Where did you learn to versify?
listening to rappers
But…he has a gift.
The important thing is the passion.
Can you talk in rhyme?
If you make the artist rhyme, you’ll get paid by the end of this interview.
Improvise!
It’s my specialty in the art of rap: freestyle, that is, improvising versification.
Improvising on what?
About any stimulus: an object they show you, a word they say… That’s how competition works.
I have heard of “battles”.
It’s the flirtation between two rappers: they improvise rhymes to attack each other. I was world champion. Today I serve as a jury.
What do you value in rappers when you judge them?
The ingenuity Let them surprise me.
Is insolent aggression mandatory?
Missing the other has been typical of rappers. And rap usually complains about the world and shits on everything. This is not my look.
What is your look?
The world is full of goodness and possibilities. Surprise me with something cheerful!
Where did you learn this?
From my mother It’s cheerful. We have experienced raw episodes… which she has gone through with integrity and flashes of humor.
What episodes?
As a child we were evicted from the flat that my parents could not afford. We lived in a friend’s mechanic’s workshop.
He has been at the bottom of the well.
Mother encouraged me with her joy.
Has he rapped about that?
I didn’t rap that eviction. I barely rap. I prefer to rap about joy.
What vocations did he have as a child?
I finished Computer Engineering, but I haven’t practiced it: rap has been stronger.
How did rap enter your life?
My older sister was into hip-hop culture: she painted graffiti, rapped with friends… And I wanted to imitate her.
Do you remember the first rap you sang?
With a plastic microphone from the Chinese and a loud speaker, at the age of eleven I sang a rap to copy stones.
“Stones”?
This is what we called the surreal verbal occurrences that the boys shared to make us burst out laughing.
For example?
“A lemon tree on a tightrope.” I was very shy, but at the age of 14 I gathered courage and rapped in public, saying things like “cebollitas con atún tun, tun”.
And what did his mother say?
“You keep passing!” And I approved. With a note, above, so as not to lose the study grants. That’s why I’m left-wing: without the public system I wouldn’t have been able to study… What would have become of me?
It also counts your personal effort.
I now like to help other people with my art.
Can you give me an example?
Maybe some kid still feels guilty for being bisexual or homosexual… And seeing me happy and rapping can help him normalize his tastes. It used to seem like you had to be straight to be a rapper!
You went public with your bisexuality on a TV show, right?
I competed on Masterchef and one day I commented on my bisexuality, not knowing I was being recorded. It was news! It was normal for me.
Did he learn to cook?
My pickled sturgeon was highly praised. But I got fed up: I don’t cook anymore. If I go into the kitchen… I think I hear Jordi Cruz saying “aspirants, last minute!”.
And he returned to rap.
I managed to rap for a day in a row – I rapped for 24 hours, 34 minutes and 27 seconds. In the Puerta del Sol, in a glass urn. He was urinating behind a screen.
Tell me three keys to improvising.
One, be prepared to fail. Two, be prepared to fail. Three, be prepared to fail. The fear of failure is the greatest enemy of improvisation.
Any home harvesting tricks?
I prepare the final rhyme from the start… and I work my way to that end.
That said, it sounds easy.
As a child, I played rhyming games with my father: he called me “pelota”, and I, “groundhog”; he, “terracotta”, and I, “chalota”…
Well, I call it La Vanguardia, La Contra, Ima, Lluís and Víctor. Improvisation!
I have a mouth and at La Vanguardia they want my brain to break. The specialty of rappers is to go against each other. Because we are at the end, but I sound so clean that my principles never expire. You’re listening to La Contra by La Vanguardia, and this is dedicated to the rapper who has the most anger. People recognize me by what I spit on the microphone… but La Contra would not be possible without Ima, Lluís and Víctor.
