Resident wants America to be for Americans, everyone

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Resident wants America to be for Americans, everyone, from Tierra de Fuego to Canada. That is why he launched “This Is Not America”, a cry of protest against injustices in Latin America and the appropriation of the American people by the United States.

“The theme is born with that idea of trying to promote the use of the word America for the entire continent and that the United States search for a word,” Residente said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles.

“In addition to the geographical, it is a symbolic question of a country adopting the name of a continent. That unconsciously to Latin Americans, and to the rest of the continent, is like a type of mental and psychological colonization that takes years. It's as if at the moment Germany says it's Europe or Morocco says it's Africa,” he added.

One of the inspirations for the song, Residente said, was the work of Chilean concept artist Alfredo Jaar, who in 1987 set up an installation in Times Square, in New York, titled “A Logo for America” with an illuminated map of the United States and the phrase “This Is Not America”, to protest ethnocentrism American.

Another was Childish Gambino's 2018 song “This Is America”, about the problems of gun violence that the United States is going through. At one point, after citing a variety of problems throughout the region, Residente says in his song: “Gambino, my brother, this is America.”

The video for “This Is Not America”, released Thursday afternoon, was co-directed by Residente and French director Gregory Orel. It mixes capitalist images such as skyscrapers and disposable glasses with others of native peoples, as well as fantastic creations of a Statue of Liberty turned into an indigenous and a Mexican pyramid in the middle of Los Angeles.

The video also includes references to Puerto Rican independence artist Lolita Lebrón; Chilean musician Victor Jara, killed during the coup d'état that instituted the Pinochet dictatorship; the people killed by the Colombian armed forces known as “False Positives” and a senior Brazilian official, inspired by the president Jair Bolsonaro, who eats a beef steak and wipes himself with the national flag, while an indigenous child from the Amazon stands behind him.

“It has very powerful images, for me the video is very strong and obviously the song and video complement each other perfectly,” said Residente.

“This Is Not America” has as guests the Franco-Afro-Cuban twins Ibeyi, Naomi Díaz and Lisa-Kaindé, who play the choir.

“Ever since I met them, I loved them,” Resident said. “They worked super well and the collaboration was very organic. We didn't have to do much, other than making art and flowing with what we wanted to do artistically.”

Other literally organic collaborators are microscopic worms. Resident used brainwaves from these worms to create harmonies. The process began by counting their neurons, assigning numbers to them and in turn designating musical notes to those numbers.

Worms “have about 302 neurons, but despite the low number of neurons, these worms can do a lot of things: they distinguish heat and cold, they can understand when there is danger, they reproduce,” said Residente. “I connected it with the idea that, in Latin America, we do a lot of things with little.”

The harmony of the brain wave of worms can be heard in the section of the Ibeyi choir. Residente had started working on the song more than two years ago and said it will be part of their next album.

For now, another of his recent releases, his session with Argentine rapper and producer Bizarrap, reached first place in YouTube music trends and accumulated more than 68 million views. The song, a “tiradera” of rap, refers to his differences with J Balvin. Something that hurt the millennial sensibility was Residente's criticism of the songs that the Colombian artist has made for Pokémon and SpongeBob.

“I like them too, it's in the context of rap that it's funny,” said the Puerto Rican rapper about the animated characters. “I let off steam with the lyrics and that's what happened.”

Residente said he enjoyed working with Bizarrap, who at the age of 23 has also caused a sensation with his collaborations with Nathy Peluso, Nicky Jam and Tiago PZK.

“It is a good and intelligent and mature little boy. It was fun to work with him, we had a great time. No stress on the part of us as artists, we flow well,” said the winner of four Grammys and 25 Latin Grammys as a solo artist and as a member of Calle 13.

Resident, who often raises his voice in the face of injustices, lamented the loss of life of civilians, especially minors, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“It is horrible that it happens to any country and just as it is happening in Ukraine happens to Palestine all the time and it is good that everyone is aware of when it happens,” he added, referring to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This weekend, Residente will be performing at the Vive Latino Festival in Mexico City.