I felt compelled to write about Calle 13’s new video not because it’s news, not because it’s Calle 13, but because the song compelled me to. One can look at “Adentro” as Calle 13’s manifesto, a dispelling of rumors and assumptions, a disarming call for honesty.
René tells us he (regretfully) bought a Maserati, he’s not rich, he’s going bald, he was a bad student, he regrets shit talking Fortuño, he’s not the smartest in the Pérez clan. He tears himself down and then rebuilds himself through lyric and destruction. He attacks the stereotypical rap game as disingenuous, a front for pretend poverty and hardship (there’s a wonderful sequence in the video where the supposed maliantes throw their guns and chains into a car).
In essence, “Adentro” is the anti swag, a critique of rap-school decadence and the ways that we buy into it; a critique that feels genuine and important. It also helps that the music hangs back in a way that feels stripped yet still interesting and that the video mainly focuses on René’s anxiety. This is the Calle 13 that makes me believe the hype, the Calle 13 that forgoes the cutesy “Atrévete”s to seize some sort of truth.
[insert-video youtube=HZ7mt30A6aY]
Download Calle 13’s Multi_Viral below: