Did You Catch These Easter Eggs in Bad Bunny’s ‘EL CLúB’?
Photo by Eric Rojas.
In case you missed it, Bad Bunny released his latest song “EL CLúB” yesterday (Dec. 5). The song also came with a new music video full of trippy visuals, leaving the viewer with much to unpack and speculate.
Upon first listen, “EL CLúB” is a nostalgic track about his ex with house music and plena-inspired elements. The music video, directed by STILLZ, features Benito entering an elevator with a fashionable fur coat on his way to a club. As he’s enjoying his time there, the video abruptly cuts to him in bed, thinking and singing about his ex. The BPM then changes as trippy frames appear — from classism critiques and distorted animals to Bad Bunny sitting on a bed in flames.
But there’s more to the story. At the beginning of the “EL CLúB” music video, Benito delivers a political message about classism when the frames show babies getting labeled as “middle class” or “lower class” right after birth. The penthouse where the packed club takes place is a building called Caribean Sea View in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which Hurricane Maria affected and was abandoned for many years following it. At the end of the music video, Hurricane Maria’s radar is brought up and shows the building again – except this time, it’s empty with only Bad Bunny on the dancefloor.
Another frame shows only one of the original two featured Bad Bunnys coming out of a burning house alive. He comes out with a wooden box. The following frame demonstrates the jíbaro ghosts with pava hats that follow Benito when he seemingly buries what could be ashes of his past self or perhaps a symbol of the old Puerto Rico. A jíbaro is known to represent “lo mas entrañable, resistente y puro de la nacionalidad puertorriqueña [the most endearing, resistant and purest of the Puerto Rican nationality].”
As for more easter eggs or references, Benito also includes a frame reflecting his dog Sansa, who he shares with his ex-girlfriend Gabriela Berlingeri. We also see a distorted photo of the Puerto Rican capitol building transforming into a garbage can, seemingly echoing past remarks made by Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe.
But of course, the only one who could properly decipher the story behind “EL CLúB” is Benito Antonio himself, who is credited as the story’s creator in the end of the visual.
Additional reporting by Juan J. Arroyo.
