We kick off the very first episode of our weekly U-LAB Podcast with a special guest: René Pérez Joglar, also known as Residente. This writer, rapper and founder of the Latin GRAMMY-award winning urban group Calle 13 recently released his first solo album, titled Residente, as well as an accompanying documentary about his travels around the world. For Residente (the album and the film), the artist took a DNA test that took him to more than a dozen countries where he recorded music with local musicians, including throat singers in Siberia, an opera singer in China, a Tuareg guitarist in Ghana, and many others.
Residente thinks the Puerto Rican anthem “sucks” so he wrote a song to honor his homeland
Listen to the first episode of the U-LAB Podcast featuring Residente:
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Nuria Net.
The album and documentary end in his native Puerto Rico, where the rapper wrote 'Hijos del Cañaveral', a jíbaro ode to his island that is, in a way, a new kind of anthem for the US territory. "I think our anthem sucks," says Residente. "I wanted to sing something that I can sing with honor and pride, that's why I did this song."
In this inaugural episode of U-LAB Podcast, Residente talks to U-LAB Music’s Nuria Net about the creative process behind his new album and documentary, the moment in first grade where he realized he was a good writer, how farthest he had ever traveled to before he started touring was Disney World and how he got Lin-Manuel Miranda (his cousin) to rap in the intro for Residente.
Here are two highlight clips from the full interview, which you can listen to above. Subscribe to the weekly U-LAB Podcast on Audioboom and iTunes.
'I think our anthem sucks," says the Puerto Rican rapper and artist Residente on the first episode of the U-Lab Podcast. For that reason, he wrote the song 'Hijos del Cañaveral': "I wanted to sing something that I can sing with honor and pride, that's why I did this song," says Residente.
Video Residente thinks Puerto Rico's anthem "sucks" so he wrote a song "that I can sing with honor and pride"
For the first episode of U-LAB's podcast, rapper René Pérez Joglar told U-LAB Music's Nuria Net of his earliest memories of travel and writing: "I was creative since I was a kid, I remember writing when I was in first grade," he said. "The teacher asked us to write stories and I wrote a story and it was very funny. Since I was a kid I've been writing."
Video Residente caught the writing bug in the first grade
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In the first episode of the U-LAB Podcast, Residente talks to U-LAB’s Nuria Net about the creative process behind his new album and documentary, the moment in first grade where he realized he was a good writer and how he got Lin-Manuel Miranda to rap in his album. Photos by Elisa Quero.
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