JHAYCO doesn’t want to be just another reggaeton artist. With the album he’s releasing this Friday, he’s looking to graduate as a rockstar. The project, a double album and 29 songs that crosses barriers and incorporates new genres into the repertoire of the 31-year-old Puerto Rican, is a conceptual album, an experience in itself: “If you close your eyes on this album, you won’t be able to tell what it is.” track you are never there,” says the artist.
The Click: Rockstar Life (X) The album comes out three years after the last studio album by the man formerly known as Jhay Cortez and includes some of the most successful singles of his career. The album is also a catwalk of collaborations, with songs made with Quevedo, Eladio Carrión, Peso Pluma, Yandel and DJ Khaled. In conversation with EL PAÍS, JHAYCO, who wears Puerto Rico on his sleeve, describes the creative and vital process that has taken him on a journey from the sounds he grew up with on the island to his most ambitious work to date.
Ask. You have spoken of the album as a new stage in your career, in what sense?
Answer. Well, it’s my first production as JHAYCO, not Jhay Cortez, you have to start there. This album helped me find myself, find my color, what I bring to the genre, what I bring to the scene, who I am in reggaeton, in Latin music. And I am the RockstarThere were low moments, high moments, euphoric moments, beautiful moments, sad moments, and through these three years I was able to develop. This album made me who I am today, which is JHAYCO.
P. And what is it to be a rockstar in the world of reggaeton?
R. Everyone has a super wrong perception of the rockstars for all the rockstars previous ones. They are always the craziest, the most alcoholic, and I think that today it is not like that. Today Post Malone, The Weeknd, they are super rockstarsand you see the love and appreciation of their art, and the respect they have for their art and their fans. For me to be a rockstar It’s about doing everything you want and a little bit more. Obviously, not having an everyday life, because my life is not a normal life. That’s why I say, everything you want to do, everything you dream of, the respect you have for your art, your passion and a little bit more. That’s it. rockstar.
P. How would you define the new album?
R. Pure creativity. From the transitions to the phases of the album; if you close your eyes on this album you won’t be able to tell what track You are never there. It is a body of art. I think that a lot of that has been lost in albums. I think that many albums that come out today are a collection of songs, they are not an experience. That is why it took me three years. I feel that it has been lost with all this about not letting it drop, about numbers, about releasing content, about speed; you also have to educate people to take their time to do something well done. Three years have given me the opportunity to introduce different genres, different types of things like dembow, like afro now that it came out. You can’t pigeonhole everything into one year and what was successful that year.
P. In addition to being a main artist, you are also a composer and producer, how do you approach these facets in different ways?
R. I am always very diverse in my life. I like to do everything, I produce, I record, whatever I have to do, I will do it. Timelezz I started producing; in Fame I focused a little more on developing my deliverymy voice, the punchlinesthe choruses. But on this record I was able to really immerse myself in all that is creativity. Saying, “put this song with this one,” “no, stop it there,” “no, put this producer in,” “put this song in.” That’s what a producer is, it’s not just getting in there and making the melodies, but directing and materializing what you have in your mind.
P. So, on this album you have a hand in everything?
R. In everything. That’s all mine, my ideas. Sometimes people don’t understand it. But this is my world, this is my universe.
P. How do you feel you have evolved since Eyez on Me until this new album?
R. Too much. I say that music shaped me. Music helped me find myself, to know who I am, what are the things that I like, the things that I don’t like… You can see it, you can hear the growth. There are many things that I didn’t know about art, the love that I have for art, for restaurants, for countries, for cinema, for the scores From movies… Music has helped me learn about so many things, so many cultures, subcultures, so many things that I didn’t even know existed. SWIt has helped me grow in every way, both professionally and personally. Without music, I really wouldn’t be half of what I am.
P. How do you manage to stay present in the ever-evolving urban genre?
You have to be outsideYou have to listen, you have to let go of your ego sometimes. Listen, they are young people, I remember a lot when I was young and obviously new things come in and you mix with people and they rub that off on you. I am a sponge, I learn. I am a student of this, don’t think that because I got here I think I’m the one who knows it the most. No, there are people who are much more talented, there are people who don’t know about music and are creative, there are people who are 20 years old and have too much style. SW, It is all a learning process, it is learning, it is immersing yourself, it is the humility of you saying “I want to continue learning”, I want boomthis sound, letting yourself go, trusting. No matter how hard it is, how productive it is, listening and letting yourself go and listening to another perspective is not going to make you less.
P. In one of the posts announcing the new album, you say, “Thank you to my island for giving me what I always dreamed of.” How has Puerto Rico inspired you and what is your relationship with it now?
Puerto
Rico made me. I am Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is everything to me, man. What can I say? Coming from school as a kid, with the bag and listening to Arcángel in the cars passing by, and I dreamed that they would listen to me in those cars one day. The music culture there is too rich. I come from a public housing project, which is a lot of housing where a group of people live, obviously of low resources but too rich in culture. And that was what made me. Listening to those sounds while I was there. I love Puerto Rico and I will always love it. And I will give my life for Puerto Rico. And wherever I stand, I am Puerto Rican until I die.
R. What would you like to see for the future of Puerto Rico?
I would like you to immerse yourself in something else. Not everything has to be the same. criminal activitynot everything has to be the street. I think that the street has been idolized too much criminal activity and the street, and that is cool And we all grew up with that, but there’s so much more. There’s art. People don’t know that Basquiat was half Puerto Rican and he’s one of the greatest painters in history. There’s so much more, not everyone has to be an artist, either, there’s so much to dive into.
I think there is a lot of emotional intelligence needed in Puerto Rico as well. Therapy. We come from generations of young people who raised young people, you know? There are many things that now that I leave the island I see that we have to improve and that we have to change as people, because we are good-hearted people, we fear God, SW These things need to be fixed. More education; the schools, I mean, the schools are falling apart. Where is the money for those schools? Your children live there, how can you get the money for yourself when your children live there and go to school? Education is the future. Many things are needed and are being lost, that is why everything is being concentrated in the street, in the criminals, because there are no other resources.
R. Finally, something lighter: where did the phrase “follow me or don’t follow me” come from?
(Laughs) I don’t know, that came to me. One day I was recording and I think I heard Arcángel, in a song by a kid, say “I follow you” and then I don’t know, I combined it with “I follow you or I don’t follow you yet”. I can’t tell you what came out of here, it came out of my craziness and it stayed.
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