Xavier Herrero |
Madrid (EFE).- From the Canary Islands as one of the great epicenters of urban music in Spain, Maikel Delacalle publishes this Friday “Códigos”, his long-awaited first full-length album, seven years after having broken into a market very different from the that exists today for styles such as rap, reggaeton or r&b.
“I paved the way for beasts like Quevedo to emerge,” he proudly proclaimed during an interview with EFE, recalling that when he rose to fame in 2016 directly from the street that gives him his name, there were hardly any references. “There weren’t so many social networks, only YouTube, and Tangana and I were there, Rosalía was starting and Cruz Cafuné and Bejo were behind them,” he points out.
Happy for the platform for the takeoff of talent that has been created in this time for these musicians, the Tenerife native Mikel Cabello (Granadilla de Abona, 1994) says he feels very identified with the phenomenon of his countryman Quevedo, who collaborates on his LP in the remix of “Mi nena” and with it exceeds 43 million views on Spotify.
“It is as if the same thing was happening to me but in other magnitudes. Even so, Quevedo’s thing will never be normal, he is one in a million, because he not only has talent, which he has a lot of, but he also has a great work team and he is doing what he is doing with his feet on the ground, because any kid in his position would be selling his soul to the devil”, he highlights.
That’s what this first album is about, staying true to personal coordinates or “Códigos” (Virgin), a word that has been tattooed on the back of his neck and that led him to write and record the different songs with care for three and a half years.
“Right now I have a freedom that is not only personal but also musical that many artists would envy. I was at that point myself, because there is nothing better than being able to express yourself how you want and ‘Códigos’ is that fullness: from the first song to the last, I sing what I want, the way I want, always respecting my way of speak and write,” he says.
After the first cut, which bears the title of the album and which Delacalle conceived as “a complaint” with a certain base of apocalyptic epic, the rest of the songs acquire a much more romantic tone and his usual good hand for building r&b melodies “until doing a reggaeton”.
“I wanted people to relive in Spanish what I experienced in the 2000s, when I got into my father’s car and one of those CDs of what was then called black music played, where you could find rap songs, r&b or gospel with Craig David or Lauryn Hill”, he explained about the spirit of this project.
Gone are the times of his first EP, “Calle y fe” (2018), and even more so of his first song, “Ganas (remix)”, which he recorded with the help of “a little boy” who charged him 50 euros in exchange. . “I didn’t even have the 50 bucks, but the guy, who was my colleague, trusted me, and so I made three without paying him anything,” he recalls about the stage prior to his signing by the multinational Universal Music.
“Today it’s the opposite, because you work differently regardless of money, because that’s the least of it when you already have enough to live on,” he says of an album in which, however, he voluntarily dispensed with bombastic collaborations, beyond that of the bestseller Quevedo.
What remains of the boy from the juvenile center
In this regard, who in the past rubbed shoulders with Justin Quiles and prides himself on being a friend of J Balvin or other international figures, alleges that he wanted to be faithful to the premise of “Códigos” and only invite countrymen like the singer Eva Ruiz ” so that it would be something autochthonous, because this is also the time of the Canarian people”.
In this sense, it is worth asking if Maikel Delacalle, the guy who went through a juvenile center at the age of 16, if seven years later he continues to identify himself with his artistic surname.
“Daddy Yankee says in his film: ‘You can take a man off the street, but never a man’s street.’ I cannot forget everything that I have lived and learned, all the things that have made me who I am. Of course, I no longer stay on the street like before, but I am up to date on everything and I am still his representative so that when someone needs to say something, I am his speaker ”, he insists.
After passing through several festivals this summer, in September he will officially start the presentation tour in theaters of “Códigos”, clinging to the same premise of authenticity that the title displays. “And that’s why they’re going to see me sing in the company of a choir and it’s not all going to be pre-recorded, but with live music,” he says. EFE