Evolution of Reggaeton’s Roots

What's up you guys and welcome to the first episode of Reggaeton con la Gata Reggaeton with Gata

(Guatauba Intro)
I believe that Reggaeton is a compilation of a number of genres. But just like Darell said: Que no hay Reggaeton sin Reggae? Pues si uno lo escribe sin Reggae ni puede escribir Reggaeton
Mista Greenz: Los Puertorriqueños lo modificaron a una version mas pop, que en vez en cuando incluye un flow R&B
Maicol Superstar:
DJ Blass: No hay Reggaeton sin Reggae, digo yo sin Dancehall

Now of course there isn’t reggaeton without , bomba, hip hop, rap, soca, dancehall salsa y calypso especially Reggae because of its immediate ties with Panama+Jamaica’s subculture’s formation of Reggae en español.

Reggae met the spanish language by way of the formation of a subculture. Not Panamanians, Jamaican Panamanians. So i’m going to back up and tell you how that happened exactly.

In 1903 the construction of the Panama canal began and 50,000 people migrated from Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados. Their treatment in comparison to whites/mestizos creoles and native blacks was horrible. Native blacks resented the west indians because they felt like they were making life harder for them. Native blacks who were Hispanic, were nicknamed as “Spanish” and west indians speaking dialects such as patois were nicknamed as “Chombos.”

The xenophobia was out of this world. Tensions rose so high that laws were created to limit the immigration of Blacks coming in from those countries and were not spanish speaking.

By the 1960s Black Panamanians organized themselves politically both in office as well in labor unions, Their work dealt with discrimination in a number of industries well into the 70s and so on and so forth.

I’m going to pause there with the history lesson to focus on these points. Over a hundred and so years ago, Jamaicanis, Trinidadians and Basians immigrated to Panama and 60 years after they got there, some learned spanish and some did not and the ones who did not assimilate were treated like dirt. There were efforts to distance non spanish speakers from the rest,

With this in mind, the West-Indian Panamanians brought over their languages, accents, their cuisine and their music.

Reggae was being explored upon in Panama as early as the 1970s in communities such as Rio Abajo of Colon, by a Guyanese Panamanian by the name of Guyana and DJ Wasabanga. Now,what is Reggae? We know what it sounds like: , but what is it?

Stylistically It’s a compilation of Rhythm and Blues, Jazz, and mento. Dancehall is defined as a more sparse version of it stylistically anyways.

We’ve covered how the West Indians made it to Panama, what they brought with them culturally, the xenophobia they faced and when Reggae and the Spanish Language first started.

In order to understand Spanish Reggae you have to understand that there are two groups of Panamanians, they’re not the same and do not even like each other. You must understand the social dynamics between the Chombos and the Spanish. Unlike in other social hierarchy systems in Panama it did not explicitly go by skin color but by your Spanish and your accent when you spoke it.

With this being said, the creation of Spanish Reggae and its popularization was an act of rebellion. Native Black,White/Mestizo Panamanians were so xenophobic that laws were created to limit the migration of Caribbean blacks.

Now, there is a lot of tension regarding Panamanians originality and contribution to Spanish Reggae. That confusion stems from the ignorance of separating Panamanians and West Indians. You simply can’t separate the two. There are Panamanian Jamaicans, Panamanian Guyanese, Panamanian Trinidadians, Basians, etc. They’re subcultures in otherwords, the Reggae produced from these groups are as West Indian as they are Panamanian but again don’t confuse Panamanians who are not of West Indian descent, and/or the “Spanish.”

Now that we’ve heard all of this, lets process the fact that Reggae didn’t go from Jamaica to Puerto Rico directly. Panama was the buffer. Panama may have had the issue of xenophobia between the “Spanish” and the “Chombo” but all of Latinamerica struggles with classism, racism, colorism and or xenophobia. With that in mind, why would white latinos seek music of Black people without a buffer?

Why would White Spanish speaking Latinos bother with a genre in a language they didn’t understand? Patois is black. If los “spanish” didnt want to learn it and discriminated others for it and they were Black everyone needs to take a step back and ask themselves if theyre being honest withracism in latin america.

Even in the music industry today, you dont see many black latinos make Reggaeton, that’s not a coincidence.

Many look at the history and trajectory of American Rap and assume because Reggaeton’s lyrical style is rapped that its popularization happened in the same fashion, that is false. Majority of Rappers are and always have been Black.

Reggaeton is a derivative of Spanish Reggae and Reggae which was created by West Indian-Afro Latinos and West Indians but if you turn on any award show they are the minority represented despite these sounds being largely Black.

While the civil rights movement influenced the creation of Rap in America, Xenophobia from “Los Spanish” Whites, Mestizos as well as tension with Americans who’ve came over to impose their jim crow ways on Panama influenced the creation of Spanish Reggae in Panama.

Fastforwarding political tensions with a slew of respectability politics influenced the creation of Underground in Puerto Rico as well as the bridge from Puerto Rico to Panama, *insert Maicol saying how he and Alberto Stylee went to Panama to study the sound for months*

You can’t understand Reggaeton without understanding Spanish Reggae. Spanish Reggae, Dancehall and Reggaeton are sisters. Their compositions are extremely similar, you grab a couple of riddims, add and overemphasize the dembow riddim as the underlying beat, incorporate tempos of Calypso, Lyricism of Spanish Rap and you have Reggaeton in Puerto Rico, do everything minus the lyricism of Spanish Rap and slower tempos and you have Spanish Reggae & Dancehall in Panama. The recipe incorporates tempos, riddims, unique sequences, the Spanish language and you have them both.

As important as Panama, Panamanian subculture and Puerto Rico is to the genre – I can’t want to exclude the efforts of Latino Rappers including Nuyoricans and NY panamanians. Reggaeton is multifaceted. West coast rap in regards to Latin artists had a different social structure and influence which produced their infamous narco and gangsta rap. In order to fully understand its sound, you have to understand the respectability politics.

Tego is cited as hearing Panamanian music during this time and describing it as “puro reggae” growing up in a predominantly white latino community its astounding as to how people would exclude Panama as the buffer between Puerto Rico and Jamaica, why would white latinos touch a black languaged genre without an introduction by someone else? Every genre that has been popularized by whites required a buffer, someone to tell them “it is cool.”

Class and Race go hand in hand in Latin america, majority of those protesting its sound in Puerto Rico were white puerto ricans, Reggaeton was considered to be “Poor people’s music.” but just because the poor were of different races doesn’t mean the taste in music was. Especially for those who hope to “move up” within the classes, it has been and will always be the truth in Latino culture you are what you surround yourself with. It’s a tough bullet to bite but it does not make it any less true.

New York Panamanians
Dont get enough credit. Panamanians dont get enough credit. Heavily critiqued for formally sampling and creating covers of popular Reggae tracks i.e. Dembow by Nando Boom is a cover of Shabba Ranks Dembow, my argument stands: These black Latinos were the first to interact with the genre and sample Reggae and Dancehall riddims to explore the music. That in it of itself is revolutionary bc of classism, racism and xenophobia Black Latinos faced not just in Latin America but in the united states. Do they speak spanish, is it spanish enough, they’re dark skinned but speak spanish?

How in tune are you really with Latin culture? You say you’re Afro Latino are you “african latinos” Where is Panama? The gaslighting denial and stupidity is based in racism and xenophobia and the fact remains if these “chombos” didnt touch Reggae nobody else would have. Alberto Stylee’s fascination that led him to stay in Panama for at least 6 months during the 90s was the acceptance of the genre so openly via carnivals and festivals in Panama that was not occuring in Puerto Rico.

The fact remains the “higher class” did not want to touch that “low class poor people’s music” with a 10 foot pole until it was popular. Today as it was in the 90s Panamanians and Jamaicans live side by side in communities like East Flatbush, their music studios neighbors to each other as well.

NY Panamanians mirrored the music created in Panama, their anti colonial resistance included production of Reggae with and without the Spanish language. The glorification of the beauty of Black Latina women that has since been lost in translation as well as unfortunate hyper machista and anti gay sentiments exemplified in iconic records such as Dembow.

Nuyoricans
N.O.R.E. Big Pun, Residente although he was born in PR, Chino XL, Lloyd Banks left their imprint on the genre by exemplifying their lyrical styles in Spanish, Spanglish and English. Notoriously creating some of the most iconic records influential in the genre or as a sister to the genre in Hip Hop/Rap as well as contributing to cross overs crucial to Reggaetonn’s identity as a pan-latino genre.

Reggaeton Pioneer Daddy Yankee regularly credits West Side’s most notorious group for its hip-hop influence Cypress Hill, one of the first latino hip hop group – and certainly the first to get a star on the hollywood walk of fame.

Latinos were heavily involved in Rap battles also called Underground both in New York and Puerto Rico. New York influences such as Cypress Hill, Biggest Rap influences in puerto Rico include Vico C. In puerto rico the censorship was so high that record stores were regularly raided, and although small efforts were made to bring the conversation of what it is to the forefront policemen like the Police Chief Pedro Toledo are quoted for calling the music “pornographic expression constitutes an incitement to violence and pornograph."

He was dedicated to devouring Reggaeton, he said it “diminished the quality of life of Puerto Ricans” and him and many other alike were using the fear of this expression to influence grandparents and parents to censor their households.

They called this art “violent” but were unable to prove in court how it influences reality. My comment on this is, the machista and classist reality of Latino culture begs the control of women, women’s pleasure, and women’s sexuality as well as what is respectable and what isn’t.

Some may critique reggaeton for being disgusting towards women but it is a two way street. Women aren’t two dimensional, men contrary to popular belief, women like sex just as much as men and that doesnt make them jezebels or whores, and if it does keep that same energy for men.

Going back to Reggaeton, the 80s and 90s were full of persecution. Record stores raided, censorship activists coming to the forefront, it is what made the iconic nightclub “The Noise” pinnacle to Reggaeton’s musical evolution, and popularization into the fourth generation today.

I’d categorize the first generation as the featured in Playero, Nelson and Alberto Stylee’s work. Mixtapes introduced a compilation of styles by a variety of artists. The tapes overemphasized Puerto Rican’s unique compilation of riddims + lyrical style that differentiated their music from that of Panama’s.

Some artists like Tego Calderon described Panama’s sound as “puro reggae” Pure reggae as it was, but it was reggae unique to Panama’s subculture and second generation of Panamanian Caribbeans, los chombos.

Let’s get specific about it though.
Reggae sounds like this.
Today Reggaeton sounds like this.

Artists like Guaynaa with hits like ‘Rebota’ is able to make it popularly bc why? The over simplification of the Reggaeton sound exemplified in his song is desperately missed.

For a time Wisin Y Yandel were criticized for using pop beats to mask the rawness of the percussion in Reggaeton but they were ahead of their time, bc that is all you hear today with songs like ‘Te bote’ which has a faster tempo of course, or J Balvin’s mi gente which is a medley of sounds of course, but still utilizing the pop cushion to make the dembow’ Reggaeton percussion softer.

I can’t leave out Dominican Republic. La Hispaniola’s most notorious sound of the moment, ‘dembow music’ , this derivative of Dembow features sounds more concentrated in Brazilian Funk, and an incorporation of number of other genres and riddims. Its quirky personality is the glue that binds together an array of classes and races in Quisqueya as its popularity has proven a steady path out of poverty for some of the biggest artists today.

Mr Manyao is credited for being one of the first dembowseros, . In a brief catch up with him he’s exclusively let us know about his plans to collaborate with Panamanian artists. In 2019 el ‘bow’ has made its way back around full circle with artists like Sech one of the first panamanians to breakout internationally alongside the PuertoRicans who’ve notoriously dominated the industry since Reggaeton’s inception. Besides obvious talent, the reasons why grow complex. I’m excited as Panama is now reinvited to the table publicly anyways that the rejuvenation of the genre can now commence.

Its no secret that Reggaeton’s white washed sound is burning the ears of million of its fans, We get it, artists have to do what they can to evolve into the next level but many just like myself miss the gritty nastiness that scared most away in the first place.

Reggaeton Sex, Final Fantasy, Playero, Sandungue Mixtapes by Blass, The mixtapes, the compilation of albums created by DJs I miss that. I miss the sense of urgency exemplified in Perreo. It is no secret that the doggystyled imitation of dance is inspired by the variations of beats per minute during sex. Ha, I got you there, but all of the different styles of Reggaeton including but not limited to
Perreo, Sandungeo, Bellakeo, Guayeteo, Sobeteo, Malianteo, and so forth are literal artistic expressions of the movements of sex.

Circling back to the sense of urgency, perreo today or neo perreo as some like to claim it is a watered down version of these different gems of art. The chief of police “Pedro Toledo” wasn’t over exaggerating by calling Reggaeton “pornographic expression” but the art just like life itself is multifaceted. Race, Class, Respectability, Reggaeton is political.

As much as artists hate to analyze their words as many have expressed to me–their metaphoric expressions on life have opened the door for a revolution, because Ricky Renuncio, Spanish Reggae dominates all other forms of art and influence in Panama and Dembow is steadily cultivating the expression of the younger generation in Dominican Republic. Its just like Maicol Superstar said “every country has its own bow.” Until next time this is Reggaeton With Gata.