Tego Calderon Knows Urban in “El Que Sabe Sabe”

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Reggaeton forefather Tego Calderon brings back his urban wit in “El Que Sabe Sabe”, an evolution of his musical and storytelling talent!

“El Que Sabe Sabe” a Gem for “El Original”

In the song that gives the title to the album, Tego Calderon demonstrates he knows urban music without depending on a particular music category to make his art. Tego is a consummate storyteller and is not afraid to use any mix of musical genres to get his message through.

In “El Que Sabe, Sabe” Tego had duets with Reggaeton star Don Omar (“Pastillita”) and with Pop artist Kany Garcia (“Y Quién Diría”), in songs with mixes of Merengue and Ballad respectively. He has previously worked with Bomba, Salsa, and other rhythms on his albums. Here, he works with everything from strait Reggae, Electronica, and obviously Reggaeton, which is a musical mix in itself.

“El Que Sabe, Sabe” has a Musical and Lyrical Variety

Reggaeton stars Don Omar with Tego Calderon
Don Omar once again collaborates with friend Tego Calderon in “Pastillita”. The two reggaeton stars have worked together in various musical and film projects.

I like how Tego approaches Salsa! His rendition of “Para Los Pobres Soy” with pianist and bandleader Jose Lugo in the Banco Popular special “Sono, Sono” in honor of Tite Curet was right on, and I love his strait Salsa “Chango Blanco” included in his album “The Underdog/El Subestimado” (2006).

For his 5th studio recording, Tego Calderon provided 17 songs full of urban stories. He touches on sexual abuse in the duet with Kany Garcia in “Y Quién Diría”, the pursuit of education in “Por Bruto”, and plenty of “tiraera” (negative insinuations towards others) in “Estan Fritos”, “El Que Sabe, Sabe”, “Mamey” and others.

An Enjoyable Album

I enjoyed Tego Calderon’s “El Que Sabe, Sabe” mostly for his lyrical and musical artistry which keeps him as “El Original”. I don’t enjoy many reggaeton artists that just focus on putting down women as mere sexual objects and are full of sexually explicit language.

Calderon may occasionally use the women theme in his albums, and this one is no exception. His hit single “Dando Break” is about a situation in an “easy women” club, and the video that goes with it is very commercial. But his message is that you can end up paying a much higher price than you think in these places, due to getting sick or in trouble.

Tego Calderon in "El Que Sabe Sabe" album cover art.
Tego Calderon says “El Que Sabe, Sabe” is the 1st album he considers better than his debut album “El Abayarde”.

“‘Dando Break’ was one of those songs I didn’t put much effort into making it, and yet I was surprised it became such a big hit.” Said Tego with his habitual sincerity. “Sometimes you put a lot more effort into other songs and they don’t become as popular”.

Tego has a message of staying true to his beliefs, and he has kept his music where the message has meaning and the music opens to fit the urban theme.

Tego Calderon and Kany Garcia “Y Quién Diría”

Here’s Tego and Kany on one of my album favorites (BTW…it’s also Tego’s favorite song of the album as he said in a recent interview).

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