From Sept. 15 through Oct. 15, Tiny Desk is celebrating Latinx Heritage Month with an "El Tiny" takeover, featuring Jessie Reyez, Susana Baca and more musicians from all corners of Latinidad.
With his roots in La Boca neighborhood of Buenos Aires and arms outstretched to the rest of the world, Trueno is rewriting the playbook for Latin American hip-hop. Wearing a cap for the soccer team Boca Juniors and moving among the spaces of his childhood, the 20-year-old, premier Argentinian freestyler shows us exactly where he's from in his Tiny Desk (home) concert, an intimate performance that plays like a meditation on the music and the Argentina that has shaped him.
Trueno's almost autobiographical set begins with "DANCE CRIP," the first single from his recent album, BIEN O MAL, and an ode to The Sugarhill Gang's 1979 hit "Rapper's Delight." Trueno's affinity for old school hip-hop is something the rapper returns to throughout his set, while also invoking percussion-forward beats and tango motifs. Trueno follows up with the album's title track, before launching into an improvised freestyle. Underneath a mural that reads "La Boca resiste y propone" ("La Boca resists and proposes"), Trueno demonstrates his lyrical dexterity and emotional range, "Esto no lo puede hacer cualquiera, el vocero del ghetto conquistando la esfera," he raps, touting his neighborhood's resilience and his own.
Argentina as a place of celebration and lament is the thematic center of Trueno's performance. The show takes place at a conventillo, one of many Argentinian boarding houses and microcosms of multicultural communities. Trueno concludes his set with "TIERRA ZANTA," perhaps the most politically charged song in his album, which on record features the famous folk artist Victor Heredia. Here, Trueno calls out all the Andean nations by name, hinting at a larger global movement behind the song's boundaries.
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