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This is my home, Centro Habana, this is my room, my study...
Where I sleep, dream, think... Where my music is constructed.
The 'Laboratorio 65'.
So welcome.
El Productor en Jefe ['producer in chief'], I find it funny, because people ask: 'what do you mean by 'El Productor en Jefe?'
It was originally a joke because when I recorded my first album with Doble Filo at a studio,
I was very young, perhaps 20...19 years old.
It was the first time I was inside a studio, with such high-level musicians.
And the musicians themselves began to joke around because I didn't know what the note was,
nor the musical term, but I knew what the final result should be.
I didn't have the right word, but I directed.
They would tell me, "Listen, you're the producer in chief".
"You're, like, directing all the time".
Here, the bass does this: I would sing the sound the guitar makes.
I had seen a few documentaries on Benny Moré, and what got my attention was the possibility of making arrangements
just singing to people with your mouth...
Look, the guitar goes: "tun-tin-tun"
And the bass: "con-co-con-coco-co-con".
And then the keyboard, a little bit like this...
And that's how the story of El Productor en Jefe began, and then they repeated it so much that the joke stuck.
But it comes from there, not from any sort of arrogance or anything like that.
As of right now, on top of preparing Doble Filo's new album, 'Regreso al futuro',
I am working on a solo album called 'Rey muerto'.
It's an album made up of productions.
Some guests are going to sing entire tracks.
Meaning I'm not going to intervene...
I want to exploit my facet as a producer.
There are many things I'd like to do, like some sort of bolero, for example.
More melodic things that I can't do with Doble Filo, and I'm going to do with this production album.
Also, there are some very personal tracks, more sung than rapped, that I'd like to do.
One of the tracks that I'm doing now, is a sample from Elena Burke,
from 'Que te pedí', one of my favorite boleros and one of my all-time favorite Cuban singers.
This is an unfinished track, but it's a little preview of what it's going to sound like.
I don't know whom I want to sing this, whether to ask Caridad, Osdalgia...
But I want it to be something with a lot of 'filín', with a hip hop beat.
Because I know that, from all Cuban music, bolero and 'filín' are to hip hop what blues would be to the United States.
It's what's rhythmically closest to 'cuatro por cuatro', they have a similar tempo.
And so I know that there are a lot of people like me, from my generation, that are into bolero.
But boleros have never been recorded in a more, let's say, contemporary way.
And I want to do more contemporary boleros in this album. Perhaps the entire album will not be like that...
I am in love with Cuban music.
At home, I listened to things like Earth, Wind & Fire, Chicago,...
But what my mom would listen to was Los Van Van.
So I was always in love with that, and I always try to put Cuban music into what I do live.
And I always try to sing live and do choruses live.
And I really enjoy myself.
I also have another facet, which comes from musical production,
which is my facet as a DJ.
And this is something I have always done in musical production, trying to paste a lot of styles together.
But it wasn't enough, so that's where my facet as a DJ comes along.
I always try, as a musical producer, to look for styles in world music...
perhaps it's something African, perhaps it's something Mexican that I can mix with Cuban music.
This has led me to several connections as a producer and DJ, like it is the case with Gilles Peterson.
The first time I met him, he didn't really know who I was.
He'd come to my house and I played a few tracks for him.
I remember he really liked some of them, and that's where the first tracks of the album that we made come from.
And Gilles has played a very important role, because, in a way, he put me on the map.
I'm really grateful to him because I think he's someone with great musical knowledge,
and his foremost compromise is with music.
And when he came, he listened to a lot of people sing, and he came to my house...I gave him the music.
And the fact that he picked me out of so many people for both albums. For the 'Remixed' album...
with Carl ***... It has been one of the greatest things in my career.
'Cuerda viva' is the show where non-mainstream groups, those who are outside of popular-dance music,
release their albums, demos...
I began presenting, being master of ceremony
at a battle that was very significant for me, the most important Latin American hip hop event.
which is the Batalla de Gallos [Roosters' Battle].
And so, from a poll that was carried out by the organizers, they started to search within the hip hop scene
who the rappers thought could have the credibility and the eloquence to do it.
And a lot of people thought it could be me. They called me by surprise and I did it.
And the artistic director in charge of the event was Anita Rabasa, who's also the director of 'Cuerda viva'.
She saw me there we did the show at a farm, the Ancona farm.
It was Cuba's first Batalla de Gallos. And a week from then she suggested:
"Hey, stop by the studio one day. I like the way you do this".
I had never been before the cameras, no no... I had, with my group,
[made TV appearances] to give information on the group and what we recorded. But well, I went into it right away. It all happened very quickly.
So, yes, my friends, we are approaching the end.
But don't worry. Those who know music know where they are meant to be.
We'll be back next week to update you on Cuban music news.
And not only music, but the entire Cuban cultural scene.
To be on national television, on a show as important as 'Cuerda viva',
it does make people suddenly recognize your face. And at the beginning I had a huge conflict with that...
And then I realized that it opened a door.
That I could draw people to Cuban hip hop and serve as an intermediary.
People often think that when you're on TV all doors open up.
Hip hop in Cuba does not have open doors, even when you work for a show like Cuerda viva.
Radios still don't play hip hop, they don't play Doble Filo, nor other groups.
I think it would be a good thing that a space be reserved to other types of music...
or more space, to genres like hip hop.
Centro Habana, brother.
Another thing that I'm passionate about is urban art, urban painting.
I did graffiti for many years, I really liked painting as a teenager.
So I put all this energy into tagging, one of the elements of hip hop.
For many years I spray painted with the signature 'AGK' from 'Alamar Graffiti Kings'.
Graffiti is like a compulsive obsession that one has of tagging everything.
I remember my slogan used to be: "In each block, an AGK".
This was painted by my friend, Luisito, who is, to me, one of the most talented graffiti artists in Cuba.
And he is, on top of that, the official Doble Filo designer. He also makes videos...
When I would spend Sundays with Luisito, we'd be like:
—"What are we going to do?" —"Let's go tag somewhere"...
And we would do AGK stuff.
It's a hobby which is, in a way, linked to music and to everything I do with Doble Filo, Productor en Jefe.
This is 'Vida', from Havana Cultura's latest album...