Flatten the curve

I’ve known who Bad Bunny is for a while. I’ve recently been using Duolingo to get better at Spanish and surprised myself with how much Spanish I already knew simply from being around the language often. I thought Bad Bunny had some good tunes, but nothing really pulled me into his personality. His music is fun and his trap beats deserve more recognition from casual American rap listeners, but his 2018 collaboration tape Oasis with Colombian superstar J Balvin made me perceive Bad Bunny as a a huge pop star, someone who would dominate radio waves for a while and someone new would come along.

After the radio got tired of Cardi B’s “I Like It” Bad Bunny would not accept losing any attention. At the beginning of February he burst on the stage of Super Bowl LIV, a spectacular and sacred celebration of Miami in my heart, in a stunning, shiny silver getup complete with his signature skinny rectangular glasses. It was so exciting to watch a celebration of the ubiquitous Hispanic heritage that makes Miami, and America, great. When Bad Bunny released YHLQMDLG at the end of February, I was not expecting to be so entranced by it for most of 2020 so far.

It was the final track of YHLQMDLG, “<3”, that made me a Bad Bunny fan for life. On my first listen through of the album, I was impressed with the variety of party sounds that Bad Bunny so confidently controlled. He dramatically expresses heartbreak in “Pero Ya No” and in the next breath speaks with a sexy cockiness in “A Tu Merced”, he does an insane rock music-type breakdown at the end of “Hablamos Mañana” (guest voice Duki does a kinda distant Future voice in this track too?).. I was impressed, but still wasn’t sold that I should pay more than my casual attention to the superstar. And then I heard “<3”.

“<3” isn’t a showstopping, “best of all time” track. But it’s one of the most tender statements from a prestigious presence I’ve heard in a long time. After the especially rowdy ending of “Hablamos Mañana,” Bad Bunny decides to completely slow down with only a guitar on his album closer. He thanks his fans for believing in him from the beginning and gets more personal with his listeners than ever before. It kinda shocked me the first time I heard it, hearing 19 perfect trap reggaeton bangers in a row and then hearing about Bad Bunny’s personal perception of his own superstardom… I didn’t cry but I think I did get goosebumps.

En un icono de grandes y chico’ / Gracia’ a to’ mis domi y a mi gente en Puerto Rico / Cada cosa que logro a ustede’ se la’ dedico / Aunque a vece’ no me entiendan y hayan cosa’ que no explico, ey / Ser diferente se siente cabrón

And then when he speaks to his grandmother:

Abuela, bendición, hoy cumplí otro goal, je / Me fue cabrón, no sé si me viste en el Super Bowl

And when he references LeBron James, who was voted the greatest male athlete of the 2010s, like a casual friend:

Si LeBron es LeBron con 23 o con el 6 / Por cierto, ayer lo vi, ‘taba conmigo en el stage

And then he boasts:

Porque yo no rompo récord’, yo le’ hago un roto

Bad Bunny wasn’t kidding. YHLQMDLG debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, becoming the highest charting all-Spanish language album ever. He tore up the record for biggest streaming week ever for a Latin album, too. I wish it debuted at No. 1, Lil Baby’s My Turn wasn’t that great except for “Gang Signs.” YHLQMDLG is Bad Bunny doing whatever he wants, and it results in an outstanding record with fun overflowing at every beat change. I don’t know how to stronger argue for his legitimacy: this is a guy who represents realness, who doesn’t show up to The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon dressed as a fallen Puerto Rican transgender woman just for publicity or humor.. This is a guy who invites LeBron James to share the stage with him, an icon of grown-ups and children speaking to an ever-growing and ever important population of the United States, waving the Puerto Rican flag during the most watched television broadcast of the year. Pay attention to Bad Bunny, we’re lucky to have a star of his calibre opening up to us like this.

Besides Bad Bunny I’ve been listening to …

Shordie Shordie

“Bitchuary” has gone viral from, I assume, TikTok or something. It’s funny because the song’s like, super mean about a guy and his girl but has a really catchy hook. Shordie’s voice is creaky, “Bitchuary” also has a chilled out R&B sound to it and then the drums kick in and it could totally play loud to a crowd in a club or concert hall, too. He has an album >Music that’s pretty good. He does more of the “Bitchuary” sound where his voice kinda sounds like he’s between pleading on his knees and just telling a story. His harmonies over mostly slow pianos and faraway hi-hats remind me of underground 90s West Coast rap, but he’s from Baltimore and it’s 2020. Pretty cool.

Kaash Paige

I found Kaash Paige via YouTube exploration last year from her most popular and enchanting song, “Love Songs.” God, what a beautiful song. She just talks and her voice stands out with clarity against the murky background beat that builds and warps over the song’s duration. She speaks in detail of a past relationship (“and you the only one I want to wear my orange sweater”) and provides gorgeous imagery of a relationship lost too soon (“and if we paint a perfect picture we could make it last forever”) and what once was (“yeah, that ‘make you fall in love’ song, that ‘hey big head, what you on?’ make you hit me up song”). It hurts, the stress piles up with her layered voices and the beat constructed of at least five different audio waveforms. It’s short and simple, but it’s specificity stayed with me for a while. I guess the Travis Scott squad noticed her because she had a guest moment on the Don Tolliver album and I’m excited to see where she goes with her career.

Kalan.frfr

Ok so this song is from January 2019, but Kalan.frfr is so talented and like, I just think he has a lot of tracks I casually revisit. He has never made a bad song. He doesn’t usually rap so the fact that he bodies this “Hot N Ready (Freestyle)” is something that still makes me 🤯 mind blown every time I think about it. His 2018 tape Twofr is really good, it’s got these exciting tracks mixed with real chill lows, like my personal favorite track “Bluez”.

Ivorian Doll

So the first time I saw this recommended in The Fader I was like, “ok looks kinda annoying” (I was probably in a bad mood or something). Ivorian Doll and “Rumours” are crazy, like I did not expect to hear her British voice with major authority! It’s a UK grime track and the music video looks like it has the opposite vibe of what you’d expect from UK grime. Ivorian Doll has NO forgiveness for anything (“couldn’t have even fucked it soft!” omg). I love her.

Playboi Carti

You think we’re actually gonna get a new Playboi Carti album in 2020? I dunno, I’m not super hopeful. But I really like “@ Meh”. It’s got an arcade-sounding JetsonMade beat and Carti brings the single artwork to life in the music video. When I got the Twitter notification from Carti about the video (I know), I looped the first 5 seconds over and over again. It was like magic to see him welcome the beat in with a flick of his wrist. So satisfying.

The 1975

Ok, so, I used to make fun of people for listening to The 1975 in college. It was entirely because I thought their album title, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It, was the cringiest album title I ever heard. And I still think it, but now that I’ve actually listened to The 1975, I understand that the title was never meant to be corny or cringey but brash. I got obsessed with A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships in 2019, that album is so good. “TooTime” is hypnotizing, “Sincerity is Scary” floats on these lovely background horns and their modern commentary throughout all the tracks is phenomenal songwriting. I don’t have to sing my praises of “Love It If We Made It,” one of the best songs of the past decade, but that sealed me in as a The 1975 fan forever. I’m sorry for being a hater before 2019! Now I can’t wait for their new record, they’re a modern rock pop dream.

And also

• WiFiGawd and Black Kray’s “Scope” (more people should know about Black Kray)
• FMB DZ’s “High Speed” ft Rio Da Yung OG
• Notorious B.I.G’s “Unbelievable” (the first verse blows me away every time)
• Rich the Kid’s “Ray Charles”
• Yaeji’s new tape
• this New York Times article by Brianna Holt called “Confessions of a Serial Dater” that exposes me:

Enter the traits of serial daters: those who consciously look to have fun and don’t want anything serious; who love the thrill of the chase and the power of romancing many partners; who fear commitment but also fear loneliness; who have attachment issues; who actually enjoy the glamour of the single lifestyle; who date to get narcissistic needs fulfilled; and who are confused and don’t really know what they want.

Thanks for reading.