It is possible that in all of history there has not been a fronteo more energetic and brazen than that of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in his autobiographical portrait Ecce Homo (1888). In it he states, among other things, that his book Thus spake Zarathustra (1883) is “the greatest gift ever given to humanity.” Fronteoderived from the verb border, It is a term rooted in the slang of reggaeton and urban music. It defines the attitude of showing oneself superior to others, showing off power and status; In short: not having a grandmother. A word that has been heard a lot in the last week following the publication of Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow, by Bad Bunny. With this album, the Puerto Rican singer has returned to trap, he has once again placed all the songs at the top of global Spotify and has reaffirmed that there is no one better than him in the art of proclaiming himself the king of the world.
“I’m glad that Bad Bunny once again did whatever he wanted,” tweeted Héctor Elí, a journalist specializing in urban music, in relation to Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. “He let off steam, he said what he thinks and he is not lukewarm. The audience again and as always in the argue [chismorreo] of who he disrespected and who he didn’t. It’s a trap album pa’, is called fronteo and is part of the movie”he added. Eli refers to the little one beef (pulla) that the author of A summer without you (2022) to, among others, the Colombian singer J Balvin on the song Thunder and Lightning. According to him, everything is part of the genre’s intrinsic codes, as deeply rooted as the presence of a haunted house in a ghost novel.
I’m glad that Bad Bunny once again did whatever he wanted. He unburdened himself, said he thinks about it and is not lukewarm. The audience again and as always in the argument of who was disrespected and who was not. It’s a trap album, it’s called fronteo and it’s part of the movie.
— Héctor Elí (@hectoreli_) October 14, 2023
He beef either tiraera It involves two singers who confront each other verbally through their lyrics, in a way not unlike the poetic attacks that Quevedo and Góngora exchanged in the 17th century. He fronteowhich in turn can also be said flex, does not need a specific rival to exist. It is more a manifestation of status and self-affirmation that reinforces the artist’s personal mythology. From Nobody knows, the track that opens the album with an intimate and confessional tone, Bad Bunny places the listener in a reality in which there is no one above him: “And it’s true, I’m not a trapper, nor a reggaeton player. I am the biggest star in the whole world,” he sings.
But it’s on the next track, Monaco (right now the fourth most listened to song on Spotify), where El Conejo achieves the quintessence of fronteo. In the video clip, one of the first things she does is sit down to eat at actor Al Pacino’s table in a restaurant. What follows is a display of symbols of ostentation: luxury cars, casinos, yachts, supermodels and even the Formula 1 driver Checo Pérez. There is a specific moment in the lyrics in which Bad Bunny ascends to an astral plane of opulence when recounting his supposed conversations with the basketball player LeBron James and the actor Leonardo DiCaprio about “millionaire issues, I say, billionaire issues, I say, billionaires.”
“If you give me border“I can’t stand it,” warned Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, real name of the Puerto Rican artist, in his song 8/25. José Andrés Pérez, manager and discoverer of the singer Saiko, believes that the fronteo It is something inherent to the urban genre. “Maybe younger or new fans don’t understand it, but it’s part of this culture,” he says. Furthermore, according to him, where there is fronteo generally there are also humble origins. “We must not forget that the urban genre was born in the lower class and opened doors and a future for these people. With the fronteoWhat you do is “show off” or feel proud of who you are or what you have achieved with effort and work, coming from below.”
For Pérez, authenticity is another crucial concept for the fronteo work: “It has to be real. Many people try to copy this style and boast about things they don’t have or sing about things they haven’t experienced. In my opinion that sounds cheesy and is not credible. For border “You have to be an example, have known how to go hungry and have had the courage to improve yourself and have accumulated certain achievements.” His indisputable status in the music industry places El Conejo in an unrivaled position for ostentation: “At a technical level there may be someone better than him,” says Pérez. “But because of his position it is impossible for anyone to frontée more than Bad Bunny. He is the singer who has broken all records and is number 1 in the world in the Latin market, and I would dare say globally.”
In the world of music, ostentation is present in a wide variety of genres and there are examples for all tastes. In reggaeton, there are classic songs like I can do everything by Don Omar, and others who directly address the experience of bragging, such as We border because we can by De La Ghetto. In the field of more traditional rap, Eminem, who had his peak of popularity in the first decade of the 2000s, even stated in a song that he felt like the god of rap. Kanye West, before being canceled for his insane behavior and sexist and anti-Semitic comments, composed a song titled I Am God (I am a God), and in a whole album, The Life of Pablo (2016), compared his genius to that of the painter Pablo Picasso. in a stranger beef interdisciplinary, composer and singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen mocked Yé’s pretensions in a poem in which he wrote: “Kanye West is not Pablo Picasso, I am Pablo Picasso. “Kanye West is not Edison, I am Edison.” (…) “I am the Kanye West of Kanye West.”
In Spain there have also been great cultivators of this art. One of the most notable has been C. Tangana, who, before his conversion to El Madrileño, had an extensive career in trap. On your topic Yelo he sings “I make euros fall like it’s January, I’ve changed the industry of an entire country.” Interestingly, his rival on the scene, Yung Beef, made it rain cash in the Plaza de Callao six months ago to promote his new album. There is a fine line between looking like a jerk when proclaiming yourself the best in the world and, as in the case of Bad Bunny, turning all of this into an art that is, in a certain sense, admirable. Tangana experienced it firsthand when she released her song Yacht, in whose promotional images (shared, for example, on his Instagram account) he appeared surrounded by ten women, including Ester Expósito and Hiba Abouk. This choice earned him criticism for using women as object symbols of his success.
![Rosalía on the Mad Cool stage.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/eAPHcjbiQp5_8pxOuHFstPhTxCE=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/OGDMTHN6ABPBDHBEPGNZLIWIQQ.jpg)
It is not only men who practice fronteo. Rosalía makes this very clear in sakurathe last track on their album Motomamiwhen singing: “If you are 60 and you are deviled when a woman borderIt’s just that you haven’t learned na or you have a problem.”
He fronteo In urban music, especially in genres such as reggaeton and trap, it cannot be fully understood without the pertinent display of jewelry and luxurious accessories. These elements not only serve an aesthetic function, but also become tangible symbols of success, power and social status. “Once it was the pharaohs, the kings, the immortal gods who were covered in gold. Today, the new gods twinkle at the corner of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and West 125th Street,” he states in his book. Ice Cold. A Hip-Hop Jewelry History (Cold as Ice: History of Jewelry and Hip Hop) journalist Vikki Tobak. Jewelry or luxury cars become a visual narrative that complements the lyrics of the songs in the discourse that seeks to maximize the fronteo. The most extreme example is probably that of the American rapper Lil Uzi Vert, who had a diamond valued at 24 million euros implanted in his forehead.
![Rapper Lil Uzi Vert at the 2023 BET Awards.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/RFgt7WcPORQiQbXreqE5ZrAYguE=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/DGFARPDQ3BFQLKVVGMJV3MEOEY.jpg)
The ostentatious display of power and status is not limited only to urban music or hip hop. There are areas where this practice is more common and is judged less harshly than in others. NBA players are allowed to extol their own qualities. Footballers and tennis players, on the other hand, tend to be more discreet, with the exception of the famous “I think that because I am rich, because I am handsome and because I am a great player, people are envious of me” by Cristiano Ronaldo. Fighting sports, with honorable exceptions, live on fronteo. Conor McGregor, famous MMA fighter, has made bragging an integral part of his character, going so far as to say things like “Jesus and I get along well. I get along with all the gods. “One god recognizes another god.” Other borderer Illustrious was the historic boxer Muhammad Ali, who perhaps offered the key to understanding this whole matter: “It’s not bragging if you can sustain it.” Madonna has been boasting for decades in her songs about the crown of queen of pop that the public awarded her. “Bitch, I’m Madonna,” she titled a song in 2015, where she collaborated with rapper Nicki Minaj.
In almost all artistic disciplines, although the general rule is to adopt a discourse of modesty and humility, there is always a free verse that is not afraid to proclaim that its work is superior to that of others. In the world of cinema, one of the borderers Most notable is director Albert Serra, who has never been shy about making statements such as: “I am the best editor in the world, indisputably. One of the five best directors of actors in the world. A normal producer. And a good scriptwriter. In Spain there is no other like it, and in the world there are only 20 more.” For his part, Salvador Dalí, master of surrealism, said that if he were “less intelligent, he would undoubtedly paint better.” And in the field of literature, the writer Terenci Moix made it clear that, in his opinion, “modesty is tacky.”
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