Cultura Dura is a Remezcla and Mike’s HARDER content and event series highlighting emerging Latin urban culture. We’ll be exploring scenes that haven’t really gotten any coverage anywhere else – from block parties and street art to underground sports and raw, young artists making movements pa’ la calle.
It opens with some classic 808 drums, soon the dembow comes in, and right after that it’s cumbia sonidera which completes the formula, setting the tone for the whole hour-plus long mixtape by Chico Sonido: a balanced combination between anglophone strip club music and a south of the border street party.
This goes hand-in-hand with Nalga Bass, Chico Sonido’s latest release on Kin Kon Records, but not so much with his previous, self-titled debut album which was exclusively focused on vintage vinyl aesthetics. The current Chico Sonido appears to have abandoned record digging and replaced that hobby with the underappreciated art of contemplating meaty females derrieres bouncing and twerking to the beat of contemporary Dirty South-inspired rap. While it definitely has a lot more of a commercial appeal, it’s also exponentially more ridiculously fun.
Now of course there are plenty of moments where he diverts from the central formula to throw in some oddballs that in a live set could mean testing the loyalty of your crowd. For example: a long breakdown with Juan Gabriel singing a ranchera that eventually mutates into a trappero remix. I know if I was at the club, I’d be like WTF? and immediately abandon the dancefloor (I’m not Mexican so I don’t get the irony) but on my headphones, while walking to work, the sudden switch mildly amused me. There’s also some Dominican reggaetón and I’m not completely sure, but I think at some point there was something that sounded like tribal guarachero, but it doesn’t go far out of the canon established at the top and always returns to the characteristic guacharaca sound of cumbia sonidera with extra juicy bass.
Don’t miss him this Saturday for the last #CulturaDura tour stop in Los Angeles at Los Globos with Venus X, Nguzunguzu, Kap G, Álvaro Díaz, Füete Billëte, MLKMN with El Dusty, Royal Highness, and Andres of Soulection. RSVP here!