Tego Calderón

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Tego Calderón

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Tegui Calderón Rosario (born February 1 1972 in Santurce, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican reggaeton rapper. He is best known as Tego Calderon. He does not only record reggaeton music but also hip hop music. His album El Abayarde made him a major Latin star. His lyrics speak of the struggles of the Puerto Rican people, involve topics of racism, inequalities, and Ghettos in Puerto Rico, and have strong nationalistic undertones.

Calderon attended high school in Miami Beach, Florida. He got the multicultural exposure he later called upon in creating genre-crossing reggaeton, which may have shaped his stylistic range and his ease in collaborating with US musicians. Calderón says that his parents were die-hard fans of Ismael Rivera, and that Rivera's innovative salsa music influenced him. He lists his father's love of jazz as another influence (for instance, a solo trumpet playing a slower version of Minnie The Moocher by Cab Calloway is used as the backbeat of his first single, Abayarde). Calderón eventually studied percussion and created his own rhythmic style that combined the sounds of salsa, plena, dancehall, and hip-hop. Lyric-wise, he combined slang of the 1960s with current slang and tales of barrio life. Calderón made a couple appearances on other Latin rappers' albums before the White Lion label signed the artist. Issued in 2002, El Abayarde became Calderón's full-length debut. An instant success, El Abayarde sold 50,000 copies during its first month, and propelled Calderón into Latin music superstardom.

Returning to Miami led to an increase in the dancehall flavor of his music. This, combined with Calderón's outspoken viewpoint that salsa had become too corporate and too safe, made the 2004 album El Enemy de los Guasíbiri a punchier, more hectic, more street affair. With the reggaeton genre blowing up with New York City's hip-hop tastemakers and spreading its influence farther and farther, Calderón soon found himself fielding offers from hip-hop producers while landing tracks on numerous street-level mixtapes. His voice ended up on remixes of Usher's "Yeah," Fat Joe's "Lean Back," and N.O.R.E.'s "Oye Mi Canto".

In the summer of 2005, Calderón inked a deal between Atlantic Records and his own independent label, Jiggiri Records, making him the first reggaeton artist to have a deal with a major record company[Latin Rap News - "Tego Calderon Signs Global Deal with Atlantic"]. His first album under the deal is titled "The Underdog" (El Subestimado) and is set for release on August 29th, 2006.

At the listening party for his upcoming album, Tego explained that he no longer considerse himself as a reggaeton artist because the subgenre of music has become too commercial[Reggaeton Music News: Tego Calderon "Underdog" Album Listening Party]. Tego stated that reggaeton is becoming too much like pop music and doesn't let his children listen to it at home unless its on the radio. Calderón's upcoming album will have blues, rock and salsa sounds, making it different from most new reggaeton albums.

Discography

El Abayarde (2002)
El Enemy de los Guasíbiri (2004)
The Underdog/El Subestimado (2006)

External links

References

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