Effect and concept. From the eyes of a dealer: the cast

Raymar Aguado Hernandez, Leyla María Mancebo Bada
31.03.2023
12 min. of reading time

The easy answer to the question: what are reparto and morfa? would be: two currents of a musical genre, but such an assertion would be reductionist. As much or more than that, they are a reflection of knowledge, concerns and essences of a majority belonging to the Cuban popular classes, through which they reveal their most deeply-rooted esthetic and communicative features.

The exclusion in which these social groups find themselves is well known, conditioned mainly by classist precepts imposed by the civilizing, Eurocentric and westernized order in which we live; three concepts that go hand in hand with the marginalization of any cultural stamp that flees from the enlightened, racist and excluding canon they represent.

The aforementioned genres are, in symbolic quality, the way in which a very broad population sector has been reflected in Cuba and vice versa, since they are modulators of conceptions, devices and signifiers of countless social subjects.

In poetic matters -understanding poiesis as any substance of the spirit- they are representative of the contextual reality of those sectors conditioned by the exclusion imposed by certain elites within the framework of national culture. They are, consequently, the most faithful and immediate expressive means of millions of people who develop in circuits of subalternity characterized by the disbelief of the hegemonic caste, which delegitimizes their discourses and cultural manifestations.

Likewise, they are translated as claims that arose in a historical moment when many musical products in the patio were not in tune with the dynamics of the youth belonging to the popular class. Thus they were born, grew, consolidated and continued to give the watercress.

We understand then the cast and the morfa as a resemantization of the medium through creative subjects consubstantial to their socio-political sphere, verifiable as redefiners of the urban idiosyncrasy in Cuba, as long as they feed on it. At the same time, they can be translated as a quantifiable aesthetic revolution based on their creative procedures, so much so that they break with structured lines of concepts and musical methods, make outlines of society and individuals and are magnified through the understanding, assimilation and reconceptualization offered by their public and exponents.

The imprint of the cast transcends the niche's desires, since its validation is inherent to the public, a complement to the fundamental triad of any aesthetic provocation. Thus, taking into account what is formally conceived as "art" within the national guilds, the transgression provoked by this phenomenon is visible, a formula that places it on levels of excellence in creative matters.

It is opportune to point out that the flat cast and the morphic cast differ from each other -this in personal valuative terms, since there are no studies on the subject, at least to our knowledge- in the discursive intention given to them. The delivery is lighter, rhythmic, and unloading, more focused on movement, on dynamics, than on content support.

Examples of themes where it is evident -we will exemplify with some of Chocolate MC, after all he is one of its creators, monarchs and eternal illustrious figure of the genre-, we have Guachineo, El Palón Divino, No puedo ni creerte, Rum Pi Pi, Pobre Enamorado and Tremendo Prende. In these, the symbolic issue is about personal matters, sexual or affective situations or simply guaracha for guaracha's sake. Nuanced, of course, in the sonorous attitude that is stamped on it, so characteristic and definable.

In turn, the morfa, which is a variant of the cast, but not exactly the same, is much more aggressive, more disturbing in terms of narrative structures. It is a more confrontational area and of vindication of the typical issues of a marginalized neighborhood, a characteristic medium of the urban genre. Examples -we continue with El Choco- Tiradera bajo los efectos I, Muerte One, Penco pero con talento, Pa' Q', Lío es Lío and Cruza.

Part of the importance of these genres lies essentially in how they are the voice and mirror for a very broad sector in a Cuba marked by the imposition of cultural patterns, usurpations and instrumentalizations of popular symbology for political purposes. They are also the platform where lies, within the most recent genres, the greatest load of what we can call and many have called "Cuban music", which is seasoned mainly by the influence of the black tradition and its rhythmic and musical intention.

On the other hand, they are a discursive aesthetic cry that modulates and drinks directly from the idiosyncrasy of the Cuban popular classes, being the best representation of the dynamics of life of the majority of its people. They are a reflection of their slang, visuality and interactivity and vice versa, since they also model and condition the manners, behavior and status of the people who consume them.

At the same time, on the musical level, they enjoy a very interesting seal, as they mix and resignify many sonorities ranging from rumba, son, timba, reggae, pop, funk, and of course, rap, trap and reggaeton.

They are also an essential zone of resistance for the counterculture of contemporary Cuba, as they function as narrators and discursors of a social reality that the so-called "high culture" tries to make invisible within a classist and excluding order.

The most common arguments to delegitimize the validity and quality of these genres are that they are expressed through vulgar, trashy and indecent language, in discordance with the good manners necessary for society. This artifice is the fundamental weapon of the hegemonic caste when it comes to pointing out negatively the creative practices detached from their hermeticism and uniformity, while assuming them as a functional element when it comes to politics. Such methods are constant nowadays, a legacy of the purest colonial style, later applied in the republican period.

We would point out intellectual Alberto Abreu that after 1959 "the efforts to build a different nation and a new project of modernity, whose ideas on nationalism, identity and culture crystallized in the paradigm of a mestizo or mulatto nation, subsumed all racial and cultural differences (while the white, Eurocentric cultural matrix continued to play its hegemonic and exclusionary role). ) This was achieved not only through a cultural policy that operated as a device of ideological integration, but also through a series of cultural aporias and blackmails that transformed black popular culture into processes of cultural degradation".

It is necessary to emphasize that vulgarity / indecency is simply and plainly a construct of the cultural elites in their hygienist bets, in order to disassociate, delegitimize and make identity traits of popular and ethnic culture disappear, especially those close to the black African tradition.

Strategies of domination such as this are the ABC on which the hegemonic culture relies to annul from its rhetoric any ideo-aesthetic treaty that does not comply with its sweetened and sweetening requirements. Thus, mainly from racism, classism, xenophobia and the rejection of sexual dissidence, that Eurocentric, white-centered and heteropatriarchal elite tries to structure its order in the lines of thought of societies from its exploitative and violent logic.

In this way, taking as a support its "high culture", it also disregards, cuts, tramples and marginalizes all treaties coming from the subalternities. The cast and the morfa are among the favorite victims of that order in Cuba, which through outrages has tried to silence them, but as El Choco recently posted in an Instagram story: "They want to knock down the morfa? That's impossible, NO HAY COMO" (sic).

These genres come from and are mainly consumed by a largely marginalized, impoverished and racialized sector, which is why they are among the main fronts that constantly challenge the institutionalist hegemonic system established in Cuba.

If we point out some ballast in these musical expressions, it is the reproduction of certain standards of domination, mainly machismo, misogyny and LGBTIQ+ phobia that normalize many of their discourses and discursors. This is a consequence of the political and social order established by Cuban officialdom and the capitalist logics that have flooded the island for several years, as well as its social-historical tradition. And although some progress in terms of social integration is practically imperceptible, in the cast, in recent years, a slight implicit restructuring can be noted in these lines, being able to distinguish, to a greater or lesser extent, certain "progress" in the systems of thought with respect to previous years.

In addition to its hits -some ephemeral and others practically classics-, the genre is identified by the author's stamp that the exponents stamp on their productions, mainly with patterns, dances and forms of dress that quickly spread among the public.

Of course, we give full relevance to a creator who had the genius to structure a good part of this aesthetic variant of the cubatón: Chocolate MC; a person who started out in music convinced that he would make historyAnd there it is, more than a decade after the creation of what years later, with Bajanda, would become internationally consolidated as a musical institution.

In Rum Pi Pi, El Chulo says in one of the lines: "el jabaito lindo, el de las mujeres, con el negro prieto el del talento" (the pretty little jabaito, the one with the women, with the black one with the talent). His many gimmicks, his perseverance and his talent placed Chocolate in his rightful place, at the top of the cast, as the icon of generations.

At the same time he is a showman whose art extends beyond the musical question. We will remember when he was kidnapped, for example. Or his directs, which are classics of comedy in the era of mobile data in Cuba. All, formulas that were later reproduced and are currently reproduced in the models of making and understanding the cast. In addition to the endless number of corridors that he created and others that he accommodated to the delivery style. Today this music has a remarkable dance autonomy thanks to the dances of this character. So much so that they are already an intrinsic capital of the genre.

Unquestionably, El Uniko and El Chulo, who together with Choco, from the very beginning, gave shape, coherence and identity to the band, have a very important place. Likewise, other groups such as Los Principales or Iré Omá, and of the latter, Wildey and Harrison are outstanding. Likewise Wampi, Kimiko & Yordy, El Coquito, El Negrito & Manu Manu, Un Titico and Wow Popi.

More recently, exponents have emerged who have given new airs to the genre, freshness and punch, such as Oniel Bebeshito, Charly & Johairon and Fixty Ordara & Ja Rulay; the latter baptized by El Choco as "the rastamemba of these times". And so with many other exponents.

Likewise, the role of producers and DJs is fundamental. Among the best known are Raymel, David 22, Michel Boutic, DJ Unic, Frank El que Todo lo Puede, Dj Roumy, Cupido, Jordan Pro, Lacho, El Troyano among many others, all essential in the development and future of the DJs.

Thus, the cast flows through so many redefinitions that year after year sound and visual variants are born that determine new aesthetic lines.

The market of the urban genre is a tough one, so much so that it forces artists to constantly rethink hits. A hit in the cast, to be at the top, needs to be played for a few months. This, taking into account that every month countless songs are released, which, if they stick, have a life within the musical ecosystem of approximately one or two months; it is quite a feat.

Since the consolidation of the Internet via mobile data in Cuba, the musical proposals of the genre have skyrocketed and many artists are coming to the market, younger and younger, with more fluency and novelty. Such a situation gives the measure of how much the cast evolves. It is just a historical review. And let's go back to Chocolate. Qué Viva la Leche, El Booby Trap or Morí con tu Pipi have nothing to do with each other in terms of aesthetics, however all three of them gather the essence and character of the excellence of the cast. Thus, we see how the cast goes through so many variants in the models of creation that we feel it is constantly reinventing itself.

We confess ourselves pathologically fanatical about the cast. We understand it as an essential part of contemporary Cuba, of its culture and, by transitivity, of the people who converge, dialogue, assimilate and coexist with it.

From its constant revolution it will continue its march. Talented exponents abound, the economic and social conditions of the genre allow it and Cuba deserves it. No matter how many campaigns and attempts to delegitimize the centralized and hermetic order of Cuban institutionality and its exclusionary policy, there is a people that clamors, enjoys and is, in essence, the cast.

Time and El Choco have the last word.