Tres Coronas - The New Kings of Corona

Posted Saturday, November 24, 2007

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Who - What - Why - How
In Corona, Queens, Mexican taquerías and Dominican cafeterias line Roosevelt Avenue, just under the 7 train's Junction Boulevard stop. There are three botanicas on just one block, selling the pantheon of Caribbean household saints. As MCs Rocca and PNO (born Sebastian Rocca and Luis Fonseca) of Tres Coronas walk toward their favorite Colombian restaurant, salsa escapes from the doors of surviving mom-and-pop record stores, competing with the reggaetón vibrating the cars in traffic and the rumbling trains above.

"This is where you're going to find the real Latin culture in New York," says Rocca. "This is where the immigrants are." Colombian natives, he and PNO spent their formative years in France and Brooklyn, respectively, but they found a home and started making music here, in the place probably best known from a Paul Simon song. As heard on "Nuestra Cosa" ("Our Thing"), the new kings of Corona rap in Spanish with what they call "Latin feeling," specifically conscious lyrics that Latin Americans can relate to and beats that are fundamentally Latin. While Tres Coronas' urban music continues the tradition of pioneering Latin rappers like Fat Joe and Cypress Hill, it's also rooted in the spirit of streetwise legends Fania All-Stars and the great Colombian salsero Joe Arroyo. Over fruit shakes and empanadas at Doña Rosita's restaurant, Rocca and PNO talked to URGE about where they're coming from and what they see as the certain future of rap in Spanish.

Rap's Latin Thing
PNO: “From the first graffiti artists to the first break dancers, there were always Latinos in hip-hop. Before they spoke English, they didn't express themselves in Spanish, but they were always part of the culture. Now is when the Latinos in the U.S. really have an opportunity to express themselves. And everyone is realizing that what's Latin is professional, it's good and it's original, and it's a different mentality, another way of feeling. There's more immigration, more pride, and there's going to be more and more. And more people who grew up speaking the two languages, or who come here and don't speak English at all.”

“We're inspired by American rap. I grew up in Brooklyn breakdancing and listening to rap. The flow, the music, the style is inspired by them [American rappers], but we're expressing ourselves in our language. And what we're saying is not the same. We're making a mix of rap and the culture of our parents.”

Rocca: “I come from a family of artists, a good part of my family are musicians. When I was a kid, they gave me a maraca, a bongo, those were my toys. But when rap came along ... I remember the first rap record I heard was Public Enemy. Whoa! I went crazy. I said rap is for me.”

PNO: “I think the good thing is that we have both. I'm very New York, but I also have a lot of Colombian in me; that's what makes the difference.”

Reggaewha?
Rocca: “We didn't grow up listening to reggaetón, we grew up listening to rap. Public Enemy, Run DMC, Big Pun, Wu-Tang. We're Colombian, and we grew up listening to hip-hop. Reggaetón may be good for dancing, but when you want to hear a message, when you want to hear flow, you listen to rap. Rap is culture; it's the culture of hip-hop. Reggaetón is club culture, it's something different.”

The Message
Rocca: Latin Americans have very different emotions. In South America, we experience real violence and a real need to get out of this vicious circle of violence and poverty. Maybe a Latino who doesn't know his family's country is going to talk about guns and bitches and the s**t they talk here. But if you have lived the situation in Latin America, you can't talk like that. Because the violence is real, and it's not because it's cool or because I have the money to buy a gun. It's because of hunger, because of poverty. We're not gangsters, we're musicians. Politicians are gangsters. But the rapper is someone who has to analyze society, because we're also protagonists in this life. When we make music, it's like putting life on pause and studying it. And then we start singing.

PNO: “Tres Coronas isn't talking about Ferraris, guns, about "Let's kill," or "I'm the best." We're transmitting a message to the Latin immigrant, and the people understand it. The message is positive; it's street, but it's positive. We're not just about entertainment. If you're going to be inspired by Americans, you've got to take the best from them and use it in your music, and throw the rest away.”

The Mix
Rocca: “Today everything's getting mixed together, and it's positive. When cultures mix together, they can make something greater. We have a lot of musical influences -- Caribbean music, boleros, Indian music, black music, Spanish music -- and you can feel it when you listen to our album. You hear the clave, you all hear the soul, all the rap, everything that has influenced us.”

PNO: “And the Latin feeling, that comes out of instinct. That's Tres Coronas.”