Calle 13’s René “Residente” Pérez on Revolutionary Music, WikiLeak, Puerto Rican Independence
Calle 13, one of Latin America’s most popular bands, released a new song this week featuring an unlikely collaborator — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The song, “Multi_Viral,” also features Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and the Palestinian singer Kamilya Jubran. To create the lyrics, Calle 13 lead singer and songwriter René Pérez, better known as “Residente,” asked followers on Twitter to express their social justice concerns in a live brainstorming session with Assange.
This is not the first time Calle 13 has made headlines for its political work. In 2005, the group quickly recorded and released a song about Puerto Rican independence leader Filiberto Ojeda Ríos just hours after he was shot dead by the FBI. They have called for the release of independence activist Oscar López Rivera, who has spent more than 32 years in jail, and have spoken out about police brutality and government spying. His group has won a record 19 Latin Grammy Awards.
Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman and Juan González sit down with Residente for a discussion about making “Multi_Viral,” and his fusion of music and activism.
Haz click aqui para ver la entrevista en español (Watch the interview in Spanish).
Wikileaks Channel on Multi_Viral