Photo by Jan Rolón.
It was five years ago when Remezcla first profiled Enyel C (pronounced “Angel” in English and “Sé” in Spanish) as word-of-mouth surrounding him was beginning to spread in late-2020. In 2022 he released his EP, Angelito, and soon after teamed up with fellow Puerto Rican indie rapper Gyanma for their collab project Duo Deleite (themselves also profiled by Remezcla.) Enyel’s solo debut LP, Nuevo Caribe, drops this week with contributions by Letón Pé and Diego Raposo, and while on its face it seems radically different from his older lo-fi rap stylings, he begs to differ. “The album has lots of lo-fi, and lots of rap, just not together. Like, I’m rapping my ass off,” he laughs. “There’s lots of synths and effects that go with that lo-fi and psychedelic inspiration, along with rhymes that I worked really hard to write.”
But as true as that is, what stands out the most about Nuevo Caribe is the deep inspiration in its sound that comes from a music that hasn’t been center stage for a long time. Right from its explosive opening title track, the sound of raggamuffin fills the air, but with a modern touch courtesy of Enyel’s deftly-honed production. In a year when artists seem to be gravitating towards exploring the folk roots of their music, Enyel found himself tapping into long-unexplored deep cuts from reggaeton’s origins. He credits the post-Angelito and post-Duo Deleite shows he’d do with a live band, where they’d improvise reggae jams onstage. “I’ve also been performing a lot of DJ sets the last three years, and I’ve been studying a lot of music via YouTube or Spotify playlists; artists from Jamaica, U.K., from the ‘90s and ‘80s,” he adds. He likens it to how he came across lo-fi music in 2017, when it became a sound that spoke to him and so he immersed himself in it and taught himself how to produce and perform it.
More interestingly, Enyel studied music therapy in college and applied much of what he learned in ways that fans might not immediately catch. “I put music therapy into use in various ways [when making Nuevo Caribe]. The instrumental melodies over cyclical chord changes serve as a good basis for improvisation, which in turn [helps] liberate stress, centers you in the present moment, and promotes community and support [from the audience],” he says, referencing the “four methods” of music therapy. “The song’s lyrics can also be read and analyzed line-by-line, which creates positive associations, facilitates self-reflection, and urges self-expression.”
For him, Nuevo Caribe isn’t just an album where he could experiment sonically and homage certain core sounds that he admires, but also get in tune with the foundation of his own journey as an artist as well. “In my personal life, [the album] helps me as a sensory memory of the moment when I began to want to make music forever.”
Celebrating those sentiments, Enyel C has curated an exclusive playlist that explores songs that have been an influence on his music and also work as a balm when he needs to center himself mentally and emotionally.
“This is the first song I wrote for Nuevo Caribe, and where I parted from to create the rest. It has everything: boricua reggae, dancehall, an instrumental section, and lyrics that give context to where, when, how, and why I’m making this album.”
“The best fucking album in the history of Latin music. Thanks to my old man who’d play the cassette whenever we were running late to school. Rican/Struction is progressive salsa, and Nuevo Caribe is progressive urbano.”
“I heard Tego for the first time on Christmas Day of 2005 on the intro for NBA Live ’06. I love this song, and I noticed a few years ago that the game version censored lyrics that mentioned Los Macheteros and criticized the government and lawyers.”
“Thank you, Mima.”
“This song is sooooo good. I’ve listened to it religiously since 2017. It’s from the ‘90s digital reggae sound that inspired me a lot for Nuevo Caribe.”
“Whoever hasn’t listened to this, they’re missing out. [Music] from the source, from the root. The pace and the transitions of Nuevo Caribe are very Playero-coded.”
“My favorite song in the whole wide world. It’s the first song I learned how to play on bass, when I was around 14 or 15 years old.”
Check out Enyel C’s “Caribbean Serenity” playlist on Apple Music and Spotify.
