Reggaetón making its way into the pop mainstream

Ed Morales
December 16, 2007


Over the past year or so, reggaetón - once too violent and salacious for prime time - has been mutating into something that strongly resembles pop music. Prodded by producers like Luny Tunes and the irrepressibly experimental Calle 13, the relentless bump-and-grind gangsta imperative has been finely retuned into something that sounds like "The Chronic"-era hip-hop with a strong Caribbean feel. When you listen to Voltio's new album, "En lo Claro" (Sony Norte), the process seems complete.

Sounding more like Cypress Hill's B-Real than Snoop Dogg, Voltio (nee Julio Irving Ramos Filomeno) has suddenly become a dominant voice in the genre. His 2005 self-titled debut album drew praise for its storytelling, innovation and groundbreaking cover of the Héctor Lavoe hit "Julito Maraña." But "En lo Claro (Frankly Speaking)" so successfully navigates Puerto Rican street culture's rawness, playful sarcasm and salsa roots that it challenges Calle 13 and Daddy Yankee for urban album of the year.

The album is ambitiously eclectic, ranging from the bubble-gum reggaetón of "Pónmela (Put It There for Me)" featuring hitmakers Jowell y Randy and "Un Amor Como Tú (A Love Like You)" with Arcángel, to the vallenato-infused satire of "El Mellao (The Man With Missing Teeth)" and a salsa dura tune "Pelea (Fight)" that sounds like it's off Willie Colón's first album. In a startlingly effective ballad/hip-hop fusion, Voltio trades verses with the late great Tito Rodríguez in "Yo Se Que Tiemblas (I Know You Tremble)," which remakes a Tito Curet Alonso bolero from the '60s.

Many of reggaetón's basic elements are present in "En lo Claro," and not just as vestigial traces of the hot-and-bothered party music. "Me Pones Mal (You Make Me Bad)," produced by the trendy Nely is a high-concept wall-of-dembow strut about an irresistible dance-floor attraction, and "Pónmela" rhymes "la mini" with bikini and Houdini with a coy innocence that resonates with its revival of post-disco DJ Arthur Baker's "Planet Rock" rhythms.

Outside of a couple of Tego Calderón tracks, there haven't been many rock-meets-reggaetón tracks to recall Run DMC's and Aerosmith's "Walk This Way," but here Voltio calls on Puerto Rican rockers Vivanativa on "Feka" with surprisingly strong results. Taking a page from Calle 13, Voltio goes cumbia on "Cristina," a hilarious duet with Yerba Buena vocalist Cucu Diamantes.

"En lo Claro's" musical experimentation is so attention-grabbing that you can almost miss how much skill Voltio has as a lyricist. His tongue-twisting intensity appears on "Tú Te Crees (You Think)," and his storytelling carries "Perdóname." But he really gets a lot off his chest on the title track, a rapid-fire meditation on his personal triumph over a sketchy past that included prison time.

While street-tough posturing has long been a staple of reggaetón and hip-hop MCs, Voltio proves his "realness" by including a DVD of a live performance from Oso Blanco, Puerto Rico's largest prison. When he performs "Julito Maraña," about the death of a gangster, with his live band before a crowd of prisoners, you can feel the connection he's making. "I carry you guys in my heart because I know the suffering of the imprisoned," and frankly speaking, he does.