In Spanish hip hop, the style of the Madrid mountains is one of the most unique. Like other rappers from the area like Midas Alonso or GRECAS did before him, ARDO440 is one of the artists who is emerging on the scene for his free rhymes and his endless list of references, many of them completely niche.
‘District 11’ is a great example of this. Named after the district of Carabanchel, the song comes a month after the release of Ponzze’s ‘PECADO CAPITAL’ album and is an exhibition of the young talent that the mountains offer. The style of the area is characterized by giving priority to alliteration and assonant rhyme, rather than the classic consonant rhyme: “The M does not love me / I pronounce the plain words wrong / You are a joke / I am the drug made person.”
ARDO440 is the first to appear on the song and it doesn’t take long to leave any unfamiliar listener in shock, not only with the style, but with hip hop in general: “I have a PPP face / If I breathe pee-pee-pee / Your father votes for the PP / Dress up as BDP,” he says like a total tongue twister.
First, it refers to Potentially Dangerous dog breeds, I sense that it continues with the onomatopoeia derived from blowing in a breathalyzer test, the mention of the PP does not need to be explained and the last one is like saying “dress up as a gangster”, when mentioning the acronym of Boogie Down Productions, the rap group led by KRS-One.
From the hand of NotoriusBoy, Ponzze, GODO028, Verdu, Laguna and Dager, in the rest of the song we have both political phrases (“I wanted to scratch the night but I got the hang of it, there are no Nazis anymore if I go to Euskal Herria”) and hilarious ones (“I got drunk almost to the point of apologizing” / “My name is not Juan, but I fuck like a Juanillo”). All this will be part of the ARDO440 show in Madrid.
The Saw Rules Tour will arrive this Friday, April 10, at the Independance hall in the capital as part of Escenarios Madrid by Vibra Mahou, with ARDO440 surrounding themselves on stage with some of their regular collaborators, such as Ponzze, also present in ‘Distrito 11’. The concert will begin at 8 p.m., and tickets are now available on the venue’s website.
