Death and birth have passed through the last nine years in the life of Ana Tijoux, one of the most valued female voices in Spanish rap. It is the time that has passed since her last album, which is now followed by Vida, the French-Chilean artist’s fifth solo album recorded in Barcelona, ??where she has resided for two years after spending confinement in Chile and living for a while in Paris. From the Sol de Sants studio have come the 15 songs that she will present on March 9 in the Apolo room, in which the author from 1977 talks about the value of the family, the death of her loved ones, love for children and tranquility who hugs her now that she has blown out 46 candles. All without forgetting her most vindictive side, which leads her in the most highly hip-hop themes to remember those who disappeared during the Argentine dictatorship or the absurdity of technological submission.
How was the album born?
Unfortunately, many people died in a very short period of time, my sister, another brother and several friends, and I wanted a vital, happy album.
Is this vitality your reaction to the dark part of death?
It has been a surprise to experience grief from that place, although it is very hard, it makes you cry and question everything. But one naturally connects with the absence, with that emptiness.
Tania, dedicated to her sister, exudes joy
My sister was very vital, very happy, and I had to pay her the right amount of tribute. She was someone who laughed a lot, so she had to have that strange counterpoint, because we associate death with crying. We are very disconnected from death when it is the only sure thing we are going to live, along with paying taxes.
In End of the World he talks about how death gives meaning to life
It is a perfect cycle, putrefaction is necessary to create life, the earth naturally needs death to recognize itself again. When the Mapuche recover the land in southern Chile, the first thing they do is burn it so that it can recognize itself again.
Cora focuses on the physical part, the body
The cursed machines have us subjugated, and it is necessary to return to the first impulse, an exercise that goes against us because everything is made not to feel it. When you have an anxiety attack, the first thing you should do is breathe again, to calm down, to the personal BPM that the body has, and obviously our human drive does not keep up with the speed of the market or the speed of information. Corporality has been an important topic that has taken years, how it is lived or verbalized, and there is the task of breaking that super violent mold regarding the drive to be more tired. When I was a goat, younger, I needed to be in everything, to live, to live, but that vitality left naturally.
Have you noticed this change since your previous album?
I was 35, now I’m 46, you’re more tired but you laugh at yourself more, I manage to have a much lighter dialogue with myself, not taking myself so seriously. I’m not the same person as when I was 20, so I was rapping all day on the street, freestyling. Now I think, oh, how nice it is to get into bed, light a rosewood. Temporality has another joy, which is no less cool.
Do you have a close connection with your family?
Yes, there are crises like any dysfunctional family on the planet, but we invent to see each other all the time, we fight, we argue, I have seen many different families and what excites me the most is when there is a lot of movement.
From there comes Millionaire
When I’m with my father I die of laughter, I feel like I have very good conversations, they are a ton of conversations. I think it is the most important thing along with the extended family, the one you choose. I call all my blood cousins ??cousin, like a cousin who is because our mothers were imprisoned together, like many people who lived through the dictatorship together. They are my cousins, I have millions and we consider ourselves family, it is a wealth that I have had the opportunity to see in many families in many parts of the world.
In Óyeme he talks about people who falsify the term freedom
The system is like a worm, it needs to use all nouns, pronouns, synonyms and adverbs for its own good. The word freedom has been used a lot, that is why it is very important to clean it and return to its original meaning. How do we explain to the new generation that there are ships full of migrants? When you make a parallel with the slave ships you see that slavery has never gone away, it has been democratized in quotes, but in 2024 it is different to be of one skin color or another, racism is still more valid than ever.
Niñx dedicates to his daughter
I also wrote it for the girl that I am, and the child that we all carry, an inner child that continues to be amazed, it is a capacity that has been erased to not bother, to have a job, to not lose followers or be criticized a lot . The artists who have the least opinion are also the ones who are liked best, while those who are most positioned are annoying. That’s why I want to return to that child who is amazed, who says ‘I don’t like this’ or ‘this seems unfair’, that child who is full of genuine questions.
Dancing alone here he exposes his decision to live without a partner
We women always have to justify ourselves, the one who doesn’t want to be a mother, the one who wants to be a single mother, the one who gets married and decides. In my case it has to do with trying to fill the void with another person in the hope that that prince charming will solve all your problems. You fall in love thinking that this will end all your problems when in reality there is a personal void that you have to fill and that the other person does not have to come here to cover up your conflicts, your personal crises, your dramas, your traumas. What your partner can do is accompany you on this journey, but solving problems is unfair.
I’m looking for my name that refers to the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
Since I was a child I observed grandmothers as a banner, a dignity of struggle, so vital, walking until the last breath, it is a feeling that crosses the territories. We are in Catalonia, in Spain, which is a land full of mass graves, disappearances, and seeing these grandmothers who continue searching for their relatives and the possibility of burying them connects with memory and justice. The story of the grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo crosses many territories with human rights, forced disappearance, silence, justice and historical memory.
It remains in the gap of demand
It is a matter of having a minimum of empathy with what is happening in the world. I find it interesting how one processes information, how it resonates with you and what you do with it: I keep it to myself, I cry, I stir, but the question is always what we do. Acting doesn’t completely take away my desolation but I can do something, it doesn’t matter if you are a singer, photographer or teacher, but that is the big question we have to ask ourselves so that life continues to exist, for humanity to continue operating and for Let us continue walking because if we break that action, death and violence will prevail.
There are many more women in rap and hip hop now than when it started
I see a lot of amazing colleagues, a new generation that gives me a very healthy envy to say why wasn’t I born in this generation? I see them with this very beautiful hunger of wanting to take on the world, and very active inventing things with the little money they have, super vital and creative when it comes to financing projects as well. I see more and more women curious to start and break this paradigm that was very established for many years in which hip hop was masculine, and not. There have always been many women, what happens is that they were made invisible, annulled by the industry, even women who changed the history of hip hop and who never named themselves as producer or co-producer, this must be corrected.
