Violadores Del Verso - Vivir Para Contarlo (2006) Review by The Funky Bae

 

Violadores Del Verso – Vivir Para Contarlo (2006)

Man, I am glad to finally be doing this.  Y’all have to understand.  I love Spanish Hip Hop.  Ever since I heard Mexicano in Guatauba when I was like 10, I’ve been hooked.  Then when I heard my uncle’s ‘Hispanic Soul’ cassette a year later, I became a fan for life.  I also used to listen to Aquel Que Habia Muerto all the time.  Vico C was spittin’ real knowledge on that and that used to be cool when I was a kid.

I remember hearing about Violadores through people from El Salvador.  They told me that was the hottest shit over there.  When it comes to Rap from Spain, back in the day not everyone knew and the ones that did wouldn’t always share it with anyone.  I think it was both because they were shy and also to not let perpetrators in.  I’ve seen people be the same way with the Underground, I was occasionally like that but only with people that were fake, I don’t mind nerds being one myself, but once I was wrong.  I thought a dude was a perpetrator but he was a really cool guy, he was just odd.

So people ‘round my way did not know about Rap from Spain.  The really Centroamerican and Mexicans used to bump that Chicano stuff from the West Coast like Akwid, Jae-P, Crooked Stilo (who are actually Salvadoreños),Kinto Sol etc…  They would listen to Reggaeton too, but sometimes preferred the Panamanian stuff.  Puerto Ricans and Dominicans rarely bought the Panamanian stuff unless it was hot over there like La Cripta, La Factoria and El Roockie.

But the Hip Hop in Spanish most people knew around New England was Tempo, Mexicano, Lito & Polaco and the classic Puerto Rican Rap of the late 90’s, early 2000’s.  It wasn’t just anyone that would listen to Nach.  In my neighborhood there wasn’t many Colombians, but it seemed like back in the day, only the Colombians from around here knew about Nach. 

Nach

It was rare the Puerto Rican or Salvadoran that knew about Nach and those that did had to get it from the internet because it was hard to find his albums out here.  I learned about Nach from an Irish Gringo I grew up with who was fluent in Spanish.  He caught me bumpin Tego and was like “wait til you get a load of this!” like in Back To The Future.  It blew my mind.  Nach was like Tego but way way more verbose.

So I was slow in tuning into Hip Hop from Spain.  I knew about Mala and copped “Alevosia” as soon as it came out, but you could find that here because she was with Universal.  Most of the Spanish Rap back then came from this independent label known as Boa Intl.  And you had to import that into the US from Spain.

A Lito & Polaco CD used to cost you $14-$15 dollars (USD) but a Nach CD would be around $18 dollars because of import costs.  I never bought a Nach CD back then.  You couldn’t find them and when I did, I would much rather have invested in Tego or Eddie Dee, no offense.  I was gonna buy “Poesia Difusa” once but another guy bought the store’s only copy.  Then apparently the distributor in New York ran out of copies and decided not to order anymore because it did not sell all that well.  And I worked at that music store. Ja ja.  I’ve actually seen the import shipments from Spain and their shipping costs but that story is for another time.

But I bought “Vivir Para Contarlo”.  Some dude had me play his copy.  No one where I was at knew what that was.  We all thought it was Rock En Español because it came from Spain and the cover is very alt rock ish.  We ordered it because the distributor said this is what was hot in DR and that is why they had copies available in New York, but only for a limited time.  The homie that bought it was from El Salvador and said that’s what people were bumping in the hood over there next to Tego.

I just remember hearing these raps and I recognized them.  I had some Colombian friends around the way, and they used to play this stuff.  I think it was a bootleg.  I asked what it was but then forgot the name.  They knew all the lyrics and choruses, which amazed me because the lyrics on this album were very complex.  It takes effort to memorize a verse from Sho-Hai, Kase.O and Lirico.  I would later see dj’s play this album at Underground Hip Hop shows and though the audience would only be like 50 people, yet many in the audience knew the lyrics.

I think that guy bought our last copy so I had to wait for the next shipment, but best I believe I got my copy then.  Eventually I had to sell it because the distributor in NYC ran out and that guy was a loyal customer.  The store shut down like 2 months later.  Fucking Walmart…

So I went years without hearing “Vivir Para Contarlo” and they never posted this stuff on the Reggaeton blogs.  I didn’t trust the few Spanish Rap sites I would see and mostly kept away because some evil bloggers would install Trojans on your shit.  I was mad ignorant back then about that stuff but knew enough to keep away from unknown sites. 

Like, Flowhot was pretty bad but it was the devil you know.  Like you already knew how to navigate around their spam.  So, I relegated myself just to the US Reggaeton, Puerto Rican, Panamanian, Dominican and when Colombia Reggaeton got hot, Colombian sites.  In the early days, Spanish Rap blogs were very sketch and hacky.  They would install trackers on your computer and ish.  It was bad.

The Reggaeton websites tried to hack you too but were easier to keep safe from as long as you had a good antivirus.  I had Norton back in the day and it would flag the dangerous Urbano websites most times, but whenever you downloaded files from Spain, they always came with warnings.

So I went about 6-7 years without hearing Violadores.  Then in 2012 there was the phenomenon that was Canserbero which no one inside Urbano culture could escape.  I remember when Canserbero fans used to write scathing remarks on websites and social media against Daddy Yankee.  They would be like “Fake Ass Daddy Yankee.  Wannabe Rappers.  Canserbero and Nach are the real God MCs.”  And stuff like that but in Spanish.

Canserbero RIP

If some day someone comes out making Pure Rap that becomes anywhere near as big as Canserbero, you will see fans shit online at whoever the Top commercial Reggaetonero is.  It won't be Bad Bunny who gets dissed.  Even though Bunny was never lyrical, in Spain when he came out, they wanted to hear more street music and bellaqueo Trap rather than socially conscious and introspective stuff.  Then when La Mafia Del Amor and C. Tangana kept that wave going, it became the new wave of Rap in Spain.  

I was shocked to see Bad Bunny in official Rap playlists next to Natos y Waor but he genuinely won over that crowd.  Not even Tego did that in his day and Tego was all about lyrics and introspection but the Spaniards back then were so underground, they thought Tego was too commercial because of songs like "Pa Que Retozen" and "Al Natural".  Tego quickly went from doing underground festivals over there into the Las 40 Principales almost overnight.  In today's environment, Tego would be a God in Spain just like Bad Bunny.

Akapellah almost came close about 6 or 7 years ago, pre Covid in having a Canserbero type wave.  But then he put out a poopy album and made some questionable moves like recording with Lalo Ebratt.  He went too commercial and it backfired.  Also his lyrics have gotten worse.  He doesn't have the same fire lit under him anymore like when he went bar for bar with Kase.O and arguably surpassed him.  

But Rap fans one day again will diss the Top Reggaeton guy and his fans in the near future again when a new Rap Superstar comes out.  It happened in the 90's when Mexicano fans dissed Big Boy and El General for a little bit.  It always happens.  In the mid 2000's, Tego fans dissed Wisin & Yandel fans.  Residente fans dissed Cosculluela fans.  Bad Bunny is the first time the bridge has been gapped.  But that will change soon.

The famous collective known as Doble V "Violadores Del Verso"

from left to right, Lirico, Kase.O, R De Rhumba and Sho-Hai

They tried to do a campaign similar to that with Porta when he put out “Reggaetonto” but people quickly found out he was wack.  Nach really believed in Porta and pushed him to the moon when he was working as an A&R Executive at Universal.  It didn’t work.  Yes, Nach worked A&R for Universal Spain.  I read about that years ago.  It was around the time he put out "Mejor Que El Silencio", his only major label album.

So, after weeks of seeing people spamming Canserbero everywhere I finally click on the link to Jeremias.  I think that was the first song I heard from Canse.  It had just come out.  And I was floored.  At first, I could barely understand what he said, thus was perplexed.  I had to look up the lyrics to understand what he was saying. 

I have to say, listening to Canserbero and Rap from Spain has greatly increased my lexicon in Spanish.  Back then my vocabulary in Spanish was greatly limited as I had grown up in the United States since I was 2.  But because I wanted to understand what Canserbero and Kase.O were saying, I was forced to greatly improve upon my vocabulary in my natal language.  Even now, though, some things might still go over my head.

It took me like 5 listens to finally get Canserbero.  I was a little angry at first because I hardly understood him and had to take like a 2 week break and come back to it.  But when I did, I was ready and once it hit me I’m like “If this guy is for real, he’s the best rapper alive… in any language.”  Those were really my first thoughts on Canserbero.  And it lit a fuse in me.  I had to get back in touch with Rap in Spanish, especially Spain.

By 2012, Urbano blogs/websites, antivirus software and technology in general had become much safer.  They had already been like that for a few years, but being disconnected from Spanish Rap I just plain forgot to look up stuff except when I saw a friend of mines post something on Facebook (I no longer have an active social media account except YOUTUBE and haven’t for years, it’s a personal decision, I always hated social media and never adapted well to it).

So, I begin downloading Spanish Rap stuff.  Yes, technically that could be construed as illegal though as owners of materials or creators, we get to decide how our creative works we own and/or make get shared.  It’s a complicated grey area.  But that’s why you can legally dj a party and play all the music you want.  Music is meant to be shared and execs that don’t understand that, thus pretend to limit everything are foolish in their way of thinking.  You can control your product within reason, but when people try to impose their will over works and creativity that doesn't even pertain to them; that's when they take it too far.  

It's like those jerks who watermark rare music videos they didn't even work on and get angry when people share them.  I have to question if those guys even took their time to rip that stuff for people being angry at sharing works they don't even own.  They are more likely hackers who stole those rips from someone else.  Or hired a competent hacker to do their dirty work.  You never made that music video or song.  Why are you mad people share it?  They are probably flimsy from the jump.

But this was before Spotify popped off and every album was on YOUTUBE.  Downloading from blogs was the only way.  Thus, among these Spanish Rap albums I downloaded for free was the long lost (for me) “Vivir Para Contarlo”.  Upon hearing it I was immediately transported to 2006 which was a great mixture of bad and good times for me.  For example, sometimes I had luck with the girlies, other times I was the biggest loser at the party.

And though I had heard the album before, it was like listening to it for the very first time.  It is just amazing.  As soon as they start out like “Bienvenidos A Nuestro Precipicio, veras niños prodigios, Hip Hop como un oficio”  *WHOOSH* MIND BLOWN!

These guys spit some of the most incredible lyrics you will ever hear.  Kase. O be like “Mis Rimas Hermafroditas/ Se Folla Chicos y Chicas”.  That’s some next level of creative thinking.  And the rest of “Pura Droga Sin Cortar” is some of the most amazing bars you will ever hear rapped in any language.  I heard “Ready To Die” and “Illmatic” dozens of times.  “Pura Droga Sin Cortar”can hang on that level!

There isn’t a single bad song on “Vivir Para Contarlo”.  Some are better than others, and though the production isn’t immaculate from the great R De Rhumba it is consistently solid throughout.  My only complaint is that I’ve never heard Violadores rap over a soulful Rap beat.  Rap from Spain used to be mostly influenced from Boom Bap 90's Hip Hop music until Bad Bunny, who changed everything everywhere even in Spain.  But before the Bun Buns came out, Spain used to build their sound influenced on Golden Age Rap (1988-1997).

Golden Age Rap is great and the best there has ever been until now, the problem with it is that 90% of production back then was restrictive on melody.  And when there was melody, it was often relegated to jazzy loops or an aggressive tone.  Then when the Rap beats of the late 90’s and 2000’s came in, producers like Pharell, Kanye West, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, Just Blaze and others brought in whole lot more melody and soul. 

The lyrics often weren’t as good anymore, but the song structure became more complex.  Even Golden Age producers like DJ Premier, Dr. Dre and Pete Rock adapted to this transition which is why they all are still relevant all these years later.  It wasn’t until recent years, much in part to Bad Bunny, that the Spaniards have transitioned out of that Boom Bap 90’s Rap feel.  I just want to hear Violadores flow to something like “This Can’t Be Life” if only once.  It would be amazing.

Rating: 9.5/10

Listen To Violadores Del Verso on YOUTUBE music.  It is also available on all popular formats of Digital Audio Streaming.