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Review: Mala Rodriguez
More than half the people at the Convention Center’s SESAC Day Stage Cafe raised their hands when Mala Rodriguez asked how many spoke Spanish. But you didn’t have to be bilingual to appreciate the Madrid-based rap star’s dazzling flow (or undulating hips). In just a few brief songs, she showed a lot more versatility and imagination than the typical swaggering American rapper. Sometimes she let words tumble out in a torrent, sometimes she spat them percussively, sometimes she broke off little phrases and played with them. Her rapping always had a melodic quality, and at times she sang in a sultry alto, with spot-on harmonies from her female dancer. The tuneful, rhythmically dramatic “Nanai” would doubtless have had a less self-conscious crowd singing lustily along.
“La Mala,” as she is also known, brought an old-school style crew — her female dancer-backing vocalist, two male dancer-background rappers (one in a “Public Enemy No. 1” t-shirt) and a terrific turntablist who supplied fascinating beats with an often jagged feel. When not deploying her snaky hips, Rodriguez, wearing jeans so tight the pocket linings showed through, interacted with her dancers in a way that gave non-Spanish speakers the gist of her lyrics. For instance, she casually shoved away the two male dancers as they crowded into her personal space. She also showed a sense of humor about rap cliches, striking a few stereotypically macho poses with her dancers for the numerous photographers and videographers at the end of “Por la Noche” before flashing a little grin and assuming a mocking super-model stance.
Rodriguez’s songs have appeared on the soundtracks of movies that found a U.S. audience, including ‘Y Tu Mamá También’ and ‘Lucía y el Sexo.’ She was nominated for a Latin Grammy in the urban album category for 2007’s “Malarismo,” her first album on Universal’s successful Machete imprint, which specializes in reggaeton, dancehall and urban genres. With a commanding stage presence and a style that makes so much U.S. rap sound hopelessly homogeneous, La Mala certainly has the potential to start gaining a lot of fans here.
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