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Oneleven · 11th August 2005

Just wanted to get a thread started on reggaeton - where I'm at in Chicago, you wouldn't even know that reular ol' hip hop even existed...For each of the past several years reggaeton has broadened its audience to the point where literally every 20 seconds a car rolls through my block on some "boom, tchik, boom, tchik, boom tchi tchik, boom tchik..." lol
I never woulda thought that what we used to call Spanish reggae would evolve into this huge commercial phenomenum, with even shakira of al f*uckin' people putting out reggaeton remixes...
Like, I always liked it, but never really got into it... It was some sh*t that kids from the island (Puerto Rico) would be into, and they would bring all kinds of homemade ass tapes back with all these cats wrecking sh*t with a vicious tongue twisting flow that would leave me stunned... But I was always into US, primarily East coast hip hop, and I remember that alotta cats thought spanish reggae was kinda corny...
At b-boy type events, you'd get mocked for spitting in spanish at all - even latino kids were like "Yo, that sh*t's wack - everything already rhymes in spanish..."
Then all of a sudden it crept up on me a few years ago that something called reggaeton had become really popular with all these young boricua kids... It had differentiated itself from both standard dancehall and "hiphop" style rap, production wise, and vocally...
Before the content was on some violent, ghetto type ish, in keeping with its roots in dancehall - now it's gotten all sing-songey and mushy...
And then there's all these arpeggiated synths they're using, which I'm not a terribly big fan of... The use of congas alongside the main drum feel is also now ubiquitous... and while some cats (notably Tego Calderon) have reinforced it with percussion evocative of traditional Puerto Rican Bomba, mostly they're using something that sounds like what the conga normally plays in salon style merengue, which I thought was rather odd when I first noticed it...
I think this post might be rambling alittle, so I'll try to reign it in... I think I wanted to start a thread on reggaeton to see what happens, and share what I've observed about it... It seems like much of what is written and discussed about it in the media is by people who've just been caught up in this huge wave of popularity recently, and are unable to place it in its proper historical and artistic perspective... Not that I expect many cats on here to know much about it but, lol, you must learn! Cuz this sh*t's definitely going to change the face of popular music not just in Latin America, but all over the world...
Like, it's gone from being kids in Panama and Puerto Rico flipping Jamaican dancehall joints in Spanish.... to a point where it was considered so foul and dangerous that the Puerto Rican congress debated completely banning it from the airwaves... then, it starts catching on with non-caribbean people - I bugged when I first started seeing mexican kids bumping it - which really gave me kind of a rude awakening when I was in a trendy club in the West Loop 2 months ago, with a 90% African American audience, and the DJ kept reggaeton on the tables like lil Jon was never born... lol
Be interested to hear what ya'll got to say....

Chicago Rocks till the world blow....

11th August 2005	#1
Oneleven Gear Head Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Humboldt Park - also Known as Lil San Juan... Chicago, USG Posts: 30 Thread Starter	And where does reggaeton fit in to all this? Just wanted to get a thread started on reggaeton - where I'm at in Chicago, you wouldn't even know that reular ol' hip hop even existed...For each of the past several years reggaeton has broadened its audience to the point where literally every 20 seconds a car rolls through my block on some "boom, tchik, boom, tchik, boom tchi tchik, boom tchik..." lol I never woulda thought that what we used to call Spanish reggae would evolve into this huge commercial phenomenum, with even shakira of al fuckin' people putting out reggaeton remixes... Like, I always liked it, but never really got into it... It was some sht that kids from the island (Puerto Rico) would be into, and they would bring all kinds of homemade ass tapes back with all these cats wrecking sht with a vicious tongue twisting flow that would leave me stunned... But I was always into US, primarily East coast hip hop, and I remember that alotta cats thought spanish reggae was kinda corny... At b-boy type events, you'd get mocked for spitting in spanish at all - even latino kids were like "Yo, that sht's wack - everything already rhymes in spanish..." Then all of a sudden it crept up on me a few years ago that something called reggaeton had become really popular with all these young boricua kids... It had differentiated itself from both standard dancehall and "hiphop" style rap, production wise, and vocally... Before the content was on some violent, ghetto type ish, in keeping with its roots in dancehall - now it's gotten all sing-songey and mushy... And then there's all these arpeggiated synths they're using, which I'm not a terribly big fan of... The use of congas alongside the main drum feel is also now ubiquitous... and while some cats (notably Tego Calderon) have reinforced it with percussion evocative of traditional Puerto Rican Bomba, mostly they're using something that sounds like what the conga normally plays in salon style merengue, which I thought was rather odd when I first noticed it... I think this post might be rambling alittle, so I'll try to reign it in... I think I wanted to start a thread on reggaeton to see what happens, and share what I've observed about it... It seems like much of what is written and discussed about it in the media is by people who've just been caught up in this huge wave of popularity recently, and are unable to place it in its proper historical and artistic perspective... Not that I expect many cats on here to know much about it but, lol, you must learn! Cuz this sh*t's definitely going to change the face of popular music not just in Latin America, but all over the world... Like, it's gone from being kids in Panama and Puerto Rico flipping Jamaican dancehall joints in Spanish.... to a point where it was considered so foul and dangerous that the Puerto Rican congress debated completely banning it from the airwaves... then, it starts catching on with non-caribbean people - I bugged when I first started seeing mexican kids bumping it - which really gave me kind of a rude awakening when I was in a trendy club in the West Loop 2 months ago, with a 90% African American audience, and the DJ kept reggaeton on the tables like lil Jon was never born... lol Be interested to hear what ya'll got to say.... Chicago Rocks till the world blow....