RESIDENTE CALLE 13!! - Ricans or Native Speakers, I'll make it worth your >>>

[BIGFATS]

Wow. Like all other gringo I only found out about Reggaeton because of all the girls dancing to Gasolina on Youtube and I was like, "What the Fcuk is this music that is making all this biotches go completely insane?!"

Now I've found my way to a bunch of better stuff. Other than Tego Calderon, Voltio, Zion y Lennox, Wisin y Yandel, Hector "el father" etc I have to say that the song that got me hooked was "Ojitos Chiquitos" by Don Omar.

Then I heard Residente Calle 13. Their flow is so quick and the music is so varied with the sound effects, a few (non dembow) sweet beats, melodies etc. that it really stands out to me.

I have no spanish other than machine translation and what I can figure out, but I know songs like "Atrevete te te" and "Japon" are seriously funny and full of wordplay, puns and humor. But I reached the limit of what I can understand without a native speaker who knows the slang and references etc.

The only song I've found with a decent non-literal translation so far was "Atrevete te te" somewhere on these boards, and it totally hooked me, it's freaking hilarious.

If anybody has the time and a paypal account I'll gladly make a contribution if you will translate the Entire Album "Calle 13", as well as the single "Japon".

Just from what I can figure out, and the good translation of "Atrevete te te", it seems like Calle 13 is like the Reggaeton equivalent of the rapper Dr. Octagon. Their stuff is quick and rhymes really well and is just ridiculous vulgar and crazy, but sounds sweet. Like they sacrifice meaning for the way words and phrases bounce off eachother and flow.

I've been googling etc for a while and I haven't found a translation. Just to clarify, I'm not talking about a babelfish machine translation, or a strictly literal translation, but one that takes into account slang, double entendre, cultural references etc., the whole enchilada.

Anybody wants to do it just because information wants to be free, cool. Otherwise it would have to be like "you do one song first, I'll send a small paypal, we'll go from there." I'm not talking mad $$ but probably more than the cd costs or whatever to make it worth your while.

The song "Japon" is a good example of this. I know the humor in the song is all about spanish words being very similar to other spanish words and he goes back and forth mocking Asian or whatever. I get that the reason it's funny is because they keep repeating very similar yet distinct words, but I can't get the specific jokes:

(La carne de pelo tiene mucho-mucho hielo!)
¿Mucho hierro? (Mucho hielo!)
¿Hierro? (Hielo!)
¿Hierro? (Hielo!)

Machine translation of it is a complete joke.

¡Viva Puerto Rico!

[k4g0me]

ummm...i translated atrevete te te...a while back...you just have to look down the threads....

[Rose]

Hey there...I know you posted this a while back, but I just stumbled across this. I'm native Puerto Rican, so I decided to give translating Japon a go. If you already got the translation then, oh well. Hopefully someone can use them. :P


What do they think of us in Japan-pan
It’s probably good, what they think in Japan-pan
Ricky had a hit with his chiqui-bon-bon
And even in Hong-Kong they listen to reggaeton-ton

(Stupid! Hong Kong is in China!)

It doesn’t matter, we had a hit with ****ing Gasolina*
****ing Gasolina was a bigger hit there than in Carolina
And we gave it to them bland, without vaseline
And we gave it to them bland, without margarine
We gave it to them bland, real bland

I’ll take the Chinese girl umbrella and all
I put her on my wagon
And I take her on a ride on top of the bonsai
After that we stop in Shangai to eat chicken-patai

(Stupid! That’s Thai!)

It doesn’t matter – Thai, Chinese or Japanese
They’re all the same, they all speak backwards
They’re all the same, they all speak gibberish
They have squinted eyes and they eat sitting down
Without shoes, they sit down to eat cat soup
And if there’s no cat on their plates, they eat a dog shish-ke-bob

(Dog meat has a lot, a lot of ilon!)

A lot of iron? (A lot of ilon!)
Iron? (Ilon!)
Iron? (Ilon!)

What do they think of us in Japan-pan
It’s probably good, what they think in Japan-pan
Ricky had a hit with his chiqui-bon-bon
And even in Hong-Kong they listen to reggaeton-ton

(Stupid! Hong Kong is in China!)

It doesn’t matter, we had a hit with ****ing Gasolina
****ing Gasolina was a bigger hit there than in Carolina
And we gave it to them bland, without vaseline
And we gave it to them bland, without margarine
We gave it to them bland, real bland

What I know is that they are hard-core in acrobats
In ping-pong and in gymnastics
They also have invented
Everything that’s sold in a pharmacy
And when you do them a favor
They bow their heads without saying thank you

(That is part of our cultule!)

Your culture? (Our cultule!) Your culture?
(Stupid, what is your ploblem?)
(In Puerto Rico they speak wrong too!)
(Plus, in Puerto Rico they are dummies!)
(They’re not astute! We in Japan are…)
(Mathematicians, algebraic, calculus, pre-calculus, supercalculus!)
(Well, that is what I calculate!)

Fine, but in Puerto Rico there is more butt and more ***!
More muscle and more thigh…
In Japan what there is is no ****ing ***
You Japanese are like Picu chicken**
Yellow and fleshy
Man, you’ve got zero, capicu!***
Now where is your calculus?

(Fine, but in Japan we know karate!)
That doesn’t matter, in Puerto Rico we’ll hit you with a bat
(I want to eat rice! Flied rice!)

What do they think of us in Japan-pan
It’s probably good, what they think in Japan-pan
Ricky had a hit with his chiqui-bon-bon
And even in Hong-Kong they listen to reggaeton-ton

(Stupid! Hong Kong is in China!)

It doesn’t matter, we had a hit with ****ing Gasolina
****ing Gasolina was a bigger hit there than in Carolina
And we gave it to them bland, without vaseline
And we gave it to them bland, without margarine
We gave it to them bland, real bland…

*Gasolina as in the song by Daddy Yankee
**Pollo picu is a type of chicken in Puerto Rico
***Capicu is a dominoe term, it's a form of winning the game

A lot of the jokes have to do with how asians pronounce words. Like the "Hierro? Hielo!" thing can also be translated as "Iron? Ice!" but it makes more sense as "Iron? Ilon!" because what they're making fun of is the pronounciation. Also, the chorus loses a lot in the translation, because in spanish there is a sexual connotation to it. Feel free to ask any questions if you don't get something. Hope that helped!

P.S. - The song you mentioned, "Ojitos Chiquitos" is actually called "Ojitos Chinos" and Tejo just did a cover to it. It's originally a salsa song by El gran combo.

[BIGFATS]

What up Rose. Thanks so much! You are so great for taking the time to do that translation.

It's pretty funny, Calle 13 are out of thier mind right? lol. Thanks for the starred explanations too, that's the stuff I really wanted to know! With the chorus sexual reference, can you PM me the explanation if you don't want to post it? I noticed it starred out any time he swore, is there a forum rule against profanity and they censored it? I don't know, anyways if you want to tell the joke of the chorus it would be awesome. "Culo" mean @ss right? So is that the joke because all the math names have culo in there? Also thanks for the tip about "Ojitos Chinos", in all the reading and translating I did about Tego I hadn't even figured out it was a cover of a salsa song I gotta hear now!

Before I ever heard reggaeton I was in the Rio Casino Hotel in Las Vegas and I look out the window at the parking lot in the back where there is this metal pole barn attached to the casino and on the sign it said "wisin y yandel" and I was like oh whatever what the fcuk is that and all these people were lined up at like 3 in the afternoon. Then that night THOUSAND of Latino and about 20 cop cars and pigs everywhere and people backed up double parked hootin and hollerin and strolling and it was CRAZY. I didn't know what the hell was goin on but I knew it was something. Too bad it was another six months before I find out who they were. It was packed out the door.

Thanks again and if you wanna let me in on any other rican artists, not just reggaeton, that you respect feel free! Like if you have a list of the 10 most respected or well known by everybody that aren't known outside of Puerto Rico etc. even old time traditional or folk whatever.

TODO PERFECTO!!

¡Viva Puerto Rico!


BIGFATS



ps. My paypal offer still stands for the rest of Calle 13 if Rose or anybody else wants to make a little loot. Just PM me!

[arux]

I can translate some Calle 13 songs if you still want them. I think they are hilarious too. Me and my brother spend the whole day talking like Calle 13 for fun. hehe. I love their humor and specially enjoy dancing those songs at a club with a girl while simultaneously whispering all that crap to her ear lol. People go crazy here with them. Se Vale to' to'

[westcoastqiqqin`]

ahhh i love calle 13. i want a puerto rican guy to whisper that in my ear. haha afterwards i`ll be like... umm what did you say? haha. i really want to learn spanish fluently. ='[[
haha anyways theyre great, even if i dont know what in the world they`re saying.

[pmm3497]

Translating calle 13 songs was the best lesson I ever had in spanish, its so dirty yet so intellegent and hillarious. Not being Puerto Rican makes in insanely hard to translate reggaeton, because the slang is rather difficult to get a grip on