The title of the album refers to Tenerife and Madrid. How do you handle being divided between two different places?
Let’s see, obviously the Canary Islands are above everything. I mean, I’ve been living in Madrid for eight years, but the accent hasn’t been lost. And very proud to be from there. That’s why it’s also done on purpose to carry this a bit as a banner, mentioning it both in the songs on the album and titling the album that way. The truth is that Madrid has given me many opportunities, I started rapping here. In the Canary Islands he had rapped very little. That part above all is what has made me love this place and meet people to work here and has raised me professionally here. But I tell you, the Canary Islands are where my people are, where I also feel very proud of the way of being there, of the traditions, the music, everything. I think Madrid suffocates more than the Canary Islands, but that’s why I tell you that I am very lucky to be from a place like Tenerife and all the Islands when I say that I want to go home or that I need to disconnect.
Why is this first album coming now after so many years of rapping?
As I was in the battles, in the end it is something you have to concentrate a lot on. Aside from that, the fact that it requires a certain amount of work, which is why a lot goes a long way, as the grandparents say, it is also true that you get pigeonholed a lot when you do something. Making music and being seen as an artist or a person who writes, they see you as a person who improvises, and not only improvises, but is in the professional, competitive circuit, it is a little more difficult for them to see you with that profile. . I wanted to focus one hundred percent of the time and it was now, after having gone through the FMS [Freestyle Master Series] and having spent years dedicating myself to that. Plus, I had always made music too. In fact, he had released some loose songs, as if to try them out. But I knew that when I was going to dedicate myself to music, I wanted to take a more serious step and work harder with time and dedication.
As you said in an interview at the beginning of the year, it is difficult for them to go from seeing you as a person who competes and claims battles to someone who presents their own project. Now that the album is out, how do you see this?
Well, we’ll have to see, it’s going well. I know that it is not going to suddenly be a leader in sales and number one in I don’t know what, but that precisely doesn’t worry me at all. The transitions are always calm, taking little steps little by little, sharing singing videos, doing interviews, letting people listen to your music. The important thing is that: I am happy with the result, I think it represents quite well the different musical genres that I like and the different topics that I like to talk about. I think that’s the most important thing, starting the concerts. I am very excited.
Among the topics you like to talk about are social issues. You do it from the first song on the album, Spanish. Have you ever commented that it is not easy for you to cope with all the hate What you get for complaining about certain things. How do you do now so that it doesn’t affect you?
In the end now it is my project, and whoever wants to listen to it will want to listen to it and, of course, there are many people who identify with it because they think in the same or similar way to mine. I always say it, I have reflected that the hate It is not because I am a woman, it is because I am a feminist woman. That makes her more annoying. It’s like: ‘hey, you’re here, you’re rapping, you’re with the kids, but hey, don’t come here and tell us your shit.’ It’s the feeling that it gives a little to many kids. But I also didn’t want to change my personality or my style completely. I didn’t want to make an entire album of social songs either, because I wanted to try many things on a musical and lyrical level, but I was clear that making music is a space where you can do whatever you want without depending on which rival. they put you, where is the battle, if there is hate or there is not hate. It is something more personal and more premeditated. And in fact, I think that Spanish It is a great relief. I think the songs are there to get rid of everything I think about and to be able to talk about other things in the rest of the album.
What would you say is your relationship with Spain and with the Spanish identity? Also taking into account that you are Canarian.
Having the fortune of having traveled, which is not that I have traveled the world, I like living in Spain and I like many things about Spain. What happens is that the ideology that we can all have of what it means to be Spanish or a good Spaniard, which is always linked to what is conservative, is what I don’t like. I love Seville, I love flamenco, the landscapes, that there are different languages, that a country that is not that big has so many different places, the gastronomy… It seems very diverse to me, I like it, we are also a very diverse culture. dancing, sharing, eating together, those things are what I identify as Spain. Sharing, the terrace, trying to add humor to life. Then, the stuff of pointing out people from outside or, for example, supporting bullfighting, or even people now saying that we live in a dictatorship… There are super different people and we are very lucky to live here. But at the same time I think they don’t realize that, that they believe that Spain is this and this because I don’t know who says so. Well no. Each one will live their identity and patriotism in their own way.
You mentioned Seville. In Spanish You talk about the Guadalquivir River. What is your connection with Seville? Acción Sánchez, your producer, is from there.
Seville was a city that I had only visited once and it was because Filomena had caught me on the plane and we had to land in Seville. And the second time I went was because of all this with Acción Sánchez. I think that having gone several times, not only with Acción Sánchez, but also with Rapsusklei, also with Zatu, who always stopped by the studio to listen to what I was doing, well, in the end I have generated a bond, a memory This is where I started recording my first album. In that sense it has become a place that before meant nothing concrete to me and now I kind of see my musical roots linked there.
What is your composition process like? Are there other artistic disciplines that inspire you?
What works the most for me is to go to the studio with a producer, producer, musician, whatever arises, as if friends go too, to create in the same place on the same day. I’m not so much about being at home and saying: I’m going to start writing. In the end, since I am not a producer, let’s say that the capabilities of making melodies alone or with an Internet base are more limited than if I am with someone who at the moment is building the instrumental at the same time as you are building the idea, the lyrics. and such. The truth is that that is what has served me the most, those composition and production sessions, that is what fits me best. If in that session something is going to come out the first time or the last, I don’t know. Obviously all the energy is put into getting it out, but it’s true that sometimes creative processes are like that. You can also get inspired from home, you’re watching a movie and you say, wow, what a good idea this is, or I’d like to create an aesthetic like that on the next album… Of course, things from everyday life and other arts influence you. The thing is that the best time I capture them is in the studio.
Regarding the genre, you have said that, from your point of view, there is not much left of protest rap. Tupac, Biggie, Snoop Dog… That leaving the neighborhood when you all end up in the mainstream. Why do you think this happens? Does the system absorb you?
Man, I think everyone. In the end the system is what it is, you have to make money, you have to pay taxes, you have to pay people. No matter how vindictive you are, if yours already works and you have an audience, then in the end you become, even if you are not super mainstreamin mini mainstream, because you share on social networks, they will call you for the programs… Then it is up to each person what they do. I rather consider it that protest rap is lost, in the sense that there are not many rappers who follow that protest line of rap, but rather the line of vacillation, of Gucci and such. But come on, that also happened before. Because as soon as Tupac and Biggie and all of them had money, it was the era of gangsta rap and you bought very expensive jackets and put on a lot of chains as if to say: ‘I’m not poor anymore.’ Yes, it’s true that I don’t go with that aesthetic either, because I don’t feel identified with: ‘oh, come on, since things are better for me now, I spend money on expensive chains and watches.’ No, I feel like it’s a bit of a costume, whether I have the financial means to do it or not.
Do you plan to return to the world of freestyle and the battles?
No, not yet. Honestly, if I were to return, it would be at some exhibition, at some FMS, if any solidarity event arises and they want me to do freestyle, those pods yes. But to imagine going to a Red Bull again…, no, because in the end I consider that if I returned it would be to do it more seriously and try to fight for titles. But I never had that ambition to be a champion, I wanted to say my little things. Of course we all like to win, but it wasn’t this profile of ‘I want to live from this all my life and insult myself until I’m 42’, you know? It has helped me a lot and now I enjoy it more. According to my friends, I rap better now too. It must be because I’m more relaxed.
Maybe this relaxation can come from the fact that you are making your own songs and you don’t have the tension of having to improvise?
Completely. More than the fact of improvising, that you don’t know what you are going to say or what is going to happen, I tell you, it is because of the competitiveness. If I’m going to do something freestyle but calmly, I am calmer, given that it is always a risk to do free and that’s the magic. But it is rather the area of competing, winning, losing, the hate. I kind of put a lot of pressure on myself with that, I didn’t know how to manage it better at the time and above all that was it. Now I take it seriously and work, but it’s not that suffering.
You have told on several occasions how excited you were when Kase O invited you to his tour. Are there any other artists or artists you would like to collaborate with?
Quite a few. Furthermore, now more and more girls in the industry are getting together, which is very important. The other day it was Lía Kali’s gig, who is breaking it, and Anier was also there, as boys there were Fernandocosta, Israel B… The whole shebang. The truth is that with many people. There are girls who break it a lot and I love it. With Lía Kali I would love to do something, with María Chambao, who recently recorded with Kase… I think there are turkeys with a strong voice and message and that is of great benefit to me. I think it can add a lot.
You always surround yourself with women, in Argentina where you have recently been you have performed with a band made up entirely of women. Do you find it difficult to find women for all the profiles you need for your band?
The truth is that I have been quite lucky. By meeting other artists and people in the industry, I have been able to find girls quickly. But it is true that the range to choose from is not as large as that of boys. If I had started a band without taking into account the gender, I’m sure that within two hours I would already have it together, as it were. There are many guitarists and drummers in the circuit. I feel very comfortable. Not all my songs are about love, rap or social, and this seemed like a good way to express my demands on the same stage. I can be rapping about anything or singing, and in the end what is transmitted and gives power is seeing five girls on a stage playing fucking instruments and doing the project with me.
Do you have any rituals before going on stage?
Recently, the showgirl, Erika Do Santos, like me, was very nervous before going out at the Boreal Festival, at the end of September in Tenerife. I was very nervous, we were the last to play and, my friend put on a song like that, super animated, without saying anything, and started dancing, each one had to do a step… Now I’m taking that as a bit of a mantra. We relax with that five or ten minutes before, dancing and moving our bodies to Afro and Brazilian songs that Erika plays for us and we go up with all the energy.