Yomil Hidalgo. Foto: Cortesía de la oficina del artista.

Yomil warns: this is how it will perrear in 2030

Diana Ferreiro
02.04.2021
20 minutes Reading

The first image that comes to mind when I think of Yomil and El Dany is always the same: a cover of view from 2016 in which Yomil Hidalgo, in white, has just jumped on the back of Daniel Muñoz and, in the few seconds that the pose must have lasted, the two artists laugh, hilarious. It is a beautiful image because it is a happy image. 2016 must have been an extremely happy year for the duo who, at the time of that cover, premiered the album Overdose (Jungl Yomil and El Dany).

The image that I have in front of me, while I interview Yomil Hidalgo in his studio, reminds me at times of that one. Today he also wears white and laughs all the time. Yomil speaks laughing, in the plural and in the present. And as the conversation progresses, that plural, which at first was uncomfortable for me because I didn't know how to handle it, was revealed to me as what I suspect it is also for Yomil: the renunciation of an individuality that perhaps a long time ago he had ceased to have. sense; the certainty that, from their differences, and despite their absence, both artists form that unique cell that is Yomil and El Dany. And that is how it will continue to be.

The announcement of a supposed upcoming album brought me here. I have read that it will be called twerking 2030 and I've seen the video clips of all three singles that has released to date: wobbly, I'm for you and Fever. After The champions (Jungl Yomil and El Dany, 2020), the news of new music signed by Yomil Hidalgo is curious to say the least. Will it be your next phonogram? In solitary?

Let's start there.

—The formula that has worked best for me is to improvise. I prepare something in my mind, but over time, seeing how the market moves, I take things out. What happens, that our culture is to release albums; but there is a time between when you release an album and it is consumed, in which there is no content, there is nothing, and people are waiting for the next album. For that time I have looked for strategies. The COVID-19 happened and everything has been based on the digital; but an album takes preparation, and lately I've changed my strategy a lot. I no longer think about twerking 2030 as an album, it is no longer an EP, but simple, simple, simple…

-It's how the industry is moving... What is twerking 2030 so?

—I've already released three songs, and that's the trend I want to install in urban music. I think that this sound can travel much further, it can break more borders than Cuban music that is made in the patio has broken. In Cuba, the reggaeton that was made at the beginning of the 2000s worked a lot: Héctor El Father, Tego Calderón, Wisin y Yandel, [Daddy] Yankee. That was very popular here, and I am trying to return to this essence, take it to 2021 with a sound that I think is super-advanced reggaeton because of the strength it has, and that is why I wanted to title it 2030. Everything that comes out with those colors, with that rhythm, is going to be called that. When I have three or four more unreleased songs, I'll release the album.

—In other words, it's a return to classic reggaeton but with an “updated sound”. What is this "update"?

—It is based on the downs. Those songs used to have some bass that they felt “dark”, but they worked a lot, so that “dark” is the trend of perreo-perreo. I said it very recently in an interview, before it was discussed whether reggaeton died: reggaeton is no longer being made like before, it's pop reggaeton, melodic, it has no force, everything is very Light. In Cuba we are very isolated from what is happening abroad; and in the courtyard we did it all. We have absolutely nothing else to do. Now what remains for us is to bring Cuban urban music to respect in the world market, so that they say “wow, in Cuba good reggaeton is being made, there are good urban artists there” and I think that Yomil and El Dany are the first ones who are taking the ship in that direction. Let everyone come later and join the wave and surpass themselves, not only in image, but musically.

—twerking 2030 then it means a change in the sonority of Yomil and El Dany. They had achieved a super distinctive sound and that is one of the reasons why they have hit so hard. Are you going to give up that sound?

—No, look, Yomil and El Dany identify with that sound: the traptón, but the music is cyclical. In 2015-2016 there was the Yomil and El Dany trend, with doping, etc. Since the end of 2017 and until 2021 there has been a trend of the cast, but how did the cast evolve? The one that was made before 2015 is not the distribution that was made after 2017, and we also gave that with Watch out. Pour water, we show them what the cast was like with our traptón. And what did El Kamel, Harryson, Wildey, were the first to say “let me take this”. we put him tintra, a cast that has nothing to do with the cast as such: we removed the claps, we put the hype in other times, we added other resources, Cuban keys, things like that. There is I have a stack, which sounds like another deal.

“I am not so much in Cuba, I am much further away. I see that reggaeton has been lost a bit, I want to inspect, I want to attract attention…. Then my brother's misfortune happened… I want to draw attention now that everyone is watching, ʽYomil, what are you going to do?' They underestimate you, you know. I want to do pure reggaeton, and in 2022 or 2023 or the end of 2021 I come back and say, did they forget about that trapton? See it here, with a more evolutionary sound, with more resources. “For me the most difficult thing for an artist is to stay. However, if we constantly have that vision, I think we will always be at the top, because we are not satisfied”.

Yomil Hildalgo. Foto: Cortesía de la oficina del artista.

Yomil Hidalgo. Photo: Courtesy of the artist's office.

- Do you think that this is the formula (or your formula at least) to stay?

-I think so. Being constantly updated and studying, and not being satisfied with what you have, because if I keep releasing songs with the same style now, people say: “more of the same, give me something new”. [But] if you release something new, they say: “hey, but you're not doing the same anymore”. It's super contradictory. The important thing is to do a good job, to show that whatever you do, whatever the style, whatever the genre, whatever the moment, you do it well, and you can say: well, now let's go again. So you stay three, four more years at the top.

—How was the process in which you discovered that Yomil and El Dany should sound like this?

—I come from Los 4, and in 2015 I played timba with reggaeton. I am an animal playing timba with reggaeton on stage, tremendous energy, it comes naturally to me, but it is not the style of music that I like; I prefer trap, hip hop, with my friends what I listened to was that. I was going to the United States a lot, on tour, and I was seeing what was being played on the radio there, and I was saying: Damn, this is so good… Dany came from Jacob [Forever], we had made a song that never came out and we were in the neighborhood playing dominoes and I told him “hey let's go to the studio, I'm recording a new album”. We got to the studio and I told her: “Dany, we can't do a timba song with reggaeton”; we started to play songs and found Truffle Butter by Nicky Minaj and Drake. Then we looked for a melody (because the songs come out improvised) and then the lyrics came out, and "alright, put a dembow on that", "you think, it sounds dry", "dembow, we're going to record it and see what comes out" , and we record. We finished the song and everyone was like that...

“I knew it was weird because [the song] felt weird. It was a sound that no one had experienced, and the chorus ('if you left her alone') had nothing to do with the rapping that said 'look how I dress', tremendous discord that the song had… I played it to a boy that at that time he put music in the Package and he told me, 'they would have made a timba song with reggaeton, I don't like that song, it's super exotic'. 'Msh, we already did it, we're going' to put a video on it, and we're going to 'transmit in that video'. We made the clip and it has nothing to write home about, but it was new to see the friends, the whole picket unloading in the video. It was something new: a girl with short hair, with tattoos, who was not the typical model, plus the music, plus the looks of us, people saw what we wanted to convey in that song, and I have stopped the music. I went on a trip and when I turned it was an anthem. That's when I said: you have to do it. I spoke with Los 4: 'I'm going to do my project alone, I'm going to defend this'”.

—How is that creative process in which themes or video clips usually arise?

—It's something so delicious, I enjoy it so much, I feel so happy, because it's all improvised. I haven't studied any music, I think I was born with that gift of coming up with melodies, sounds... Studying is very important, I don't just listen to trap or reggaeton, but to all kinds of music, be it trova, rock, chachachá, any style. That has helped me a lot; I sit down with the producer and tell him: I want this to sound like this. I get into Fruity Loops with him: first the music, the rhythm, then I open that same demo, I put together a single track —I have songs that have been hits single-track recordings. It's something incredible, it comes out at once: with melody, lyrics, everything, with rapping, with intentions, all hard... There are songs to which we make a demo with music and then, within the same song, we make eight backgrounds different until we find the one that goes. We mix the background to the smallest detail and then I take it back to the recording program and then I sit down by myself, mixing. In my free time I start recording the song bit by bit, intention by intention, and later I say to Wongk “these are the voices, put the iron in them”.

“I have learned from tutorials on how to record, how to mix, how to do the voices and that is self-improvement. Today things are turning out the way they are because of the detail that is being given to them. Before we recorded the songs and we didn't even mix them, everything that came out of Yomil and El Dany had a lot of mistakes. Right now I would take that material and put a different sound on it, harder... Before we didn't have that background or that knowledge, because Wongk also comes from the street. That's what I'm telling you, a lot of work, not only in the music, but also in the video clips. I am one hundred percent with the directors, I sit down with them and we see the ideas, I enter into coordination with the team, I arrive and look at the plans... I think that this harmony that exists is the reason why these works come out and the that will come out in the future. It's the detail, work it out to full"

—In contemporary music, what artists do you listen to, who do you find interesting?

—Before I was a fan, today I am an observer of all kinds of music. If something is hard I say wow, it's hard, but I don't spend the day in the car listening to that artist's music or watching their videos. There is so much music in the world and there are so many cultures… and I am no longer guided by what is on top, I am more curious. Look, one who is very hard is Nathy Peluso; that little girl is hard, you feel the quality of the difference in the flow, strength, projection, music.

—I find it curious how little life it has had as an album The champions before you decide to release new music…

"I didn't want to get it all out. The Dany yes, and I took it out completely for him. We did not agree to cut it in two, but strategically I told him, it is not the same to defend 12 songs than 24, to make 12 videos than 24. We defend these 12 songs for a while and two or three months from now The champions "the second part", and people will wait for it because they liked the first... My brother's great misfortune happened and I say, I'm going to fulfill his dream, what he wanted, and we're going to work hard. I spent almost a month not wanting to enter the studio, I entered and it was like... ah, very strong... When I entered I said “to full, it does not stop, this is to work until the album is released”.

"The champions it's very Cuban, it has reggaeton, cast, trapton, trap, everything, it's urban music summed up, and it worked; but when you think about it, we released it on August 26 and we're in March, seven months have passed and today a record lasts you two months maximum. Bad Bunny released an album I don't know how long ago and nobody remembers it anymore. It's not the same to release a song for a month, that song becomes a stick; another month, another stick; and you released six songs in six months. However, if you get 24 in a month, they last you three months. That's what happened with The champions. Strategically, what I am saying is much healthier.”

Yomil Hidalgo. Photo: Courtesy of the artist's office.

—It might seem that twerking 2030 It is the beginning of a new stage, but I also read that you are going to continue the brand of Yomil and El Dany.

-Obliged. Yomil and El Dany remains.

—Was it a difficult decision or did you have it clear?

—No, that is not even thought. Yomil y El Dany is something so great, something so beautiful, something so real. Why do I have to make people understand that "oh, I'm Yomil", if I can do it the same being Yomil and El Dany. I feel good, I also feel accompanied, he is still there with me, that people remember him. If Yomil did not exist, believe me that a large part of the people who still remember him would have continued with his things; but people will always keep Dany in mind because Yomil is there. And Yomil is not going to stop being Yomil by continuing with the Yomil and El Dany brand. Also, there are tons of songs that I have in there with him. That does not interfere and will not interfere with anything.

—Do you have unreleased music with El Dany that you plan to release?

—Very much. And I'm not in a hurry. You know why? Look at Pop Smoke, the one who popularized the drill, they killed him, and after three or four months they released an album of his, super hard; but if that was Pop Smoke's last album, then what? It's not the same as "Pop Smoke" saying two or three years from now: another record, wow, live again. That is the same thing that will happen with El Dany. I still have three well-made videos, saved, that never came out. A year from now, when people see that video, how are they going to receive it? Dany will be present. It will be alive. I have many of his things and my strategy is to keep him alive, so that people don't forget El Dany, so they know that he was a savage, an animal.

—How do you expect the public to receive these new songs?

—As they are receiving them, people are already with I'm for you, wobbly…, and I have only given them the prelude. People were wondering, well, what is Yomil going to do alone? That with the first thing that I have given him, the public has received it like this, he fulfilled the expectations.

—Musically, you already explained to me what the intention of this album is, personally, what is it?

-Take the flow people, raise the bar...

—For me, Cuban reggaeton, as a movement, as a scene, has been stuck somewhere in the past...

—Not from the past, from the present, which is worse, because Cuban reggaeton has one thing: a lot of immaturity, that's the first thing. I'm sure that if 50 percent of reggaeton singers had a percentage of what Yomil and El Dany are like, I think we'd be transcending a long time ago.

"In what sense, vision?"

—Vision, maturity, discipline, responsibility, projection, creativity, strategy, business, respect, everything. That is what keeps them so distant from the rest of the world. Right now the reggaeton players are in the take off to put me on, I want to stick to the rib of so-and-so, I want to be in the hype because they haven't talked about me for a long time, I'm going to go out on the networks creating a controversy... The first thing they have to do is drop social networks and gossip, and concentrate on working, on improving. Yomil is for that, with great sincerity I tell you, when they see the video of I'm for you, when they see the wobbly, from Fever, they themselves are going to say “I don't want to make a video with a white background with little lights”. Get out of that circle and start doing it, it doesn't matter if you do what I'm doing, I'm not interested, because wherever you come out, everyone comes out... Let's go to work, nothing more than that. Look The champions, 30 artists, and I have neither a yes nor a no with any of those artists. It is respect.

“Controversy works a lot, but respect and hard and solid work work better. I'm not going to tell you that I don't use it in my favor, there are times that I do. When I want to answer something I go and do it; and when I want to say something I say it. Look, in these recent videos with statements about things we want for the country, in social terms, I come out to give my advice in the most respectful way possible; but I'm not for that. I'm in my studio and at the moment I see on the networks all the things that are happening here and I say 'no, here, I don't feel like giving a statement right now. But if I don't speak then people come…'

“What has that given, that when they see Yomil's point of view they no longer see Yomil as a reggaeton player who came out of the Centro Habana neighborhood, as an arrogant guy with whom you can't talk, a believer, an ignorant. No, wait, Yomil is talking coherent things, he is a guy with whom you can discuss any topic. That is what I have won, which is, perhaps, what I was looking for: for people to stop seeing me as a street artist, as a whatever, like a guy who is always thinking about clothes, houses, fame and nonsense. No, my vision is more pa' llá, I'm not satisfied anymore. And I'm in Cuba, who else would want Cuba to be number one in the world? The one who is here living. So we are going to talk about how we can solve the problems we have in the country, which are many. That is my interest."

—Two questions to close: we have been in quarantine for a year… what do you miss the most?

“Girl, the stage. Look… pfff… and I miss Cuba. I miss singing in my fields, there I feel happy, going on weekends, with all the picket, pa' Santiago, pa' Ciego de Ávila, I enjoy that very much...

- Is the public different?

"No, it's not different. Where you find a Cuban is delicious. We enjoyed the tour of Europe very much, because one puts tremendous energy into it, just like in the United States; but Cuba is Cuba, and now even more so, that I know that people are crazy to see Yomil, and feel all that vibe. I'm going to come out with a whole new show, with everything remodeled... I'm psychologically prepared for 2022, look, if it comes before, welcome. I hope that he comes during the holidays and that we can start the summer in Varadero. You imagine? It is missed.

—Have you thought about whether people are going to miss El Dany's contribution to these songs, or is that exactly what you expect?

—The first one who misses him is me. I tell myself: if the animal had caught these perreos, what it would have gotten off would have been..., it would have been enjoying it. That one does enjoy it as a movie, because I am already adapted, but everyone knows it: he is He showed for that part… But what am I going to do, I have no other choice, I have to continue alone, I wish I could solve that problem. I would have preferred that Danilo was in a coma right now, even for 10 or 20 years, but that he is there; and being able to go see him and give him a kiss and a hug, sit down and talk to him, even if he can't talk to me. Look, that's the last of the last. The worst is over, so I have to continue alone, fighting. But people are going to realize, there are a lot of songs left [to come out] and people are going to feel their vibe and everything will be fine.