Arroz Con Beans

I posted that I know a lot of ppl who listen to both hiphop and reggaeton and that I have seen little rivalry between the genres. That most of what I have seen between artists is collaboration, and betweem (among?) fans is mutual appreciation. And that African Americans and other nonSpanish speaking black people like reggaeton.

I also have said that I don’t see a need for reggaeton in English since most fans are bilingual.

Today I was going to correct myself about the harmony in the club. There is a bit of a divide right now, between the Panamanians and everyone else. But its because the Panamanian DJs play “too much Panamanian reggaeton”.

So what the hell do I think, I am asking myself, since what I am saying sounds contradictory to me.

Saying that about the DJs  let me know that, yes,  I (and most of my friends) do consider reggaeton “Puerto Rican” hence the need  to modify it when discussing reggaeton out of Panama or Cuba or the Dominican Republic.

And even knowing that there are English speaking fans, I still feel there is no burning need to create reggaeton in English. Perhaps because most English speaking reggaeton fans I know like the sound of the music and the lyrics matter little. Its dance music and whether the words are “rompe rompe rompe” or “do the stanky leg, do the stanky leg”, they are irrelevant in certain contexts. When the words are relevant people who want English music can go listen to English music.

A friend asked me to translate part of Ojalai by Voltio and Calle 13. I didn’t want to, not because I am entirely lazy, but because I believe a translation can be: beautiful and inaccurate, ugly and accurate but rarely beautiful and accurate. And when translating slang and idiomatic expressions, you’re usually going to get ugly and inaccurate.

It can be almost impossible to translate both the semantic meaning and the deeper meanings of lyrics. If I tell you the words, you’ll miss the feel.

I aimed for accuracy since I figured he wanted to know what the words meant. He was then offended by the implication that white girls were wonky legged and couldnt dance.

Tonga la songa, mamazanga

Moviendo la pichanga
con sabor a catanga

Con un poquito de gracia como la bamba

Les dejo las caderas changas

A sudar caldo de oso panda

Y hasta las gringas bailan
Fuera de ritmo con las piernas sambas

In my opinion, that is untranslatable. In order to explain what it meant,that it was not a ugly as he was thinking, that it was mostly nonsense  all I could think up was the DI verse about ticklish fat girls.

I like to rhyme,
I like my beats funky,
I’m spunky. I like my oatmeal lumpy.
I’m sick wit dis, straight gangsta mack
but sometimes I get ridiculous
I’ll eat up all your crackers and your licorice
hey yo fat girl, c’mere–are ya ticklish?
Yeah, I called ya fat.
Look at me, I’m skinny
It never stopped me from gettin’ busy
I’m a freak
I like the girls with the boom
I once got busy in a Burger King bathroom
I’m crazy.
Allow me to amaze thee.
They say I’m ugly but it just don’t faze me.
I’m still gettin’ in the girls’ pants
and I even got my own dance

DOES THIS SHIT MAKE ANY SENSE EITHER? Fortunately he got exactly what the “tone” was, at least as I hear it anyway.

So even though English speaking non Spanish speaking people may enjoy reggaeton, I think the desire of the artists to say the untranslatable makes singing in English unappealing. And I also think that because of some subtle but perhaps not insignificant differences in uh, male emoting, that English translations of reggaeton songs would be seen as too “gay” or sappy or corny or over the top to English speakers. And that lyrics that appeal to English speakers would probably miss the mark and lack certain cultural nuances that “hook” Spanish speaking fans.

I cannot imagine a banging club song in English with the lyrics to Mami Tu Me Dominas, for example.

Mami tu me dominas pa serte sincero,
tu eres la que me anima cuando estoy debil
tu eres mi vitamina y si no te tengo
no tengo salida eeeeeeeeeeeee PORQUEEEE!!!!

And since English speakers (non Spanish speakers) seem to enjoy reggaeton just fine as a collection of sounds, there is no need to ruin the lyrics for those who do listen to it outside of a dance setting.

Whether the above is true, I don’t know. Just examining the beliefs I hold that are behind my statements.

Also, on the rivalry. I am not saying there is none, I know hiphop fans who HATE reggaeton and I am ok with that. I sometimes HATE timba but I love salsa. If I listen to timba with my “salsa ears”, the shit irritates me. It was when I learned to listen with my “funk ears” that I could appreciate it. When I listen to it expecting it to sound like salsa, the dissonance bothers me. Too much non-salsa stuff. But if I listen to it as if it were just salsa inflected funk, its all good.

I think for the hiphop fans who dislike reggaeton, it is because they approach it not as reggaeton but as bastardized reggae or hiphop, and it fails to meet the standards for Good HipHop. “The beat is always the same”. Those who accept it as “something else”, enjoy it for what it is. And they dont need to hear it in English because its SPANISH MUSIC. It is what it is.

The “it all has the same beat” comment interests me the most because I think most hiphop songs I have heard (and it has been YEARS since I was a fan, though I hear it on the radio here in the Dirty Souf) are incredibly dull and lacking in rhythmic complexity and not at all engaging.

Anyway, I was just trying to see if I could reconcile my statements which seemed to me to be contradictory. I’ll read this later and see if I did, or if I simply happen to believe things that dont jibe with one another.

Update-
Interesting to read what I wrote in 2007.
I still see a lot of “pan latino” appreciation for reggaeton. The divisions and stress about reggaeton are still primarily the Panamanians vs the Puerto Ricans over which reggaeton to play. But again, I stress that I am discussing my corner of the world and there arent enough Caribbean and South American latinos to form a bloc, so mostly I see communities based on race not ethnicity and then some squabbling over which nation’s reggaeton to play.
I think.