“This is dedicated to those who want to destroy our dreams, because to take a song from one heart to another we don’t need letters of invitation, nor emigration clearances, we only need the right cause.”
-Los Aldeanos, April 6, 2009

The exclusive international on-line release of the music video for “La Naranja se Picó” by Cuban rap duo Los Aldeanos is set for May 7th at: http://www.emetreceproductions.com/ElB_La_Naranja_se_Pico.html

“La Naranja se Picó” is the furious response by El B for being negated his Cuban emigration clearance two years in a row to represent as Cuba’s national freestyle champion at Red Bull’s international “Cockfight” competition in Venezuela (2007) and Mexico (2008). The song appears in Los Aldeanos’ recent album, El Atropello.

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Background
University of Havana psychology student, teacher at the “Galixto García” primary school, poet, rapper and genius of improvisation, Bian Oscar Rodríguez Galá, known as El B from the Cuban rap duo Los Aldeanos won the national Red Bull freestyle Spanish rap “Cockfight” competition two years in a row in 2007 & 2008. Despite the fact that the previous winner from 2006 was allowed to attend Red Bull’s international battle, El B was negated his Cuban emigration clearance both years consecutively to Venezuela in 2007 and later to Mexico in 2008. “La Naranja se Picó” is El B’s furious response to the bureaucratic processes that negated twice his request.

Red Bull’s international “Cockfight” marks the development of the musical genre and its artists as the only worldwide Spanish rap freestyle competition. Rap, despite is global commercialization, has yet to receive an awards ceremony distinctly its own, much less in Spanish. The art of improvisation, unlike studio recordings, distinguishes the intellect of the artist. At international gatherings such as Red Bull’s “Cockfight,” the best artists from sixteen Spanish speaking nations learn and advance the art form of rap’s freestyle by challenging each other and later sharing their experiences with their colleagues back home. For the international hip-hop community, it was imperative to include Cuba’s national champion, especially being that the island has presented some of the best musicians and lyrical improvisers to the world. This is both to support the rap movement within Cuba which still suffers from marginality compared to other nationalized musical forms, as well as to mark Cuba’s presence in such global gatherings that are all too often truncated by the US embargo.

Production of the music video for “La Naranja se Picó”
Director Tito Román is a Second year Puerto Rican student at the International School for Film and Television in San Antonio de Los Baños in Cuba. Román offered to produce a music video for Los Aldeanos, donating his time, experience and access to technology as part of an academic project. Together they selected to produce the video for the song “La Naranja se Picó” to support El B’s cause. The music video was filmed onsite in a cockfighting ring in San Antonio de los Baños on March 28 of this year. Scenes include appearances by various Cuban rap artists who are positioned in the video, alongside Los Aldeanos, as caged cocks prepared to fight in the ring.

What is the cause?
The US embargo against Cuba continues to limit Cuba’s presence at many international forums. In addition to this fact, Red Bull is a capitalist company whose marketing techniques are questionable within the island’s revolutionary context. Despite 50 year’s of Cuba’s alternative to global capitalism and US imperialism, many of the youths are today more interested in communicating with one another rather than continuing the political rhetoric of either side of the US embargo. These youth who grew up either during the Special Period in Cuba or under the Bush regime in the United States today want to meet, learn about, and visit each other. This song and its music video were born from the need to alleviate the bureaucratic processes that continue to limit letters of invitation, visas and emigration permissions for artists like EL B, so that they may have a chance to travel throughout the world and return to Cuba to share their experiences.

Despite Los Aldeanos’ lyrics against the bureaucracies and corruption they experience, they are authentically revolutionary. Their critiques in essence attempt to, as The New York Times posted, revolutionize the revolution, and as CNN asserted, give voice to the Cuban people. Unfortunately many groups have manipulated the content of their music towards their own political interests. This phenomenon has resulted in various controversies, their talent combined with their lyrical content and their global isolation on the island, has developed a complex problem of representation and personification. Today there exist various individuals and groups attempting to personify AL2, EL B and the rap duo Los Aldeanos on web pages such as ‘myspace,’ ‘facebook,’ ‘youtube.’ Many of these imposters use Los Aldeanos’ music in a context with which AL2 and El B are in disagreement. Take for example the surprised and disgruntled response by AL2 when he saw for the first time online an image passing for the cover of their most recent album El Atropello. The image is of a Cuban flag in a shape of a cadaver, in the middle of an open road, apparently run over (in Spanish, El Atropello means to ‘run over’).

El B, who still defines global hip-hop in local terms, has declared various times publicly and within his music that he does not want to permanently leave Cuba. He clearly states he wants the opportunity to travel, to develop his craft amongst a worldwide community of rappers, but El B has always been clear that returning to Cuba, to make his nation and his revolution stronger, completes his journey. The cause with which we want the global hip-hop community to unify with in the release of this publication of the music video for “La Naranja se Picó” is that as artists we want access, knowledge, contact and consciousness between all peoples of all nations. We will no longer be silent towards the US embargo, nor bureaucracies that attempt to limit artists’ international participation. We want an end to frontiers and borders – both real and imagined – that divide us, so that no single artist, individual, or nation may be manipulated by the interests of others.

For more information: losaldeanos@emetreceproductions.com