Chile, the longest and thinnest country in our hemisphere, has culturally gifted the world in literature, poetry and music. After all, it is the land of Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda and Violeta Parra. For the past couple of decades in Chile, the legacy of artful language and music has coalesced into its own unique manifestation of hip-hop, and rapera Ana Tijoux is quickly rising to become its empress ambassador.
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In that effort, her second album, 1977, yielded a FIFA 11 video-game song by the same title that makes mention of Tijoux's name synonymous with the pre-chorus hook, “Mil novecientos setenta y ssh!” Tijoux's flow, mostly in Spanish but partly in French, tends toward crisply staying in the pocket in its orderly delivery.
The Grammy-nominated rapera came through Southern California back in February and spoke with the Weekly, but unfortunately skipped over OC. This time around, she's headed our way stopping at House of Blues Anaheim tomorrow as part of a Nacional Records 7th Anniversary Road Trip tour including Los Amigos Invisibles and others.
Here's five reasons you should take the opportunity to check Tijoux's rhymes live.
1. The title song off her last album “1977” is reason enough!
“I made that track not thinking that it was going to be the name of the
album,” Tijoux told me back in February. “For me, it always has been complicated to make an
autobiographical song about myself because it's so egocentric in a
certain way, but at the same time, I was remembering my childhood.”
I was tuned into a live stream of the femcee's performance at Mexico City's huge music festival in April and found myself waving my arm up in the air as she rocked the mic. Check out “Partir de Cero” below and see what awaits come Thursday.
The official website of Ana Tijoux generously offered the free mixtape Elefant to fans in February. (you can still get it if you haven't already!) Cuts off of 1977 are remixed in the collection that manages to stay fresh. Check out the official music video for the mixtape below.
“Hip-hop right now is the universal language,” Tijoux said in my interview with her. “There can be a ghetto in São Paulo, Santiago, Oakland, and all the topics repeat over and over again. The population wants access to education, health or whatever. Hip-hop is the common language. I have always seen hip-hop as a new country.” Check the interview below with Davey D where she expands on that notion.
Latin folk playing, which is a kind of folk with a lot of lyrics,” Tijoux said in our interview. “It's
not hip-hop, but in the way I see it right now, it is very hip-hop. At
the same time, I used to listen to N.W.A and African music, so I love
music in general. Even right now, I don't like to close myself to one
style of music. I think music is so amazing and a universal language of
love.” You can see what's in her bag in this Amoeba Records feature.
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Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!