NPR Music - Alt.Latino: Rapper PJ Sin Suela on Puerto Rican hip-hop and more

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

Anamaria Sayre talks about the history of Puerto Rican hip-hop with rapper PJ Sin Suela. Featured artists and songs:• PJ Sin Suela & Chuwi, "Escúchame "• PJ Sin Suela, "Es La Hora"• Nuff Ced & Tek 1, "Metrópolis"• PJ Sin Suela, Siete Nueve & Messy Deprat , "Illegal 2.0"• E.A. Flow, "D'Aqui"• Intifada, Luis Diaz & Yallzee "Albizu"• Los Pleneros de La Cresta, "Los de la Isla"• Bad Bunny & Los Pleneros de La Cresta, "CAFé CON RON"• Tego Calderón, "Gracias"• Ñejo Y Dálmata, "Asi Es la Vida"• PJ Sin Suela, "San Dunga"• PJ Sin Suela, "Mambrú" • PJ Sin Suela, "Vivo" • PJ Sin Suela & Jorge Drexler, "Todo Se Complica"CreditsAudio for this episode of Alt.Latino was edited and mixed by Lauren Migaki. Our project manager is Grace Chung. NPR Music's executive producer is Suraya Mohamed. Our VP of Music and Visuals is Keith Jenkins.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

What's up, PJ? What's up? Okay, this... Podermos to say it. Seguro? Cool. I might spanglish some... That's fine.

You're already in trouble for saying... I can't talk bad. This is going to be really hard for PJ. No. From NPR music, this is All Latino. I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Let the Chisemes May begin. And the Chisemey this week is that I'm taking over.

Yes, Felix is out. Don't worry. He'll be back next week. And in the meantime, I brought my boy PJ Sinsuela to be a co-host of sorts with me. For those who don't know, P.J. Sinsuela is a Puerto Rican rapper, hip-hop artist, who came up with the likes of Bad Bunny, Rao Alejandro, and a lot of other big regattoneros you know today. This is PJ's song, Esquatchewater.

PJ has spent years voicing concerns about the government and pushing for political and social change in his music. He's one of many Puerto Ricans who sound off when things get difficult on the island. Demanding change. At his live shows, he leads dancing crowds to chant. Las Plias on the Pueblo, not de las tourists, meaning the beaches are of the people, not of the tourists. He and many other artists lent their art. art to the most recent elections where they campaigned for the opposing party, La Alianza. Like so much Puerto Rican music, PJ's work is deeply rooted in protest.

This is PJ Senzuela's song, Es Laura. The politicians no robin for povres, robin for pork, that me censure in my concerto, and although I have a list and an alpun for the tiburon, no busk, a discussion, we have a conversation, no is PNP or PPD,

my abuel, contra-nietos, are those who are who are man in this isla, What we're going to do is we're going to break down a little bit of hip hop in Puerto Rico. I honestly did not know a ton about the hip hop scene of the 90s. So I wanted to bring you on to share a little bit about what the history of it was, what it looks like now, your place in it, all that kind of stuff. Sure.

Sound cool. I'm not an expert either, but I'm a fan. You told me you were an expert. But I'm a fan. Actually, it's more like early to, thousands, I would say. I was born in 89. So it was like the music that I grew up listening to probably when I was like 13, 14, 15. Well, so take me back. What was your introduction? My introduction to like Puerto Rican hip hop was probably when I was like 14 or 15. Before that I was listening to like blink 182 and stuff. And my best

friend called Gabriel Bidal, he used to make CDs of these new songs that came, that of his older brother. And that's how I found out about who was Tech One, 7-9, EA Flow, Intifada. Nofsaid. Tell me what is the delito. Nace, to respirate. No, I need a license

to come in. Any a passport to open the eyes and miral. Yeah, flow, check. Yeah, Puerto Rico in the world.

I'm from a mountain that's in a love of my color, from here from my color, and here comes to your hair,

in a theater much more more near you. What he said is that the government in Puerto Rico no control a porto,

that you're not a rito. From hip hop to reggaeton to bomba and plena, the tiny island of Puerto Rico has an incredibly outsized impact on the music of today, some of the biggest music in the world right now. To understand why and how that is, we have to go way back.

When people ask like, why does Puerto Rico have such a big influence in the music scene? I always say it's probably one of three things. One is la pureza, to be the mixla, as Harabe de Palo. We have influence from Africa in the slave trade and people who move there, Spain, who came and conquered, United States, who came bombarding and conquered.

We are always, since we're small, we're always traveling. Like, it's rare to see, oh, 15 or 16-year-old in Puerto Rico who hasn't traveled to Orlando at least once or to New York or to Pennsylvania or New Jersey because they have family members, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters who are living in the United States. And also being so small, everybody is trying to look for an opportunity to expand and export their music. And we do have a lot of Spanish and a lot of influence from the music in the United States. Salsa was born in Puerto Rico and Cuba, but also in New York at the same time.

and our hip hop definitely has influence from mostly probably East Coast hip-hop but also West Coast. Reggeton, I would say it has a lot of influence from Panama. They were the first ones to do it and Jamaica probably. But it's also in the way we speak and the way the culture and the dress code, it has a lot of United States influence too. Well, and it's interesting because when you're talking about hip-hop and reggaeton side by side, both independently influenced by experiences of black marginalization, right?

Like on the hip-hop side, that's the black experience in the U.S., and then on the reggaeton side, the black experience in Panama and eventually in Puerto Rico. So it's like there's this alignment there that actually is derivative of two distinct experiences. I agree. And reggaeton was like illegal, not illegal. but frowned upon, I guess. When it started in Puerto Rico, it was like,

ah, the people who listen to reggaeton are, like, I don't know how to say it in English, like, del barrio, or people who don't have money, or, like, like, marginalized. That it also happened with salsa. And I think that's what gives it its power. Like, parents don't want you to listen to it. So when you're, my first CD, my mom broke it.

I remember she was like, they had given to me, she put in the radio two songs, and she was like, bam, bro. You can't listen to this. But obviously, I was probably like in sixth grade. And it was talking about smoking and having sex and having a gun. What was the CD? Playero Cinqueathetre was the name of it.

I remember. By. By DJ Praallero. Because the beginning of regettone, just like probably hip-hop, the first albums were DJs. Because they had the equipment to record people and they would record a whole bunch of different artists. It was more like a kind of a mixtape. Quick pause. We cannot talk about Puerto Rican protest music or hip-hop without talking about bomba and plena.

Two, deeply percussive styles of music featuring distinct drums with African roots born in Afro-Purterican communities. Los Plenado de la Cresta is just one of the contemporary groups keeping Plena traditional live. You probably heard them. And they sound recently on things as big as Bad Bunny's latest album. The song Café con Ron is one of theirs. Beyond the danceable beats, the lyrics that comes from marginalized communities has utilitarian origins. The stories serve as a means to share information, express feelings that would otherwise stay dormant. Bomba was created by enslaved Africans on the island in the 16th century,

while Plena evolved from Bomba in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Bomba and plena of past and present are always protest. You have to understand. They weave these stories about community struggle. There's always been an underground scene of Bomba and Plena that are doing protest music. Bomba and Plena has always been solidario with having something to say

and about caring but which what's happening in Puerto Rico and Latin America for example did you feel like there was a

connection and because when we're talking about referring to Boma and Plena that's like such a distinct in my at least sonically

style of music from from hip-hop was there any level of a connection? Yes, I'm sure 100% Plena

came from El Barrio and from talking about what your neighbor was doing and your grandmother to what was affecting them and you're still basically rhyming you could rhyme differently

some people do decimas which is a different type of rhyme scheme but you're basically talking and rapping in Plena specifically and I think that where hip hop comes from that's the birth of these type of music genres come from struggle and come from looking for a way to talk and get it out of your chest what's affecting you and affecting your community.

For PJ in the early 2000s, as he was ditching his blink 182 for hip-hop mixed CDs, Teo Calderon was taking all these historical roots and making something new. And suddenly Teo Calderon was like a huge. huge hit. And he was one of the first ones who integrated, like the rap world would be like Tego is Honduro, because Tego was doing reggaeton, but he would incorporate bomba, plena, boleros. That was typical music from Puerto Rico. And he would also, even though he was dissing someone, he was also talking about his black community and how the economy and being poor affected the

his entorno musical so he was the first one I remember who was mixing hip-hop with other sounds but was giving respect

back to the community and talking about important issues so you sent me a little bit of so you sent me a song a Tego song Grazie can you tell me a little bit

about why you picked that song That's one of my favorite tego songs. Grazias is a very important song. And it's a song that he's saying thank you to his public. But while he says thank you, he also touches, like, social issues about poverty and his Latin and black community and being from Loisa. important song because it's a song that people who wouldn't listen to protest music would listen to because it's Tego.

But it did introduce like, oh look what Tego's talking about, it's important. Okay, so that was Tego Calderon, his song, Grasias. Now PJ, when I think Tego, I think mostly a regittonero is what people think of him as an original. Why, like when your association of hip-up and rap on the island, why is that who you came up with first? I have a different perspective on what maybe a rapper is than most people. In Puerto Rico, people who want to live off music usually go and do reggaeton. In Puerto Rico, most rappers started doing hip-hop and boom-bub, and then they do something like regettone or something danceable with salsa

and it usually works because we love to party, we love to dance that's in our blood. It relates with Cuba and Dominican Republic and Puerto Ricans are always traveling being a colony from the United States. There are more Puerto Ricans living in Florida and New York than in Puerto Rico.

So Tego is hip-hop. Even if he does regettone and sansa and bumba and plena, for me he is hip-hop. because he raps and he respects the culture. And that's where I put the difference, not so much in the music you make. It's interesting to me that you make this distinction because I think that the way reggaeton has been sold

or the history of reggaeton has been sold to the rest of the world is often actually associating it as this, like, basic form of Puerto Rican protest music. Like, that's kind of like the origin story that many people are told. and you're making this distinction of reggaeton being the sellable product and hip hop being the actual more like off-sides, representative protest music. Is that accurate? Like where, where is that line for you? Was there a point where reggaeton was that? And why has hip-hop become that? I think that what you're saying in Puerto Rico, there's very little reggaeton artists who would touch social aspects of music. Like reggaeton's bass,

If you listen to the subject matters, it's very violent because we live in a colonized island where there's a lot of violence, where there's economic struggles, where people have to leave Puerto Rico to find opportunities and jobs. It's very violent. It's very nightlifey, like going out to the club, cheating on your wife or going out with a woman who has a husband. they repeat a lot of those subject matters. But there are some artists who touch protest music doing regettone. But there is like an underground movement of hip-hop and other type of music that is probably typical from Puerto Rico and it's not very big in other countries,

like La Bono de la Plena. That Babboni used them in this album. We have people like Los Pleners of La Cresta, Chui, Elijo Borike, and other rappers that made music that is purely social or personal. They will talk about their personal struggle and talk about love stories, but it feels very authentic. But reggaeton artists, if you see how they dress and the artists they like, it comes from Nejo, listen.

to Biggie and to Tupac and to certain East Coast or West Coast rappers. Janky, I talked with him about this one day that I met him. The music he used to like is all of these rappers from Lil Kim to Ludacris to, so there's this connection between like English hip-hop and Puerto Rican reggaeton and Puerto Rican hip-hop. Well, it is interesting to me, though, that you bring up this idea of like the value or even like the protest value of talking about just life reflecting life accurately in your art this is an interesting debate for me that comes up a lot with um there's like a pretty heavy

split of people that are like this is promoting narco content this is promoting violence versus people saying but this is our reality and this is reflecting that and I think think you hear that come up a lot with rap and hip hop both in a lot of places in the world in the U.S. Damien with the history that it has here. I mean, what you're describing to me to a certain extent is like some of these artists just reflecting what is and what is isn't always positive. I think it's a balance. I think it became pop and cool to talk about guns and buying, killing. And then some people who are not living that, then talk about it. it because it makes them popular.

If all your songs are about buying a gun and killing someone, then obviously there's something wrong about it. But if it's your tuentorno, like, it's what you're seeing, what you're living, then it's what you're going to talk about. And I think that now we have like con artists. We have people who are doing it because it is what they're living and what they're seeing and they become popular. And then you have other people who are like, ooh, this is what people are.

are liking. So they start exaggerating and trying to be that. And that becomes a problem, really. Okay, but you say that there are reggaeton artists who do hip hop and are influenced by artists like Biggie or Tupac. Can you give me an example of a Yankee or a Niejo song that you think of as hip-hop? Niejo has a whole bunch. Uh-huh. Such is life. Such is life. And he talks about living in a neighborhood where there's 15-year-old girl in the corner prostituing herself and how his friend is selling drugs and how he started, he became rich and bought a expensive car and then was poor again and had to start his drug again. And even though it may not be directly talking about political issues, he's a. He is describing the social and economic struggle in his entorno or his surrounding.

That was, Asi's La Vida by Nejo. Now, J. You have talked to me a little bit about Nejo being an influence for you. Why? Like, what about his music? Have you gravitated to it? What was it about it that made you... Well, now, he's one of my best friends. So that's one thing. No, I love him. He wasn't always. No, he wasn't.

He sang at my prom. And I opened for him. Puerto Rico is really small. He's like the rapper who's from where I'm from. He's probably the biggest rapper that's from Ponce. Other than his music, I like that he does like a lot of storytelling and perfect rhymes. And he's like a happy rapper because he can mix. social and economic struggles with going out to party and drinking and smoking. And I could relate

in my high school and college life. But him personally, more as a person, he's inspired me. Just because he's someone who's never forgotten where he's from, he cares a lot about dogs. Puerto Rico has over a million dogs in the street. So that's his social. So uri-eranito da arena, like we say. He puts his positive influence into that, and I just love him. The core of what Niecho and PJ make is aligned. PJ knew he always wanted to have political elements in his sound, but he wasn't thinking of it as a career.

The light bulb didn't go off for him until he got to med school. And then I moved to Philly for two years, and I was going to study medicine. So I was like, I'm just going to do hip-hop because it's what I like. I don't have to do music to lift off music or to, I want to do what I love. And I started doing hip-hop.

And there was a scene who we were only doing hip-hop or trap in that moment. And we used to upload music to SoundCloud. And that was Albarodia, Mike Towers, Bray, Babboni, Joy Santana, Rao Alejandro, me, Fuete Villete, we were like a group who we were mostly doing only like hip hop and trap. PJ got his MD in 2015. That's right, PJ Sinsuela is an actual medical doctor who practices currently in Puerto Rico.

And he directs a free clinic on the island. He also pitches in during big stints of need on the island like during Hurricane Maria or COVID. So around this time, you said that. 2016, 2017, you're part of this kind of SoundCloud era of releasing music. You stuck with hip-hop and rap, more or less? Or what were you making at this point? I did only hip-hop. Like, I'm just going to do hip-hop.

And then 2017-2018, I did a song called Sandunga. That was my first song that was, like, danceable. I had done before when I was like my old songs, when I had like duels. But my first as a solo artist, as PJ Enzuela, that I was like, ah, I'm going to do this because I love it. And I don't care if I do music for like singing in front of people or being at a club. I'm just going to like get my feelings out. The first song that I did that was in hip-hop, Se llamasandunga, and it was my first song in the radio. So that changed like a lot of those santo,

I'm having those two issues. I sang that song in Las Cajette I dropped it in January. And even though it's actually like, am I selling out? Como having those two issues. Because I sang that song in Las Calley of San Sebastian.

I dropped it in January. And even though it's a danceable song, I, it has, it has, Tienes sonido de bomba. and I made a story out of it. Sandunga is like a saint. And I had a Puerto Rican artist sculpt a saint

because I wanted to, I'm going to do a song that you can dance to and that it's kind of regettong, then I want to have like culture around it. And that song, I performed it in La Fiesta de Galles San Sebastian, which is probably the biggest festival in Puerto Rico. And in that moment,

that was, I think, yeah, Trump was the president back then. And the mayor of San Juan was called Carmen Juring. And they had had like a fight because she had said some words about him. And she got on open stage and she danced the song. So she like perio Sandunga and that went viral. And that's why the song got on the radio because people started playing it. Because she had danced the song. But I was still like on, that was probably my first.

a song that put me in the, like, I'm not an underground artist anymore. Okay, I'm going to make you listen to some of this song. So at that point, that kind of set a trajectory for you, if you're being associated with this kind of politically charged moment with the mayor, no? Did that impact your desire to make or engage with political things in your music? It might have had some inspiration. but I don't think so. Like all my songs,

if you ask me about a song that I've written that talks about a social issue, I could probably point out the exact time when I sat down and wrote it and why. For example, Mambru, I was working in a hospital and I had like three patients who were at veterans. And then I remember that I went to my house

and Donald Trump was talking about a Third World War and I talked about politics in a group chat with my family and then my grandfather got super mad because I have my grandfather from my mom's side he's from the United States and he was a proud veteran and then my Puerto Rican grandfather which both of them are not alive still he was also a veteran but he was a veteran

because he didn't have another option so he was like ah war sucks I became a veteran basically because it was my only option so I saw the two sides of war basically and I made Mambrou It's a manned

He's a man chrilo I was growing always a little problematic The call yeah, it was his papa, his papa He was 20 years with much doors closed arrasrasras No, I knew to study Well, he was to work

But at 7.25 Who can progressal? to her a little her a little her little her new before looking a better

and a man he's a major he's in a mall he said in English, man this is your call and he

said I don't speak English very well but I know numbers even though I can't spell with problems monetaries, they're done

a good salary with that that's available for any mal-necess and even he has a little bit

a little bit he's all carho we're here while while while I'm No bruce for the

war, what the Vivo Vivo was a song that I wrote, Vivo was a song that I wrote, I think, 2019 or 2020. And my sister was graduating from law school and she didn't have a graduation because they were trying to take money off the public system in Puerto Rico and all the students were protesting.

all my friends were moving to the United States, my WhatsApp group of like 15 friends, 10 of them live in Ohio, Las Vegas, Florida, Philadelphia, because of lack of opportunities in Puerto Rico, and half of them went to college, half didn't. But regardless, they're leaving Puerto Rico to find opportunities. Like my songs all come from some sort of reality. My reality and realities that I speak with other people who tell me their stories.

Where do you think hip hop is going in Puerto Rico? What's the future for it? I really think that right now fusion is like the future. Like people are trying not to be boxed in anymore. Me personally, I'm a fan of hip-hop, but I'm also a fan of hip-hop. But I'm also a fan of. house and salsa and bomba and plena. And I think that when one is younger, when you're like in high school,

you're a huge fan of maybe one. Most people are like fans of one type of music. And that's what you want to listen to. And suddenly you grow up and you start to see beautiful things in every genre. And there's people who are doing like country with regatone. So I think that hip-hop is going to keep evolutionizing in that you could do hip-hop and make it a fusion with regga-a-gum or salsaa-combia or bomba or anything you want. That's what I prognosticate.

Prognasticate. Very many of you. That's it. Thank you so much for coming on the show, PJ. Thank you for having me, Anna Maria. Yeah. Be sure to check out of Alt-Latinole from and Pure Music. Special thanks as always to Grace Chung who keeps us on track. This episode was produced by Lauren Magaki. Our executive producer is

Sarah Mohamed and Keith Jenkins is VP of Music and VIII. visuals.