The Mood Issue

Cover of The Mood (of the newspaper industry) Issue for SND's Design magazine, Summer '07 issue.

Calle13@HardRock, Orlando 06/30/07

Calle 13 is a Puerto Rican hip hop and alternative-reggaeton duo formed by step-brothers who call themselves Residente (lead singer, writer) and Visitante (keyboards, vocals, writer, beat producer).

Although most people label Calle 13's music as reggaeton, they've tried to distance themselves from that particular style. And while some of their songs carry a reggaeton beat, they mix it with many other rhythms from various countries. Visitante, being a professional musician, tries to fuse each song with diverse styles. Their early songs featured elements like jazz, bossa nova and salsa, while recent songs feature cumbia, tango, electronica and others. In their recent tours around Latin America they've added different musical elements according to the place they're playing in.

Singer Residente is reluctant to label their music in a specific genre, instead calling it plain urban style. He has a clear preference of hip hop over traditional reggaeton.

Residente's lyrical style uses lots of Puerto Rican slang and allegories. He has developed a style full of sarcasm, parody and shock value. His distinctive lyrics are often wide and random, and his rhymes usually end in English or Spanglish, the rest of the lyrics usually in Spanish.

Check out my cellphone camera slideshow of their Hard Rock concert here.

Check out the band's Web site here.

When Captain America throws his mighty burrito

It happened in Melbourne, Florida. Read about Cap's latest misadventure here and here.