''Calle 13'' is the debut studio album by Puerto Rican

urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

/ hip hop band Calle 13, released on November 29, 2005 by

White Lion Records White Lion Records is a reggaeton, Latin Music, Latín reggae and urbano record label established by Elías de León with the release of the album '' No Mercy'' by Daddy Yankee in 1995. The label would temporarily change its name to 'Boricua Guerr ...

. The album was recorded in the wake of the group's online success with the song "

Querido FBI "Querido FBI" ( en, "Dear FBI") is a song from Puerto Rican urban group Calle 13. The song was recorded in September, 2005 and released through the Internet about 30 hours after the death of Puerto Rican Revolutionary leader Filiberto Ojeda R� ...

". The album received positive reviews, with critics praising Residente's lyrical style and the musical diversity displayed on the record. The lead single " Atrévete-te-te" peaked at number 15 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot Latin Songs The ''Billboard'' Hot Latin Songs (formerly Hot Latin Tracks and Hot Latin 50) is a record chart in the United States for Latin songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Since October 2012, chart rankings are based on digital sales, rad ...

chart and is now considered to be one of the group's signature songs. At the 2006 Latin Grammy Awards, ''Calle 13'' won three

Latin Grammy The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been r ...

Awards including Best Urban Music Album,

Best New Artist The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967. The official guidelines are as ...

, and

Best Short Form Music Video The Grammy Award for Best Music Video is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to performers, directors, and producers of quality short form music videos. Hon ...

for their first single "Atrévete-te-te".

Background and recording

Calle 13 was formed when step-brothers

Residente René Pérez Joglar (born February 23, 1978), known professionally as Residente (often stylized as Resīdɛntə), is a Puerto Rican rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as one of the founders of the alternative rap band Calle 13. ...

(real name René Pérez Joglar) and

Visitante Eduardo José Cabra Martínez (born September 10, 1979, in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico), better known by his stage name "Visitante Calle 13", "Visitante", or more recently, "Cabra" is a Puerto Rican producer, musician, composer, and multi-inst ...

(real name Eduardo José Cabra Martínez) began creating music together in 2004. Before forming the group, Residente obtained a master's degree in art from the

Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a private nonprofit art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France. Founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the Uni ...

while Visitante had studied music at the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and 5,3 ...

. Residente returned to Puerto Rico in 2003. The step-brothers hosted their music on a website, and began searching for a record label in order to release their music commercially. After sending

demo tape A demo (shortened from "demonstration") is a song or group of songs typically recorded for limited circulation or for reference use, rather than for general public release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas in a fixed for ...

s to

, the duo was offered a record deal. Residente chose White Lion due to his admiration for

Tego Calderón Tegui Calderón Rosario (born February 1, 1972) is a Puerto Rican rapper, singer and actor. He began his musical career in 1996 (as Tego Tec) and was supported by the famous Puerto Rican rapper Eddie Dee, who invited him on his second studio albu ...

, another artist on the label. White Lion president Elías de León explained that his cousin and A&R director Carlos "Karly" Rosario alerted him to the demo and stated, "These weird guys brought this demo. You've got to listen to it." Residente was working at his day job as a draftsman for an architectural firm when he received the call that Calle 13 had been signed. The group then recorded "Se Vale Tó-Tó" and released it as a single to the Puerto Rican radio station WVOZ (Mix 107), where it became a radio hit on the island. To promote the group locally, Residente directed and edited the video for "Se Vale Tó-Tó" with the help of his cousin, which was filmed on a relatively small budget of US$14,000. The duo gained recognition for their song "

", which responded to the killing of

Filiberto Ojeda Ríos Filiberto Ojeda Ríos (April 26, 1933 September 23, 2005) was a Puerto Rican independence activist and militant who cofounded the Boricua Popular Army, also known as ''Los Macheteros,'' and its predecessor, the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación ...

, a key figure for the

Puerto Rican independence movement Throughout the history of Puerto Rico, its inhabitants have initiated several movements to obtain independence for the island, first from the Spanish Empire from 1493 to 1898 and since then from the United States. A spectrum of pro-autonomy, ...

. Shortly after, the duo collaborated with

Julio Voltio Julio Voltio (born as Julio Irving Ramos Filomeno on June 11, 1977 in Santurce, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican former reggaeton artist. A pioneer of the reggaeton genre, Voltio retired from music in 2014 and dedicated himself to preaching Christi ...

on the single "

Chulin Culin Chunfly "Chulin Culin Chunfly" is the third single by Puerto Rican reggaeton performer Voltio, from his eponymous second studio album, ''Voltio''. It was released on January 23, 2006, by Sony BMG and White Lion. The album version features Residente o ...

", which reached number eight on the ''Billboard'' Hot Latin Songs chart, creating more buzz for the group. After the success of "Querido F.B.I." and "Chulin Culin Chunfly", the duo headed to the studio to record its debut album. When creating music for the record, Residente explained, "I didn't care about anything. I had no commitments, I was relaxed."13, On Being Loved And Hated In Latin America, work=''National Public Radio'', last=Garsd, first=Jasmine, date=April 5, 2014, accessdate=May 2, 2018
/ref> According to Residente, the lack of critical recognition and fame gave the rapper to express himself freely on the record. When composing songs for the album, Residente began by writing lyrics and Visitante then constructed his beats to complement the lyrical content.

Composition

Music and lyrics

The album was mostly known for its new sound in

reggaeton Reggaeton (, ), also known as reggaetón and reguetón (), is a music style that originated in Panama during the late 1980s. It was later popularized in Puerto Rico. It has evolved from dancehall and has been influenced by American Hip hop m ...

, where most of the tracks were composed of different rhythms and lyrics, without use of the

dem bow "Dem Bow" is a song performed by Jamaican reggae artist Shabba Ranks, produced by Bobby Digital. This song uses the "Ku-Klung-Klung"/"Poco Man Jam" riddim (based on the title of the 1990 Gregory Peck and Red Dragon song) created by Jamaican p ...

beat. The album is a blend of reggaeton and hip hop, all with a humorous and sarcastic feel to it in subject matter. Anthony Colombo of ''Billboard'' noted that the album contains influences "that range from formal conservatory training to street music, animation, and

Dadaism Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris ...

". The album additionally contains elements of

salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

, and

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

. The record features live percussion throughout, and some songs contain

cumbia Cumbia refers to a number of musical rhythms and folk dance traditions of Latin America, generally involving musical and cultural elements from American Indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans during colonial times, and Europeans. Examples include: ...

-influenced instrumentation. With ''Calle 13'', the group started to be labeled as reggaeton, a genre that the duo wished to distance itself from. Visitante commented on the situation: "The truth is that the first record had only four reggaetons. Those were the cuts used for promotional purposes, and so that’s the brand that was put on us. But from the beginning, to me, reggaeton never offered anything musically. My brother liked it, yes, but we always tried to execute it in an organic way, with real instruments and mixing it with other genres." On the album, Residente wished to address a diverse array of subjects as opposed to simply discussing politics, which he felt would be "a bore". Residente's

self-deprecating Self-deprecation is the act of reprimanding oneself by belittling, undervaluing, disparaging oneself, or being excessively modest. It can be used as a way to make complaints, express modesty, invoke optimal reactions or add humour. It may also be u ...

, crass, and sarcastic lyrical style garnered comparisons to American rapper

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

. Nuria Net, managing editor at Fusion, described Residente's lyrical style by explaining, "Calle 13 rapped about the female body, the nalgas, the curves, the bodily fluids ... It was so much more graphic, and poetic, but even raunchier than reggaeton and urban music 10 years ago."

Songs

"La Aguacatona" contains musical allusions to

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...

's " Summertime". The songs " Atrévete-te-te", "Suave", and "Se Vale Tó-Tó" are considered to have a party atmosphere. "Se Vale Tó-Tó" contains sexual euphemisms, including the recurring phrase "anything goes in this sausage sandwich". The song's title is a play on words, substituting "to-to", a variation on the Puerto Rican slang term for a

vagina In mammals, the vagina is the elastic, muscular part of the female genital tract. In humans, it extends from the vestibule to the cervix. The outer vaginal opening is normally partly covered by a thin layer of mucosal tissue called the hymen ...

(''"toto"''), for "todo" (all). An approximate translation of ''"se vale todo"'' is "all is allowed here" or, more accurately, "anything goes"; the song's chorus is a reference to

grinding Grind is the cross-sectional shape of a blade. Grind, grinds, or grinding may also refer to: Grinding action * Grinding (abrasive cutting), a method of crafting * Grinding (dance), suggestive club dancing * Grinding (video gaming), repetitive and ...

while dancing. The first interlude, "Intel-lú-Ayala", humorously discusses "residents" and "visitors" to Puerto Rico, using the stage names of the two band members to deride colonialism from Spain and the United States on the island.Temas, 2007. p. 38 "La Jirafa" contains

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian-influenced percussion and combined with the theme music from the 2001 French romantic comedy ''

Amélie ''Amélie'' (also known as ''Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain''; ; en, The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain, italic=yes) is a 2001 French-language romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume L ...

''. Residente described "La Jirafa" as "a pretty song, a love song for a woman, but it’s about Puerto Rico too." Writing in his book ''Reggaeton'', Raquel Z. Rivera describes " Atrévete-te-te" as "a call for liberation directed to anyone who listens, but above all to the Puerto Rican middle class, the so-called miss intellectual whose heady 'show' of racial and class superiority does not allow her to enjoy her body and dance down the hill with the rest of the reggaeton nation."Rivera, 2009. p. 337 The song "Pi-Di-Di-Di" mocks rapper

P. Diddy Sean Combs (born Sean John Combs; November 4, 1969), also known by his stage names Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Puffy, or Diddy, is an American rapper, actor, record producer, and record executive. Born in New York City, he worked as a talent directo ...

, who had come to Puerto Rico earlier to scout out new musicians, and Residente felt that he was exploiting the island.Rivera, 2009. p. 334 "Sin Coro" pokes fun at "conscious" rappers who claim to be anti-commercial and then "going to the mall to buy a pair of Nikes".Fusté, 2006. p. 146

Reception

Commercial performance

Although the album was not a huge success on the ''Billboard'' 200, only peaking at number 189, it was a major success on the ''

Top Latin Albums Top Latin Albums is a record chart published by ''Billboard'' magazine and is labeled as the most important music chart for Spanish language, full-length albums in the American music market. Like all ''Billboard'' album charts, the chart is based ...

chart, peaking in the top 10 at number six. It was also a huge success on the ''Billboard''

Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...

chart, peaking at number three. The single " Atrévete-te-te" peaked at number 15 on the ''

chart and at number six on the US Latin Tropical Airplay chart. By the end of 2006, the album had sold more than 150,000 copies in the United States alone. Worldwide, the album sold 350,000 copies.

Critical response

The album received positive reviews from critics, who praised Residente's unique lyricism and the group's musical diversity. Jason Birchmeier of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

praised the album for its unique spin on reggaeton, noting that Residente's lyrics display a "healthy sense of humor and an almost clownish approach to sarcasm...a world apart from the kingly bravado of most reggaeton vocalists, and the obligatory glimmers of misogyny and violence that accompany such streetwise swaggering." He described Visitante's beats as "inventive", enjoying the record's deviation from reggaeton's "industry-standard trademark of Luny Tunes and that production team's assembly line of bandwagon-jumping imitators." Nate Chinen of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called Residente a "lean and literate rapper" and the album "an intelligent effort, and not just by reggaetón standards." Jasmine Garsd of

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

praised Residente's lyrics, describing him as "foul-mouthed and self-deprecating, but undeniably talented" and "as funny as

e is E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plur ...

gross".

Awards

At the 2006 Latin Grammy Awards, ''Calle 13'' won three

Awards including Best Urban Music Album,

, and

for their first single "Atrévete-te-te".Search for "Calle 13"
at the winners of the 2006 Latin Grammy. Retrieved on 12 January 2013.

Track listing

All music by "Perez, Rene; Cabra, Eduardo", except where otherwise noted # "Cabe-c-o" – 3:34 # "Suave" (Smooth) – 3:34 # "La Aguacatona" (featuring

Voltio Julio Voltio (born as Julio Irving Ramos Filomeno on June 11, 1977 in Santurce, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican former reggaeton artist. A pioneer of the reggaeton genre, Voltio retired from music in 2014 and dedicated himself to preaching Christi ...

and PG-13) – 4:01 # "Se Vale To-To" (''Everything Allowed'') – 3:51 # "Intel-lú-Ayala" — 0:29 # "Tengo Hambre" (''I'm Hungry'') – 4:05 # "La Hormiga Brava" (The Brave Ant) (featuring PG-13) – 3:46 # "La Jirafa" (The Giraffe) – 3:16 # "Intel-lú la comermierda" – 0:24 # " Atrévete-te-te" (Dare you-you-you) – 4:01 # "Pi-Di-Di-Di" – 3:31 # "Vamo Animal" (Let's Go Animal) (featuring Severo Canta Claro) (Severo Canta Claro Independiente/Perez, Rene/Cabra, Eduardo) – 3:27 # "Eléctrico" (Electric) – 3:21 # "Sin Coro" (Without a Chorus) (featuring Tuna Bardos) – 3:49 # "La Tripleta" (The hat-trick) (featuring PG-13) – 3:21 # "La Madre de los Enanos" (The Mother of the Dwarfs) – 4:02 # "Suave (Blass Mix)" (Smooth (Blas Mix) – 3:40

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calle 13 (Album) 2005 debut albums Calle 13 (band) albums Latin Grammy Award for Best Urban Music Album