuel: La Mala Rodriguez, how did you guys hook that up, who called who?

Residente: She called me one day and I was very surprised because I am a very huge fan of her work.

Manuel: La Mala...

Residente: Yes, and then we started talking about making a song and we started doing it, and she told me like to do something sexual and I told her that I wanted to do something soft, not too strong. But she insisted in me to doing it strong. So I wrote very strong lyrics. She did not know how hard I could be, she soon found out and we did the song together for the record. Very cool. Shout outs to Mala, from the heart.

Manuel: (Laughter.)

Residente: When she sees this, I don't know if...

Visitante: Like the other time we were on TV ...

Residente: Yeah...

Manuel: Do you guys get a lot of: “I don't really like reggaetón but I like your music”?

Visitante: Yeah...

Residente: Yes, dude, we get that a lot. And many people say that to us. "I don't like reggaetón but I like Calle 13." I think we are going to make some t-shirts that say that. It would be a good idea: “I don't like reggeatón, but I like Calle 13.” And I have seen it there and it is not something that makes you happy, but what I do like is that we are not mixed in with reggaetón. A way of separating Calle 13 from reggaetón, that implies that they understand our music. Like when they come out and say the reggaetón group Calle 13, then I know that these people don't know Calle 13. It is good that they say that ...

Manuel: La Hermanita PG-13, is she going to like come out with anything soon?

Residente: Yes, we are planning something now...

Visitante: I think that next year her album will come out, but...

Residente: We are starting to work on her project, but it is going to be very different and I know that it is going to be strong for the people – something heavy. That is what we are planning now. Now you know. Where are you from? You're from Mexico? From what part?

Manuel: My mom is from el D.F.

Residente: Oh, a fuego.

Manuel: And my Dad is from Guadalajara.

Manuel: I was gonna ask you that, because on the first album you mention “Vámonos pa Mexico sin casarnos porque yo no soy Católico. Después me voy de vacaciones a Mexico a bajar la cena.” I was gonna say if you guys travel a lot in Mexico or...

Residente: We where there for two weeks for...some awards...(laughs)...we can't ...Yes! Now we are going to D.F. to play at Vive Latino, a rock festival. And it is creating a lot of controversy because we are the only rappers and people want to watch rock, and we are like a mix, we have live music, electric guitars, we just don't leave it at hip hop. It is hip hop but with music, like punk mixed with a lot of things. We are going over there now, then we are going to Cancún. And I also have friends from here that are from El Paso, Cd. Juarez that are graffiti artists – shout out to Tres Toltecas that they are not gonna see this, but "hi" to them...once again...

Manuel: It is a live show when you guys play?

Residente: What?

Visitante: Yes.

Manuel: How do you know the musicians? Are they your friends or did you guys try them out, the rest of the group?

Residente: No, no, no, they are friends of mine from many years ago. I have played with the drummer since about 20 years ago, imagine that. So, since we were kids...and the other guys in the band, I've played with him for over ten years. They are very good friends and that's one of the good things about our live show...it's not some lame band of musicians, there is chemistry, it is a cool live show that we are enjoying. More than musicians they are friends.

Residente: Cool, a cool show.

Manuel: Chevere, is that a Colombian slang word?

Visitante: No...

Residente: No, chevere is from Puerto Rico and now a brand of clothes (laughs)...a fuego.

Manuel: What is your favorite, maybe you will not say at all, what is your favorite track?

Visitante: Ohh.

Residente: I like track six, “Llégale a Mi Guarida” because...

Manuel: With the guitar, right?

Residente: Yes, I wrote that with all of my heart. It was a phase of my life in which I was very violent. I wrote this as a release and I mixed in some Central American things. If you listen to the track from the point of view of an indigenous person talking or a military, you can understand the song better.

Visitante: I like “Algo Con Sentido”, it's cool.

Residente: I think it is number nine or ten.

Visitante: What is your favorite?

Manuel: I like the last one.

Residente: Ah, “La Era de la Copiaera”, that is cool. That is for when we came out in Puerto Rico there where like ten persons imitating Calle 13, the song is for the copycats. Now you know that in Puerto Rico they are burned now.

Manuel: Is P. Diddy calm now?

Residente: P. Diddy ta calmao, we saw him in the U.S. in a program, he passed by us and he recorded us. He did not know until someone told him about Calle 13 and he was on the watch for us. You know that there is no problem because the New York is all about the Latinos. He's fucked. (laughter.)

Residente: Ta calmao, ta calmao.

Manuel: Well, I'm pretty much done, they made me take some questions off, so I forgot to ask them. I don't have any more questions...

Residente: What?

Manuel: They made me take some off because they didn't think we'd have enough time.

Residente: Ah, OK OK, ah OK OK, Fuego.

Manuel: So what are you guys doing after?

Residente: After right now. Interviews, interviews, we are promoting the new album and we've got many interviews and things like that. We're doing that, today I think we get off early, but tomorrow they will really stick it to us...tomorrow.

Manuel: I saw the "Day In, Day Out" and you guys were doing a million interviews.

Visitante: Mmm hmm.

Residente: Yeah...yeah, brother.

Manuel: Do you get sick of it?

Residente: No man, they just give us water and they give us food. Sometimes they treat us good, if they give you food you don't get sick of it as much. And water...(laughs), with food and water we are all set.

Manuel: Cool...well, that's about it.

Residente: A fuego, a pleasure. You know how it is, very nice meeting you. Look, something came out from behind.

Manuel: Thanks mun2...

Residente: Sí, a fuego! Un placer brother.

Manuel: Can you say hi to Kyara, cause she's not here...

Residente: What is her name?

Manuel: There were supposed to be some girls here, but they flaked out...

Residente: Kyara! Kyara, Kyara hello from Residente and Visitante. La Colombiana, whooo, from Colombia. Yes, we are going to Colombia right away. Hello to her, you didn't dare, you didn't dare to raise up you mini-skirt. Suave, good.

Manuel: Thanks.

Visitante: Cool.