‘No doubt that Colombia has mad love for their urbano alternativo native who’s dropping beats and lyrical bombs under the name of Jiggy Drama. According to the San Andres Island artist, he’s been representing Colombia’s urban music for more than thirty years (although he’s just a few days over twenty eight).
If you haven’t heard of him yet, you can place your bets on this artist with ease because with his debut album Nerdside, out mid July, is right up there with the lyrical Calle 13 and the musical Bomba Estéreo and Choc Quib Town.
Cheka what he has to say about the Calle 13 comparison and about his musical play on words that’s gotten some of his songs banned from radio air waves.
The Jiggy and the Drama
Jiggy Drama- Back when I was a kid my friends would see me dance and they’d say “Hey, ‘yo. You’re like totally getting jiggy with it!” because back in that time the movie with Will Smith was hot so that’s what the kids were saying, “jiggy”. So then the name just stuck. The second part of my name comes from the fact that in my songs I talk about all the drama that’s going on in the world with politics and stuff aside from the fun guy/girl topics. So I combined the two and came up with “Jiggy Drama”.
Word play
A lot of people here in Colombia talk using wordplay, so it comes very natural to me. In my song “La Fuga”, that song is about the lights going out and the water pipes breaking at my house. So then I say something like: “En mi casa hay una fuga de gas y de agua, que tu quiere ver chica mala…Me gusta porque eres divina quisiera examinar de mas cerca tu ba-cteria. Se que tu eres seria con ese cucarron voy a hecharte mi ve-neno…” You see, so there’s the play on word where you think I’m going to say something and then I change the lyrics and say something else.
When I was barely starting out a lot of radio stations didn’t like that so they wouldn’t play my songs. But then people started calling in and asking them to play my music and now it plays in radio stations all throughout Colombia. I think that’s why I consider myself to be more of an Internet artist, because I was promoting myself doing the whole word of mouth thing. And then the Internet came around and I used that to promote my music and now some of my videos like the one for “La Fuga” has over 13,000,000 views. That’s pretty crazy.
The nerd side of Jiggy Drama
There’s so much more to Colombia than vallenato, Juanes and Shakira. So it’s important for me to put Colombia’s urban talent on the map. That’s why I write all my songs and work with some of the best beat makers from Colombia. Nerdside is all about the urban music from my town. It’s Caribbean hip-hop, not reggaeton. It’s more on the Spanish hip-hop side with dance hall and all the Caribbean elements that Colombia is known for like salsa, reggae and even merengue. “La Fuga”, “La Flaca” and “Me Vale” are some of the songs in the album.
In “Me Vale” I give props to Bomba Estéreo and Choc Quib Town, two bands that are representing the new sounds of Colombia. In the song I say “Y después metiendo fuego como Bomba Estéreo…te vamo dando duro como el grupo Choc Quib Town…” I also mention Calle 13 in the song “La Flaca”-“… Esto es fiesta de locos, como Calle 13. Muchos dicen que flow se parece, pero tengo el mismo flow desde que tenía 13…”
I’ve always been compared to them. When they came out with “Atrevete”, people from my town would tell me “yo’ Jiggy. There are some dudes out there that sound just like you!” Then I listened to them and I was like “yeah”, my respects to them. They’ve opened the door for more urbano artists such as myself to represent this genre. I give them mad props for that. But I’ve been doing music longer than that and although people compare me to them, I think my play on words sets me apart from other groups that also do alternative urban music. (JG)
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Nerdside will be available through iTunes on July 26. You can expect a promotional tour for it coming to Cali soon, and meanwhile check out Jiggy Drama’s vid for “Me Vale” here.
Video uploaded by: elritmorecords
