Ergo Pro & Ill Pekeño: "We are talking about a reality that gentlemen from Malasaña cannot talk about"

• Israel B "Musicians already see us as youtubers or influencers and people just want us to entertain them"

• Elio Toffana "I feel like a winner because urban music has gone where our proposal was going"

• Jordi Wild "I am very afraid of those who are moralists because they are the ones with the most corpses in the closet"

• Idols All previous interviews of the series

"In my neighborhood they don't clean or the mail arrives. If I don't say that, is a documentary going to do it?" asks Robert Osahon (1995) -

- at one point in the interview.

Together with Alejandro Fernández (1996), -

- they are getting the kids from half of Spain to connect with the problems of the southern neighborhoods of Madrid - they are from

and

- with sharp phrases that they chant loudly in his concerts.

Both have chained precarious jobs until just a year ago, when they were able to live from music.

The way in which they narrate their reality, class consciousness or the precariousness of humble areas is leading them to stand out on the rap scene.

Publishing together and alone, they have more than half a million monthly listeners on Spotify.

This Saturday, they return to the road with a show in Cáceres on the return of a tour that includes

in Madrid (formerly But).

QUESTION - For you, what is rap?

Anything goes?

Ergo Pro -

Rap comes from the street.

Unless you are the son of Ana Obregón and Conde Lecquio, who rapped and such the poor thing, you are generally

.

You are from a normal neighborhood and have a

realistic

In other words, anything that uses rap as a tool for an artistic ending is very cool, but I personally believe that the rap that says something is the one that talks about society at a time and does it with bad words.

One has to be a chronicler of what lives.

Pekeño -

I accept everything as rap.

Another thing is what I carry on my mobile.

Anuel as soon as he got out of jail has been rap.

Reggaeton is rap.

Q.- But now, that the urban is mainstream and that anyone can make music from home, one does not have to be from a working-class neighborhood to access those codes and imitate them

.

Q.- Let

's see, being a streamer and becoming a rapper is not rap, for example.

E.-

It is necessary to have something to say.

You have to have speech.

If not, you would write poetry or other things.

But if you like this culture you have to say things.

Q.- What kind of things?

With what purpose?

E.-

Things with the meaning that you want to give them.

It can be to try to change something or just to fuck the world.

Let it be your expression of every moment.

Pop speaks of a particular content and it is always the same.

It does not change from one artist to another.

But in rap the

changes completely

Q.-

Or to vent.

It still sounds very dinosaur, but I use it that way many times.

I write my experiences so that the kids in the neighborhood say "Oh my gosh, this also happens to me."

And look that I am a basic that you freak out.

E.-

In the end it is not so much what you say but how you say it.

That's what makes kids listen to Morad among all the rappers out there.

What I say is decisive for whoever listens to it.

For example, pop talks about a particular content and it's always the same.

It does not change from one artist to another.

But in rap the

changes completely.

It is not the same to listen to Yung Beef than to Morad.

Elio Toffana, al Isra or Bad Gyal.

Each one talks about his moves.

Ill PekeñoREDA SLAFTI

Q.- You are from different neighborhoods although they are very close to each other, does that change your

E.-

Not because they are in the southern area of ​​the capital Madrid.

There is not much difference between Orcasitas, San Cristóbal, Villaverde or Usera.

You are taking the bus and the metro all day.

Is the same.

It would be different if one of the two were from Arturo Soria or Las Rozas.

Q.- I understand.

I suppose you also include Vallecas in that case, because Ergo lived there for a few years too.

E.-

Yes, up to five years.

We lived in Buenos Aires and the building was going to collapse.

It got cracks and stuff, and we were rehoused.

There was a lot of rehousing in that time of the 2000s because there was a lot of crazy construction.

That is not talked about, but there are a lot of my colleagues who relocated them because the buildings were made to be done.

Q.- In several of these neighborhoods you have given concerts.

Now that you become more and more professional, are you going to continue doing so?

E.-

Yes, it's something that's cool.

I love singing in my neighborhood.

Q.-

Sure.

It will only depend on how many concerts we have given in Madrid.

What we don't want is to be burned.

Q.- Are you worried about losing contact with the neighborhood?

In the end it is your hallmark.

Q.-

Not me because what I like the most in my free time is going down to drink beer and eat some olives in the neighborhood.

E.-

What's up, what's up.

I think that class change only happens when you go from being poor to being a millionaire.

Those of us who are not number 1 on Spotify continue to live in the same house.

Q.- And would you sign to be top 1?

Q.-

I do.

We could make beautiful videos, beautiful covers, I would pay for my mother's house...

E.-

Me too.

When you have nothing, everything that comes is welcome.

Q.- Even if that could change your art?

rap

.

E.-

I believe that C. Tangana has been the one who has wanted to open up to the mainstream.

It is his conscious plan from minute one and that means accepting collaborations with José Feliciano instead of with Future.

But it's cool because he wants to reach an audience that a normal rapper can't reach.

Ergo ProREDA SLAFTI

Q.- So you assume that what you do is a type of music that has a ceiling in its growth.

E.-

Yes, and it is what we want to destroy.

It's like our paranoia.

If the people who listen to us are the same.

But there's kind of a weird conceptual gap.

Rap doesn't play on the radio unless you're Morad.

Literal.

And there are cool proposals that don't swear.

It still needs to be taken seriously by people who aren't rappers.

Q.-

The media respect us more and more.

You can already see Elio here or Tote in La Resistencia.

That's cool.

Where I am never going to go will be El Hormiguero with that imbecile.

Q.- Do you think that to achieve media attention the rapper is required more than the musician of another genre?

E.-

Sure.

A few years ago you kicked off and an indie group came out.

It pays more for the company to pay submission, not a speech that questions you.

That is why they prefer someone who sings about heartbreak or about being sad, primary emotions, to a person who makes concrete analyzes and puts realities on the fore.

In my neighborhood they don't clean or the mail arrives.

If I don't say that, is a documentary going to do it?

The people of my neighborhood have to go to another to get the newspaper and the Telepizza does not arrive.

Things like that.

And it is Madrid capital!

We speak of a reality that the lords of Malasaña cannot speak of.

When something comes out of our neighborhood it's all ruin and drama

Q.-

Sure.

The packages do not arrive, the food at home does not arrive either, there is no leisure... If you want to go to the gym, you have to catch the subway.

E.-

It does not prosper.

Q.-

And the media only goes for bad things.

Only when there is some crime, but not when we give a concert there with two thousand people or when educators or those from associations hold workshops for children.

E.-

When something comes out it's all ruin and drama.

Q.- With your music do you think you can achieve some change in this sense?

Q.-

Yes. Let's see, I don't know what exact impact it can have.

But we have gone to Palestine, he has made a thread on Twitter about the reality there and has had more impact with the tweets than if Telemadrid or LaSexta had done it.

We can get people to see a reality and to think about things.

E.-

Yes, we create awareness.

When I sing "the one you call mena is called Sufian" I'm saying "kids, don't despise people. They are little children who come from Morocco and have a first and last name".

And, with that, I understand that many people no longer use the word ore because maybe they didn't know it.

But, at the same time, I am also a nest of contradictions as a person.

I'm a kid, so I'll be macho.

Well, this one will be racist because he's white even though we're together all day.

I have my shit and it's a continuous fight of deconstruction.

You have to be at a strong level to be a good person consistently and build awareness from there.

Ergo Pro Ill PekeñoREDA SLAFTI

Q.- But when a person is giving speeches you always look more closely at what he does.

E.-

But the fact that I am contradictory does not invalidate my speech.

As long as you don't do something crazy like kill or rape, you can be contradictory.

Q.-

That's it.

It is that you are in continuous learning.

Q.- Since when can you say that you "live from music"?

E.- We

survived.

Since now a year.

When you're

, money comes in, but it goes away.

You've filled a room, okay, but I've paid for the video, the theme, the room, my life as a person, VAT... Then you say "gosh, the whole gang knows me and I'm

".

Q.- I understand that it is equally worth it.

Q.-

Yes, it's worth it.

I can give my old lady money and put gasoline in the car.

And if I feel like one day I can put up the food bars.

E.-

But look how we are dressed, we are in tracksuits!

People are very wrong.

Spotify pays nothing, pays very little.

And YouTube less.

A million visits on

are two thousand euros.

People are very wrong.

Spotify pays very little.

And YouTube less

Q.-

Less VAT!

And take away the producer, the video... We don't know about working.

E.-

Listen, little brother, we left the job a year ago.

That we sold sneakers in a store.

Q.- What do you think that rap and the urban are increasingly being listened to by more and more people of all kinds who are not necessarily "from the neighborhood"?

E.-

I love that a family from the center is singing

de Morad.

It is what we need, that anyone can listen to.

Music is music.

Q.-

And in the end you can't control it either.

E.-

You can't do anything, but in the end it's better that they eat our codes.

That this is heard at home and then on the street they don't see it as another world, which is what happened before.

That I, literally, have gone for Serrano and they have

me and grabbed my bag.

Let them know that there are many people from many countries and cultures.

Q.- What is the achievement you are most proud of?

Q.-

On a personal level, it makes me very happy to release work and records.

And then touring with your colleague in Spain and reaching out to people.

E.-

For me it has been leaving a mark.

It's what I wanted.

My fucking dream was to make a record that could be heard by later generations.

Now I have to make new dreams for myself, as Dano says.

Because what I have been chasing for 27 years has already arrived.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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