The theme has been on the lips of all lovers of Latin American urban music for a week: Residente’s ‘tiraera’ against J Balvin. An eight-minute song (the ‘BZRP Session #49’) produced by the genius kid of the moment, Bizzarrap, in which the Puerto Rican rips the Colombian to pieces and He tells him that he is something less than a rag. Here are some of the pearls it contains:
“This cowardly young lamb / It’s like a vegan breakfast: without eggs & rdquor ;.
“You are more false than a ‘hot-dog’ without ketchup or bread & rdquor ;.
“The ‘autotune’ and the ‘playback’ activated / These fools sing even with the microphone off & rdquor ;.
“It is one thing to be an artist / Another thing is to be famous & rdquor ;.
“They are fifth class artists / who they write less / than a pen without ink & rdquor ;.
“I’m going to lower myself with a bobolón / that sings to Sponge Bob / and to Pokémon & rdquor ;.
What did Balvin respond to such a barrage? Hanging this phrase from a song of my own: “Problems are solved by not returning evil, a gentleman never speaks, even if he knows the truth & rdquor ;. He also asked for love and silence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIy1Pn-_Mh4
On the resident side
On the Resident side, things seem quite clear: when a few months ago Balvin called for a boycott of the Latin Grammys With the argument that they ignored urban music (reggaeton and trap), he did it out of selfishness. Added to the fact that the Colombian represents the worst vices in the industry that he claims to fight (vices, not the industry yet), since Balvin called to torpedo the ceremony in which his friend Rubén Blades was going to receive the award for a lifetime, the Colombian was directly despicable, and he did so know in a video he recorded for the occasion. Already then she told him that his contribution to music was the equivalent of ‘hot dogs’ to gastronomy, which is one of the keys to this rivalry under construction. You make hotdogs, he spits at him, and I do high-end gastronomy.
“Resident likes to narrate himself as a true artist who lives in the land of merchants”, says music journalist Santiago Cembrano from Bogotá, “And that is what he has done again in that ‘tiraera’, narrating himself as the one who writes versus the one who does not write, the one who is real versus the one who is not real”. “The paradox is that to tell him that he has made a weak song. It’s one of the worst things I’ve heard from Bizzarrap. Residente wants to be a good lyricist, but he has written a letter with very simple rhymes and with many recycled ideas, what’s more. It is not the song that makes one say: “Wow, what a verbal and artistic demonstration by Residente & rdquor ;.
There is a kind of consensus in the sense that either there was already something between them that the public does not know or else Residente’s contempt came from behind, something that Balvin’s slip with the Grammys allowed him to get out of it. “In any case, Balvin made a miscalculation and he called for a boycott at a time that did not sit well with people. At that time, Residente was clever and presented himself as a spokesman for the popular feeling of the majority & rdquor ;, explains José Arteaga, editor of Radio Gladys Palmera. Colombian music critic and journalist Liliana Ramírez stresses that “the incident began there in the eyes of the public, but we do not know from the inside what rivalry there is between them. It seems that they did not like each other for reasons that we do not know & rdquor ;.
And let’s not forget, adds Cembrano, that “Resident likes to create controversy and cultivate an admirer who admires him for his convictions & rdquor ;. “Controversy is one of his ‘marketing’ hooks”, says Ramírez, “although many people think that it makes him look resentful”.
Balvin’s side
Regardless of the fact that it has become the target of the greatest musical diatribe Of all time, at least in Latin America, J Balvin is not going through his best moment. “Balvin has been going through a rough patch, he has been making many mistakes in the things he says and the things he does,” says Ramírez. In Colombia, for example, his detachment has been criticized a lot Regarding the protests of last year, as if I lived in a bubble & rdquor ;. He was also heavily criticized for the music video for a recent song, ‘Bitch’, in which he & mldr; Residente says so in his diatribe: “He’s an imbecile with hair dye who put black women with dog chains around their necks & rdquor ;. The pressure forced Balvin to withdraw the video and apologize.
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That sum of nonsense is what forces the Colombian to keep a low profile: hence his response to the Puerto Rican. “He is very well advised – Ramírez continues – and I think they told him not to say anything, that it was better to crouch down and be peaceful. He is in the strategy of looking good, of reconciling with the fans & rdquor ;. Cembrano, for his part, remembers that “Balvin tried to take the fight to the field of ‘marketing’, making the famous ‘hot dog’ shirt, but that’s not Residente’s field. He likes direct verbal confrontation, where he shines much more. In those terms, he is a dispute that Balvin does not want to know anything about & rdquor ;.
What will remain of all this? According to Arteaga, Latin music lovers know from experience “that behind these controversies there is more a media effect than a real one & rdquor ;, and “nothing that is happening means that Balvin and Residente will not speak again in life”. “It is more & rdquor ;, she says, “if there is a good record project the two could sing together, And in fact, it would not be strange for me if that happened tomorrow & rdquor ;. People who have said worse things to each other have reconciled.