new winner of golden wreath for his album Right or wrong, Thunder He turned out to be the great figure of the delivery of traditional Argentine music awards.
He also won three other statuettes: best recording of the year (the theme Argentina together with Nathy Peluso), Best Urban Music Album and Best Collaboration (for his participation in the song Sudaka by Dante Spinetta).
“I did not expect”
Minutes after winning the biggest trophy at the Gardel Awards on stage at the Movistar Arena, and following a short press conference, the popular La Boca-born rapper-artist spoke to clarion.
-How did you experience all the success that your second job, “Bien o mal”, brought you in the last year?
-It’s crazy! Luckily we managed to achieve many things we dreamed of. Our goal with the album was also to tour as many countries as possible, and to bring this live, which was very hard work for the whole team. This award is a recognition not only for me but also for all the boys. I’m really happy.
-Did you expect so many awards and recognitions?
-NO. I had nothing prepared! The only thing I can do is thank my family, my father, my mother and all my family of musicians who are the ones who raised this boy you see here. I wouldn’t make music if it weren’t for them.
-Your father, rapper Pedro Peligro, was a key influence, right?
-He is a best friend, mentor and coach, a crucial person in my personal and musical journey. It was like an engine that always kept me going. I started and got to know the stages of Comuna 4 singing for ten people and today we can sing for thousands or any number and we continue to do the same on stage.
Did you want to do what he did?
-Hip-hop has been a process in my life. I wanted to be a rapper; dress, rap and write like them. It was like the first dream, the first idealization I had of what I wanted to be when I grew up. It came naturally as a great life partner who never let me down. I’ve always liked hip-hop, whether it’s freestyle battles, dancing, beatboxing or graffiti.
After all, hip-hop is about family, togetherness, peace, love and fun. That’s what we’re trying to take, thinking of the families from above the stage and the family from below the stage to share that message.
“Spread your wings and fly away from the neighborhood”
-In your songs and videos there is a reference to your neighborhood, La Boca. What does it mean for you?
-The neighborhood is my home, my place on Earth, the place that made me who I am today. I think if I was born in another neighborhood I wouldn’t be the person I am, so long live La Boca, brother.
-What do you think your album had to win the Gardel de Oro for best album?
-From my personal point of view, having had a previous album, I was seized with a bit of uncertainty, because they say that the first album is about everything you’ve experienced and that the second is where the biggest obstacle is because you have to get out of the personal and the anecdotal, and they start to have another purpose in terms of writing and what it’s headed towards.
In my case I tried to mix creole music with latin american music and urban with latin, with some candombe and some folklore. I think the only goal on our part was to represent the music we grew up listening to and put some youthful and new generation seasoning into it. We are very happy with the result.
This is a record that does not depend on me with my personal stuff or with my anecdotes like Mateo, in first person, which speaks more about the neighborhood, my ideals, my codes, my friends and my family, but I speak beyond the neighborhood of Bocca. You break that pattern a bit, he spreads his wings and flies out of the neighborhood and starts talking to a few more people. Personally, I no longer wrote this album individually, but wrote it with the family that we are in mind and the community that is Latin America.
“From Protest to Celebration”
-You were the artist with the most nominations. What was the item you were most interested in earning, aside from gold?
-Ugh, the album of the year thing seems very important to me. I’m an artist who likes to go in and dive into what an album is, all that history. Sometimes you want everything to be in a song and I feel the album allows you to tell a story and express your feelings in another way. I will always have a special affection for the album.
-There is a poster on the disc. What did you want to manifest as a person and as a community?
-In a nutshell, the slogan and concept of this album is move from protest to celebration. First you have to protest and demonstrate what everyone feels is an injustice and what they feel there should be a change, as a factor of one more person in a Latin American society, which is the same in Mexico and Argentina, in Paraguay, Brazil, Chile or any country. I think we all live the same reality as Latin Americans.
There is also the pride of being on this continent, with its problems, its solutions, its upheavals and everything that happens. May we, from the community, from Argentina and Latin America, not be afraid of censorship and be able to say what we think, good and bad, fight for it and celebrate it when we reach it.
“I’m contributing my grain of sand”
-Winning the Gardel Oro puts you in the place of Mercedes Sosa, Charly, Cerati, Fito and León.
-It’s crazy, man! Argentine music is a super big house where legends and icons lived that will never have equals. I feel like I’m just contributing my grain of sand.
I am a big fan of Cerati, Charly, Mercedes and all those who have done something for this country and for the music of this country and to build the path we walk today. It is simply a matter of continuing to build it so that others continue to move forward, always giving thanks to previous generations.
-This Gold, the full Luna Park and the tours give you more pressure when you face the next album, or are you calm?
-It makes me want you even more! Artists always think about the next step. Sometimes you’re making a record and you’re already thinking about how you would like the next one to be! To have a full stadium and receive an award like this is to see that you are doing things right. It’s an incentive to make you hungrier. I’m already making the new record, it’s on the way, in progress, let’s see when it comes out. It’s in the oven
Source: Clarin
