The rapper stereotype includes not only tattoos, gold chains and flashy sneakers, but also a cocky and snooty attitude. It’s a pose, sure, but also Dante Spinetta he gets into that game without realizing it, when he says it lately he begins to feel like a master and a pioneer of urban music.
“I’ve been making music for 32 years, Between! I reached a level of funk in Spanish never reached before, not even with Kuryaki. I remain humble and continue to learn from new artists as well as those from before, but I know my place and I take the lead.”
The stimulus for his words is a talk about his recent solo album, Sweet tablereleased a month ago and with previous singles like the mighty hits The dark side of the heart Y Sudaka, the latter together with Trueno. And it was the twenty-year-old rapper who recently invited Dante to his shows at the Luna Park and introduced him saying that he was a true pioneer.
“He’s one of my favorite rappers,” Spinetta says. “With all these artists I’ve collaborated with, like Duki and Neo, there’s a mutual admiration. Also, when I started rapping at the time of the record Pyramidthere was little rap, it had almost no place in the mainstream and there was no urban nation like today”
And he adds: “It makes me very proud to be part of that genetics, that evolution. With Kuryaki we were the first to put the word ‘rap’ on the front page of the newspapers, and the boys recognize it and that’s very nice.”
The long road to “Sweet Table”
Son of the legendary Luis Alberto Spinetta, Dante started making music at an early age. At the age of 12 he joined the Pechugo group, recording success the dreadful monkeysang live at his father’s concerts and At the age of 14, he formed the duo Illya Kuryaki & The Valderramas with Emmanuel Horvilleur, who released his first album in 1991.
Over the next decade, Kuryaki became pioneers and a key influence on urban music in Latin America, with major tours, continental hits and now classic records, such as Chaco, against Y Milk.
come on later solo deepened his passion for hip-hop, funk and R&B, won Gardel Awards and was nominated for a Latin Grammy.
Dante assures it Sweet table It will be an important step in his career: “This album is a celebration and thanksgiving to life, sound and music. I bet to do what I heard: real music, played by incredible musicians. I wanted to make it intense and as real as possible. It’s my fifth solo album and I think it’s the one that represents me the most”.
It was recorded and mixed at his father’s famed studio, La Diosa Salvaje, and features horn arrangements by Michael B. Nelson, the same man who worked with Prince for many years.
“On this record – he explains – it’s having played with Bootsy Collins, it’s having sung with Stevie Wonder, and it’s having my father making incredible songs by my side. There’s all that life teaching,” she concludes.
“I have good expectations”
-How do you see the album and the release now, with some perspective, a month later?
-Everything is very fresh, but I am very happy with the first reception and people’s first look. Everything that’s happening is very good, so I have a good expectation.
-You may have heard something similar when you released other albums, but this one you see it stronger.
-Yup. It’s a record in which I’ve experienced many things personally. I started doing this in the middle of the pandemic after I stopped recording. Then my mother got sick, so I totally stopped composing and dedicated myself to being with her until her death. Only when I got the humor and wish that I could go back to the disc. The only thing missing was writing some lyrics and singing vocals, because most of them came from the demo.
I was able to jump right in once I had the strength to do so with the energy and celebratory feeling it was generated with. It’s also a thank you to the parents I had, so it was celebrating the gift of music and making music. I’ve always wanted to sound like it on this album, and only now have I been able to do it with the competence know how to make a funk and take command of it and play it better than ever.
“It’s Just Well Made Music”
-Did you have a ritual to listen to records with your father or mother when you finished them?
-Of course I’ve always shown the work to my old man and my old woman, and I will continue to show it from my soul. They are changes of form, but the love is still there and continues to occupy the same place. Those people still have their place in my heart and I can understand how they would think when listening to the songs.
-Why did you call it “Sweet Table”?
-For me the sweet table is the best moment of the party, and it was made from the best moment of my musical career. Honestly, it’s not a trendy record, it’s simply well done music, and that’s what motivates me to keep generating, keep growing, keep learning and try to play better and better.
How did the general concept come about?
-I like to flow with the moment and all moments are different. It’s a record that from the moment I started making it I knew was going to be that way. When I was starting out, I showed the demos to a friend and he shut up and said, “Stop fucking around, that’s you! I’ll give you an analogy with football: you block well and you get in goal and you have a job, but you have to put in the 10 and score goals. And this is where you shine, because you do something that no one else in the region can do. You have a place that is unique and it is you”.
-You’ve put together a great band, once again.
-The music on the album was recorded over two days, in two 12 hour sessions where the band played all the music and there was no fix, with one take better than the other! Crossing paths with the right warriors is also an accomplishment.
The grooves I recorded them with Matías Méndez on bass, Pablo González on drums and Axel Introini on keyboards. Later, for the horns, I called the one I like best, Michael B. Nelson, who is number one for me and he gave me back that deadly Minneapolis horn paraphernalia. And Claudio Cardone took care of the string arrangements Ridicule and first lovea lust.
Next steps
-Will you fill up this summer or are you warming up your engines and will you only start in March?
-In the summer we will play, but the official presentation tour of Sweet table I estimate it will be from April/May. The good thing is that the band that recorded is the one that accompanies me, even with some horns more similar to live. As I said, the puck is a cornerstone of my life, for that decision to take charge of what touches me: “Dante, put yourself in 10 and score the goal”. It’s time to do it and funk more than ever. In a time where there’s more musical fast food than ever before, you need to put your heart and soul into continuing to keep what’s real going.
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Source: Clarin
