Playlist: with money and pasma'o

In January we left the New Year's Eve parties with one hand in front and the other behind, as they say in good Cuban. In these very hard times of reordering, pandemic and devaluation of the Cuban peso, we want to think that the future will bring economic prosperity, but they are nothing more than our expectations. 

Thus, pending financial survival, we came up with the idea of creating this playlist, where the powerful gentleman Don Dinero is the protagonist. A way to remember that economic problems or the desire for vile metal is not something exclusive to our days, and a way to insist that, as we have commented on other times, almost no subject has been alien to Cuban music. 

Scratch your right hand and put Play.

not money / Interactive 

With the flourishes of a trumpet and Yusa's unmistakable voice, he opens this song, the fourth of that breakthrough album that was Enjoy Pepillo (Bis Music, 2004). When this debut album appeared, Interactivo was a legend of the Havana night and the track that we share, one of his greatest hymns. Here the supergroup created by Roberto Carcassés, with its interactive vision where everything fits — jazz, timba, rumba, hip hop, funk — comes to remind us that one cannot live in despair, that "with money or without money" one has to feel good. and enjoy life. 

Although always without money / Jose Luis Medina ft. David Torrens 

David Torrens, throughout his career as a singer-songwriter, has given us a tremendous amount of tasty songs. East track, belonging to his first record production, my little faith (Emi Music, 1998), It's one of those that, due to its energy and funk's catchy rhythm, attracts by itself. It has spicy. Especially when the artist asks his beloved to love him, even "without a green ticket to take you to heaven." "My trova hesitates, which is the only thing I can give," he insists. 

the little pocket / Comp. Jose Luis Medina; Int. Gema and Pavel

From the third album of the duo Gema and Pável, symptoms of faith, edited by the defunct Canarian label Manzana in 1999, we bring out this tasty little download authored by José Luis Medina, one of the members of Habana Abierta. The typical consumerist girl who is not satisfied with anything and has the male she provides “dry” for, pleasing her in everything she wants (plane trips, house, car, cabaret), may sound like —in the midst of the feminist revolution and the boom of their empowerment—, like “reading Bohemia old woman". The truth is that interested people who spend more than they have, have been and are at all times and in all genres. 

The pay / Ñico Saquito  

“A quarrelsome woman of society” is what the chorus of this guaracha, created by its most prolific worshipper, tells us. However, as is customary in these cases, behind the hypercritical viciousness against women, spite for unrequited love can be hidden. A cashed promissory note is what can make the difference.

Tin has, Tin okay / Oscar Sanchez 

In this psychedelic guaracha, room track from the album Unknown Artist (2018), Oscar Sánchez gives us a series of reflections around that classic popular proverb that refers to how much we are appreciated by others to the extent of our material possibilities. Of course, being Oscar, this is not the typical Facundo Cabral-style plain-style didactic thoughts. Here wisdom comes disguised as madness. And it is appreciated.

Damned money / Comp. Pepito Gonzalez; Int. Panchito Riset 

There has always been a constant concern about “you have so much, you are worth so much”. This vitrolero boleron is about the same thing, but it gives us the opportunity to remember one of the most particular voices of the first half of the 20th century in Cuba. Panchito Riset was born in Havana and from a young age was part of some of the most important sextets of the time, including the Habanero and later, the orchestras led by Eliseo Grenet, Pedro Flores and Don Azpiazu, among others. Based in the United States, he performed in practically all the Latin music venues of the time, until the end of the 50s. He died in New York in 1988.

when i had money / Comp. Osmani Espinosa; Int. White Maykel and its Major Sauce 

The protagonist of this song timbea'o —authored by Osmani Espinosa and defended by Maykel Blanco and his Salsa Mayor— swore eternal love. However, when his partner fell out of favor, he was "arranca'o", it seems that he forgot about him. So the theme comes to remind us that, as the popular saying goes, "love and interest went to the field one day, and interest was stronger than the love they had". 

the amazed / Jorge Luis Cortes and NG La Banda

Between parody and kitsch, the frontality and casualness typical of El Tosco, this theme plainly expresses the vicissitudes that a young — yesterday as well as today— You may find it difficult to feel fulfilled in something that is often a recurring priority at that age: affording yourself a minimal social life and offering your partner equal opportunities.

the money / Manolito Simonet and his Trabuco

Two components of Cuban music come together in this song: Manolito Simonet y su Trabuco, one of the most long-standing and popular groups of Cuban dance music in recent years, and… the desire for money. The song tells one of those stories, common in the lyrics of local salsa and timba, of someone who follows an artist, believing he has money, in search of "his minute of fame."

The Boni / David Calzado and La Charanga Habanera 

It was the golden age of the Charanga Habanera when this song came out. In his orchestra, David Calzado had managed to bring together musicians such as Leoni Torres, Aned Mota, Ebblis Valdivia, Yulien Oviedo, among others, who turned this single in an authentic hit of the early 2000s. Two decades later, there is not a dance floor that does not heat up when this song is played and people start singing: “With money or without money / I always do what I want / why the Boni he wants mony/ if he is a tremendous charanguero”.

let it rain money / Yuly & Havana C 

We remember them above all for the refrain of “everything bad goes away, you dance away”. But Yuly & Havana C also published other nice songs, like this one that we bring you today, with a very catchy tumbao and a chorus. This timba contains, in its essence, the sound content that the group defends. Although life is more difficult than how they paint it in songs, we suggest chanting this song at times, to see if they listen to us from heaven.

100 bill / Eddy K 

Heir to the gangsta rap discourse, reggaeton has economic success among its main themes. In this work, belonging to the phonogram Assault (Premium Latin Music, 2009), Eduardo Mora used money not as the center of his song but as a metaphor for human relationships. With that insistent style that characterized the quartet (and that today makes us wonder why it was so popular), we are advised not to trust anyone but ourselves. It's not the healthiest way to live, but who can resist a bit of neighborhood philosophy to the rhythm of reggaeton? 

With money and pasma'o / The Micha  

Perhaps many do not remember the fever that caused this video clip in 2010, but it was undoubtedly one of the most recognizable of that Lucas cycle, both for the fun corridor that El Micha marks in the audiovisual and for the very catchy chorus. This single was one of hits most viral of this musician (at least until that moment) and his letter of introduction to the majority of Cubans.

Flow in dollars / Czech  

The speculation —in the sense of boasting of properties— is frequent in the urban genre and this is one more in the list of so many songs that have the theme as their center. The single, released in 2018 and produced by Wonkg, introduces us to Chesco, who comes to brag that he is “exploding 'or on a ticket”. The single was released by Trapton Music, Yomil & El Dany's company, which also broadcasts the careers of young promises of the urban scene in Cuba. 

Millionaire like Donald Trump / Osmani Garcia 

It seems that controversial personalities attract each other, and it is that although sometimes we forget, because of how controversial it can be, Osmani García makes music, and in a quite active way. In this issue he expresses his admiration for the tycoon and former president of the United States, Donald Trump, and his desire to achieve similar wealth. Hopefully if he succeeds, he won't take to following the path of politics.  

Cash / Diván, Chimbala and Cuban Deejays

This single, written by Osmani Espinosa, Felixandro Bro and Divan, was mixed and mastered by Roberto Ferrante at Oficina Secreta/Planet Records Estudios. This time Dominican rapper Chimbala joins the Cuban artists, in a luxurious collaboration that returns to the idea of the powerful gentleman Don Dinero as a way to obtain all kinds of pleasures. “I have lots of expensive clothes, / if I continue like this I'm going to even buy a plane (…). because I have too much cash, / I'm loaded in cash, a lot of mommy and a lot cash”, reads the lyrics, as a sample of the worn “ostentatious discourse” that inhabits the urban scene. 

Payday / ovi

In this, one of Ovi's most powerful singles, the signing of Rancho Humilde joins the ragpicker Duki to shape a song that is the summum of the genre. The self-promotion and the celebration of one's own success wrapped in rhymes that travel in the flow perfect union of the Argentine with the Cuban. Special for those party rhythm transitions when we get into the early morning.