Credit Tali Goya for inspiring his fellow New York-based, Dominican rapper LASTMONDAY’s move into reggaetón-spiked Spanish language hip hop.
“When I heard ‘Papi Goya’ and saw another New York Latino bridging the gap, I knew right then what I wanted to do,” LASTMONDAY tells Remezcla.
The vocalist says he also had El Alfa, Ozuna, Arcángel, Lil Baby, Bad Bunny, Young Thug, Future and Drake on his mind when crafting his current run of party-ready perreo and trap singles. But what initially got the Bronx-born architect-by-day into the music game may not have been any particular sound, but rather a certain swagger.
“When I was 15, I randomly came across a video of Slash doing a guitar solo on YouTube and thought he looked like the coolest motherfucker ever,” LASTMONDAY says. Bitten by what he thought at the time was the rock bug, he begged a bar to let him buy a guitar that was hanging in the business’ window, but was re-routed into becoming a vocalist when a friend showed him a video of A$AP Mob freestyling on Funkmaster Flex’s Hot 97 radio show. It appeared you could have that rockero magnetism in the genres LASTMONDAY to which grew up listening.
That matrix of influences will become more evident on LASTMONDAY’s upcoming Yo, Tiguerito! mixtape, due out later this summer. Today, we’re debuting “Cruda Freestyle,” a raucous reggaetón moment driven by the emcee’s gratifyingly gravelly voiced lyricism. The video clip opens with a medley of LASTMONDAY playing different TV characters. He eventually prances into the shot in a shock of Richard Simmons curls tempered by the fitness icon’s trademark receding hairline, backed by a phalanx of healthily twerking backup dancers.
The result is LASTMONDAY’s goofiest production yet, a brainchild of the same director with whom he worked on this year’s videos for “Audemars” and “Panamera.” “Modern Day Auteur thought it would be dope to implement other skits,” LASTMONDAY says. “Which had me hyped because it gave me a chance to really showcase my personality.”