Calle 13 has done it again, with the release of their 4th album, ‘Entren Los Que Quieran’, their last album with Sony as they remind us in the variety show themed intro, the dangerous duo bring their tongue in cheek , raw rhymes.

From the Intro:

“Directly from Puerto Rico, the most important colony in the word and the only place where the people pay more attention to Miss Universe than to education…”

At this point, most fans and others have already heard and seen “Calma Pueblo” but if you haven’t, it’s a loud strong reassurance that Residente and Visitante haven’t sold out but that they are the lyricists of the barrios.

If anyone thinks that (slightly) politicized lyrics aren’t worthy of culo shaking then I invite you to listen to El Baile de los Pobres which talks about some of differences between the rich and poor, needing to dance not among them. Here is where some of my criticisms of Calle 13 do come out though as the boys rely on many machista mentions of nalgas pero that said I had to crack up at the dirtiness/hillariousness of some of the lyrics (yes even with sexism). Check this line :

” I heard you were the Queen of all the Rosales but today I am going to lower you four social classes”

La Vuelta Al Mundo is a much more serious, calmer invitation to travel the world leaving material things and concerns behind (with the obligatory nalga reference).

La Bala, with it’s old school Western film sampling, at first sounds like a gangster rap song praising the power of the bullet. A closer listen will reveal it as an anti-violence song :

“Bullets are as cheap as condoms…when you read little, you shoot alot…before I use bullets, I shoot with words…there is little money but there are lots of bullets. There is little food but there are lots of bullets.”

My favorite song on the album is Latinoamérica which sounds like a poetic love song, with an Afro-Andean rhythm, to the beauty and tragedy that is Latin America ,it’s diaspora, and it’s diversity while acknowledging historic violent interventions like Operation Condor.

Pero sometimes Calle 13 does feel like a little too much, like they are trying too hard to prove themselves as real and legit and hardcore and in the process revert to the most childish and misogynist. I felt, for example that the track Digo Lo Que Pienso was unnecessary as it repeated the machista posturing we’ve heard a million times over :

“Winning those Grammys was like coming in your mouth”

Really?

I have mixed feelings about Calle 13 and Entran los que Quieran. Like that sexy bad boy/girl you know you shouldn’t fuck with, you can’t help but be impressed and laugh at some of their antics but at what cultural cost? Maybe the album is about six tracks too long…that’s about when I got tired of the message.

You too can listen to the entire Calle 13 album at NPR’s First Listen.