Iconic tiraderas of the urban scene in Cuba

Magazine AM:PM, The touch
14.09.2022
6 minutes Reading

In the new century the tiraderas found two genres in which to take refuge. Hip hop and later reggaeton (and its bastard son, the cast) have been scenes in which with some frequency we see a more or less fortunate crossing of verses between two (or more) artists, in a kind of coliseum in which the best takes it all. The “beef” —as these clashes are also known— is an essential part of hip hop culture; the idea of head-on competition as a coping mechanism is something that the genre embraced from the beginning (perhaps inspired by one of the cultural idols of the time, the actor/fighter Bruce Lee).

So it is not surprising that the tiraderas have been installed in the courtyard as a way of expressing the discomfort of some artists with the attitude of others, although we can never forget the marketing element that these gestures always entail, which drag the curiosity and curiosity of fans and the general public.

As happened in much of the Latin world, in Cuba many reggaeton artists emerged from the quarries of hip hop, something that was understood as a betrayal by several rap artists and followers, which generated quite a few controversies. A classic case is that of song number 9, a song from the first decade of the 2000s that Bian Oscar Rodríguez Gala (El B) dedicates to Insurrecto (a name that is going to sound a lot in these conflicts) and in general to those who made the transition to the new genre.

But if we are going to talk about Los Aldeanos, its other face, Aldo Rodríguez Baquero (Al2), is the “shooter” par excellence of the Cuban hip hop scene. A very common characteristic in Al2's tiraderas is his taste for spurring confrontation through the sublimation of political differences with his adversaries, whom he often accuses not only of lack of talent but of serving the Cuban regime. From his position as consecrated MC, Al2 frequently attacks different representatives of reggaeton such as Insurrecto, Osmani García, Yomil, El Taiger…

A very interesting element of these tiraderas, and that somehow marks the phenomenon in the last decade, is the role played by social networks as a stage for the extension and amplification of these battles, which makes them an invaluable source of entertainment of a society that is hungry for content. A good example is the exchange of live videos (live videos) of Al2 with El Taiger and Yomil through platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, events that have fueled the curiosity of the audience. Regardless of the reasons that move him to undertake these attacks, there is no doubt that this pursuit of high visibility targets is an excellent marketing strategy on the part of Aldo, who suddenly enters the crosshairs of the followers of these other artists. , as well as in the turbulence of the tabloid press that delights in such events.

The icing on the cake in the tiraderas is undoubtedly the reggaeton singers. In a genre that par excellence inherits a good part of the expressions of gangsta rap, it is not surprising to find this type of crossover, especially when we consider our own macho culture, in which success is determined by being (or seeming, or believing) better than their peers. If there is an event that shows, like few others, the nature of the dumps in Cuba, it is the affair that involved the members of Clan 537 (Baby Lores, Insurrecto and El Chacal). It was an exchange that made clear the performative intentions of this phenomenon, a show to give something to gossip about to the masses, who came to his presentations hoping to hear some kind of attack, in a kind of boxing fight from a distance. .

At a time when there was hardly any Internet on the Island, and when music was distributed in a very traditional way, the stage was the point of convergence of these meetings that became an urban legend, with iconic scenes such as the funeral that offered Baby Lores and El Chacal to Insurrecto in Río Cristal —with words of farewell and a coffin thrown into the pool included—, or the closing of that confrontation with the mythical concert “of the 100 fulas” (CUC) in the Red Room of Capri , where Baby Lores and Insurrecto agreed to a truce that put an end to the most popular clash between artists of the genre until then.

The story, however, would not end there, not at least if we are talking about iconic urban scene shooters. Because, as a good son of his father, the cast has continued this tradition with its greatest exponent (Chocolate MC) at the helm. The same song par excellence of the genre (Bajanda) can be understood as a tiradera in which Chocolate proclaims himself as the King of the Deliverers, the cat that holds the crown and sweeps away all the rats and mice. A fact that, of course, did not go unnoticed by their counterparts, the subject being to the carandanda, by El Kamel, one of the most notorious responses to that first provocation of the self-appointed King.

Thus, from Bajanda From now on, history can be read as a succession of sieges against the fortress of El Choco. Wave after wave, contemporaries and new exponents have thrown at it, or have been victims of its attacks, turning the shootout into an inseparable part of the genre. Harryson recently released three songs against Chocolate, and there is no week in which the latter does not publish some more or less veiled invective against some reggaeton player/delivery boy.

To complete the photo, in recent weeks Chocolate MC shared an image on social networks in which he appears with Al2, presumably in his studio. We will see what comes out of this union of two of the most talented and conflictive representatives of Cuban urban music.

Listen to her playlist with the iconic tiraderas in urban music: