Latin

René Pérez Joglar, better known as Residente, is walking to lunch in Madrid as he chats on the phone with Billboard in the U.S., and every 30 seconds or so, someone stops him to ask for a photo.

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It’s been a couple of days days since he released his very buzzy and provocative “Quiero ser baladista” — nine minutes, seven seconds of seeming anarchy captured in a black and white music video. It begins as a diss track against Latin urban music overall, and then devolves into a series of scenes that include, among other things: Residente singing ballads, Ricky Martin rapping (synched to Residente’s vocals), Residente shooting Sony Music Latin Iberia chairman Afo Verde dead, and then Ricky Martin shooting Residente dead. Since its release last Thursday on Sony Music, the video has nearly four million views on YouTube.

It’s a lot, especially in the wake of 2022’s “Reisdente: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 49,” where Residente famously dissed J Balvin, and his more recent “Bajo y batería,” where he goes hard against Puerto Rican reggaetonero Cosculluela.

So we asked Resdiente himself to unpack “Quiero ser baladista” for us — in what is, to date, the only interview he’s done on the topic. Along the way, he also let us know a new album is coming out this fall. See our discussion below.

What did you want to say with this track?  

The song was born because I wrote a song called “Bajo y batería” (Bass and Drums, released two weeks ago). I don’t like diss tracks. It would seem I do, but I don’t. I like them as a writing exercise, a literary exercise. They made more sense before, but now they feel like bullying. But, when I wrote “Bajo y batería” last year, I was really bothered by this one person, and in that sense, I was at least throwing a diss at someone who deserved it.

In the end, when I recorded that song, “Bajo y batería,” and it came from my soul — I thought, “F–k, I’m tired. I want to be a balladeer like Ricky Martin.” I told the engineer, “Save that thought.” And that’s where the song was born. I did it like a tryptic, where I want to get away from diss tracks. The balladeer is a way for me to retire from doing diss tracks, and the person who “retires” me is Ricky Martin. Not only does he kill that personality, but he even ends up rapping.

So, this is the end of Residente’s diss tracks?

I thought that was a nice way to end all this. This started with an interview with you for Billboard [during Billboard Latin Music Week in 2017, where Residente said a lot of Latin music was starting to sound like junk food]. From that point until three days ago, it’s been relentless. Obviously, I wasn’t only dissing during that time. I made songs like “This Is Not America.” But, that’s it. And what better way to close this stage than speaking with you, who I started it with, more or less. And closing it with Ricky Martin, who’s also a friend of mine and was amazing in everything he did here. He really got into that character and he learned all those lyrics and it was cabrón.  

“I don’t like diss tracks. It would seem I do, but I don’t. I like them as a writing exercise, a literary exercise.” Residente

Even though Ricky Martin is a friend, the things he did in your video are pretty risqué for him — from shooting you, to rapping, to peeing on you. How did you convince him?

I explained the concept and he was down. In fact, in the beginning he thought he would actually be rapping, and he was down for that. I told him, “No, you’ll be lip synching, and you’ll do this and that.” He trusted in the visual idea from the onset. And when Ricky “sings,” it sounds real. It has gravitas. He was very cool.

You also “kill” Afo Verde, the chariman/CEO of Sony Music Latin Iberia, who actually plays himself in the video. How did you convince him?

I called him and said, “Hey Afo, I want to kill you in a video.” And he said, “OK, if you want.” I think it’s beautiful to see Afo there because it shows …. man, this is a song that we know isn’t for radio, even if radio is not as important as before. It’s a nine-minute song. And the fact that Sony, Afo, 5020 are all supporting what I want to do is great. Having the president of label on a set, going through everything that happens in that video, is not something you see every day. And it speaks to how open they are with me. Obviously, it’s all absurd and surreal and that’s what the video is — and that’s why it’s allowed within the aesthetic and the storyline.

So, you’re not throwing shade at the label?

No, no, no. Quite the opposite. I kill him because I don’t agree with him there and I feel he’s canceling my balladeer dream. But things don’t go well for me.

You told me you have a new album coming out in the Fall. Tell me more!

We’re talking all new music. The album will come out October, November. The date depends in part on a video I’m shooting with an actress I like very much. I’m going to include [already released singles] “René” and “This Is Not America,” but those are the only ones. The album will have 20, 21 tracks and they’re all like that, big songs. And there will be no diss tracks in there. You can diss me 15 million times and I won’t diss [back].

You’re really brilliant in your diss tracks. Is it simply fun for you, or do you take them very seriously?

I take it seriously, but it’s more like competing with myself. Trying to do something better than what I did before. Which is what you normally do with music overall, but with tiraderas the same thing happens to me. This has been a process of about six years, since I started.

Does it bother you when others write diss tracks about you?

At the beginning it did. But then it stopped bothering me, and it became more of a writing exercise. For example, I have a tiradera called “La Cátedra” which is a total writing exercise. I play a game on my phone called “2048” which is a numbers game; kind of like Tetris with numbers, where you start adding and multiplying numbers. That game is like 50% of what diss tracks are to come. It’s like coming up with a phrase for every prompt, but maintaining the narrative going. For me tiraderas are more technical. It’s like a writing exercise. But it’s not something that comes from the soul. It’s not the way René writes.