Residente sent shockwaves through the music community late last year when he announced his first solo project with a gorgeous multimedia website. Built around a conceptual map connecting disparate geographical locations, the project traces Residente’s DNA from China and Siberia to Africa and Puerto Rico, together with mini documentaries, interactive photo essays, and infographics. The idea, of course, was that this fascinating resource serve as a contextual backdrop to his forthcoming solo album, which would use Residente’s journey back to his genetic roots as a thematic connective tissue.
And now, with Residente’s first official music video from the project, we know exactly how that will look and sound. “Somos Anormales” was inspired by a week the Puerto Rican rapper spent in the Siberian city of Kyzyl, Tuva, which shares a border with Mongolia and is known across the world for the peculiar style of throat singing called Khoomei. Laying these complex guttural melodies over an electronically tinged beat – which seems to take cues from Mongolian shamanic drumming – Residente spins a rap about the messy origins of human genetics while celebrating our physical diversity in his distinctive style.
The music video, which was conceived and directed by Residente himself, plays off this concept with a narrative rich in symbolic imagery. Featuring an unapologetically tight closeup on a woman’s vagina (in this case, probably the product of practical effect and camera trickery), we see Africa as the origin of humanity, as grown men and women pop out of the orifice covered in white slime. From there, John Leguizamo and an army of diverse bodies decked out in what appears to be the Yeezy season 4 line duke it out on an arid battlefield before engaging in a massive make out session. Then, to close things out, a bright red apple flies through the air and knocks Residente unconscious.
Plenty to think about there. Or, if you prefer, you can just turn the music up and dance it out.