It’s a beautiful thing to witness Colombian global bass pioneers El Freaky living by the value, though they’ve never said it outright – when you’re on the come up, you bring the whole family with you.
As a Remezcla exclusive, the Bogotá-based sound system crew bring you their newest visual output for their bass-shattering single “Twerk It,” one of the first releases via their new home at Universal Music Latin Entertainment’s EDM-focused imprint Aftercluv. On “Twerk It,” a collision of dancehall and moombahton, El Freaky shares the mic and the video spotlight with fellow Colombian artists Buxxi, Jiggy D, Irie Kingz, and Stanley Jackson, some of the key names responsible for pushing Mode-Up, the homegrown scene transmitting from the island of San Andrés.
Though the song brings a fresh take on mid-winter whining, El Freaky’s history of amplifying the work of San Andrés’ bass visionaries is hardly anything new. El Freaky has years of collaborations with their country’s artists from the Caribbean coast and islands, and hold space as an outfit of unofficial ambassadors for the Mode-Up movement native to San Andrés.
Mode-Up can be considered a site-specific, FL Studio-powered expression of Colombian Caribbean history, expressed through a combination of champeta, dancehall, and hip-hop sounds – a clear link to the movement of people and sound between the Caribbean, Africa, and beyond. With lyrics in San Andrés’ version of an English-based Creole, the music is also a living soundtrack of resistance to colonialism in the region, with the island being previously controlled by England before Spain. Says El Freaky’s Shaq, “There’s a lot of talent on this island [of San Andrés] and I can’t wait for the world to see what we’ve been cooking.”
El Freaky’s video for “Twerk It” channels the irresistibility of San Andrés’ riddims for sound system devotees, while boosting visibility for multilingual singjays, Colombian danchehall-tested choreography, and a history of chirimia, marimba, cumbia, gaita, and porro sampling. The video can also perhaps can double as a PSA for the dangers of understandably being over-enthusiastic with that twerking – you’ll have to watch to find out just how lethal that can be.
Watch our premiere of El Freaky’s “Twerk It” above.