Saturday, September 22, 2018

9/22/18 Can You GoToo Far?

    If someone comes at you, can you go too far insulting them back to the point that you feel bad for the original bully?  It seems that my favorite Spanish rap artist, Residente, of Calle 13 was verbally attacked by some other rapper and he came back at him with a generic rap first, but then a very personal 12 minute attack that hit him everywhere.  You can find reaction videos to stuff like this and I found a few and they are helpful in understanding what certain phrases or words mean.  I mean I can talk and understand Spanish well enough, but there are some words that just sound foreign, like bisturi which means scalpel in English.
    I thought it was funny in the 1st reaction video which the guy was expressing opinions of "ya, lo mato." (with that line, he has killed him).  He said it about 3-4 times and then realized he was only three minutes into the video but the video lasts 12 minutes.  At this point, he started changing his opinion with a "yes, Residente is better at this, but he is coming across as a bully.  Once someone is dead, you are supposed to respect the dead.  He said something like Residente basically murdered the bastard, then dug him up to murder him again, and piss on him to boot."
    I don't necessarily agree with this, if someone is being a chihuahua and nipping at my heels and you can be a German Shepherd, then it is his fault if the bigger dog tears you up.  This "song" was not a comeback, but a lesson.  He insulted what he was where he came from, what he thought, how his belief system was less than.  Then he "corrected" him, saying rhinos do not live on Mt. Everest (I believe the other guy rapped this), told him how it was wrong that him and his fans spelled gente (people) with a "j" (they sound the same in Spanish), went into how he was like his grandma, got a switch (tree branch) and whipped him like a little boy.  After giving him a lesson about the difference in revering gangsters and thugs that tore up their respective countries like Pablo Escobal versus good men who helped push for constructive change through song, like Ruben Blades, and a list of others, he goes states the History lesson is over.  I will now break it down for you simple like in kinder garden, I will use the vowels.  He starts with A, rhymes for a few lines in each vowel until he gets to U.  It is a work of art, to me.  That he goes at it for over 1,900 words makes one say wow.
    Now, if the taunt came from a child or someone with mental difficulties, then I would agree, you can go too far.  We must give the less fortunate leeway and not aim to destroy them, it would not be fair.  But if a grown ass man wants to talk shit and he is put in his place, then he deserves it.  As a spectator, this was nothing short of brilliant, it has existed for about a year, I just found it and I have had a blast looking at it and slowly translating the words, the names of the individuals (America has put a lot of "dicks" in power over the years), and enjoying how he puts phrases together.  Bravo!

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