The controversial Puerto Rican group Calle 13 premiered their new single ‘Multi Viral’ last week on November 13.
René Pérez, known as Residente, collaborated with artists like Tom Morello, former guitarist for the band Rage Against the Machine, and Palestinian singer-songwriter, Kamilya Jubran . But the most interesting member yet, was the persecuted CEO and founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, with whom he collaborated in the Ecuadorian embassy in England, where the Australian has been cooped up since June of this year after sexual assault allegations forced him to leave Switzerland.
The idea for the record was also born the month of June, when Pérez and Assange proposed their Twitter followers to compose a song together. After thousands of emails, the duo chose the best pieces and began to put together the “puzzle “.
Like many of their most recent singles, Multi Viral is a call to consciousness for many citizens who feel repressed by the state, it is a criticism of the biased press and corruption in the political system. Inspired by activists such as the Spanish 15-M and the Mexican group # Soy132, the artist and his collaborators remind the listeners of the power and the right they have to knock down an unjust political system.
“We live in a world that your propaganda made / But where you think you are strong, you are weak / Your lies tell us the truth we will use against you / Your secrecy shows us where we will strike / Your weapons reveal your fear for all to see / From Cairo to Quito a new world is forming / the power of people armed with the truth.” Is the stanza rendered by Assange, and it is one of the most directly addressed to the state.
Although more than half of the song is in Spanish the stage is shared by other languages, amongst them English and Arabic. By including several languages Perez sought a viral impact. His main objective was to make his work scour the web and other media with the speed of a virus and that manner, have it impact ways of thinking, because as he says in his single, “with only one person who reads it, the world begins to change.”
Although the idea of using art to communicate feelings is not novel, having launched so many anti-political ideas especially in collaboration with the notorious cybercriminal Assange, who was charged for publishing of classified U.S. information in collaboration with U.S. military in 2010, Calle 13 has become an even bigger target for more critics.
For now the single remains within the Hispanic and European community but until it takes off in the United States we may not see the overarching impact of this work. Aside from his message and featuring one of the best guitarists of all time, according to Rolling Stone, the single itself is a contrast between rap and rock combined with some techno. It is an unconventional yet catchy combination of audio clips. This track is definitely worth listening to, if not for its ideas of social reform, then out of pure artistic curiosity.
