Calle 13

+ Wara part of Blaze Festival

Friday 8 July 2011 8pm
Hackney Empire
291 Mare St
London
E8 1EJ
hackneyempire.co.uk

Since they revolutionized Urban Latino music five years ago with their breakthrough debut album, Calle 13 has always spoken to their fans loudly and clearly. Whether it was a dare to become a street-fighter, a shocking spin through a tango of sin, or call to the downtrodden to stand up for their rights, the game was the same.

Liberate your hips and your mind will follow. And although that message was sometimes misunderstood, the new Calle 13 album, “Entren Los Que Quieren,” (Everyone Is Welcome) makes clear that ringleaders René Pérez Joglar (Residente), and Eduardo José Cabra Martínez (Visitante) believe in a bigtent party.

‘Politically aware and wildly raunchy, proudly Puerto Rican and knowingly pan-American, the duo Calle 13 — the rapper Residente and the producer Visitante — is the most consistently startling group to emerge from reggaetón… On the duo’s third album, Los de Atrás Vienen Conmigo, they annex Argentine cumbia villera and Eastern European Gypsy music.’ New York Times

‘Latin without borders…’ The Los Angeles Times 

‘The rapping is in Spanish; the music is from Puerto Rico, Macedonia and Nigeria; the sensibility is from Mars… They’re pop-savvy hitmakers with globe-trotting tastes and a riotous sense of humor… Spanish-speakers will love Residente’s witty raps, but you don’t need to know a word to grasp his message: a plea to bury geographic boundaries under an unstoppable groove.’ Rolling Stone  

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