- Ronald Avila-Claudio – @ronaldavilapr
- BBC News World
image source, Getty Images
She often wears the same outfit: dark glasses, a cap that covers her forehead, sportswear, and sometimes her nails are painted black. It would seem that Bizarrap wants to go through life unnoticed, although perhaps it is nothing more than a marketing ploy, given the global fame it enjoys.
What is certain is that the 24-year-old producer and DJ was the most listened to Argentine in the world on the Spotify platform in 2022 (reached number 49 globally) and has become a benchmark for urban music.
His story is similar to that of many other trap artists, hip hop and reggaeton: a “kid” from the neighborhood, who learned to make music self-taught and with his own resources, who was initially ignored by the press and is now adored by many.
And while it reads like a biography on repeat, of course that doesn’t detract from his achievements. There are the famous collaborations of him and the numbers.
He has more than 16 million subscribers on YouTube, songs with Residente, Nathy Peluso, Nicky Jam and Nicky Nicole, and some videos that accumulate more than 300 million views.
It unusual it’s that he doesn’t sing, he just makes the “track”. And yet, his name resonates as much as his colleagues.
“Stay”, the song he released in July of last year with the Spanish rapper Quevedobecame the song of the summer in many Spanish-speaking countries, occupying the first places in countries as far from home as Portugal and Italy, and as close as Uruguay and Paraguay.
In addition, it was positioned number 1 on Billboard’s global 200 song list after its premiere and was the seventh most listened to song globally on Spotify in 2022.
image source, Twitter Bizarre
Shakira’s message to Piqué
Now the Argentine is causing a stir again with a long-awaited song together with the Colombian Shakirawhich premiered this Wednesday.
In the lyrics of the theme, Shakira does allusion direct a his relationship with ex-soccer player Gerard Piquéfrom whom he separated a few months ago amid allegations of infidelity on his part.
“Sorry, I already caught another plane, I’m not coming back here, I don’t want another disappointment. So much so that you give yourself the champion and when I needed you, you gave your worst version,” Shakira sings.
“It has a good person’s name, it’s clearly not what it sounds like. She has the name of a good person, she is clearly just like you. For guys like you. I was big for you and that’s why you are with someone just like you, “she continues.
In the song, he also refers to a legal case that the artist is facing in Spain for alleged tax evasion: “You left me as a neighbor to the mother-in-law, with the press at the door and the debt in the Treasury.”
Along with Bizarrap’s creative ingenuity, everyone expects the song to be a hit. Above all because of the “winning formula” that the Buenos Aires native has devised, as they call those who are from the Province of Buenos Aires.
Born Gonzalo Julián Conde in the small town of Ramos Mejía, he initially posted videos of battles of freestylethe improvised rap competitions that are booming in his country and other areas of Latin America and Spain.
But then, in 2018, in a studio at his home, Biza, as he is also known, began to create beats and collaborate with freestyle rappers on what he called BZRP Freestyle Session. The virality of these productions led him to a new idea: the BZRP Music Session.
It’s a simple proposal, he composes the music and invites an artist to write the lyrics. The videos, although well thought out, are made without much production behind it.
“At first I edited rap battle videos. But when I started with the sessions, visits rose. And with Nicky Nicole’s everything exploded: she was the most heard in Argentina. I looked at the top 200 on Spotify and there were 11 songs of mine. I investigated and there were no precedents. There I said to myself: ‘Well, that’s it, I have to dedicate myself to this fully, “she commented a few months ago to the newspaper El País.
Biza has told that the sessions They are done in full collaboration. First, he talks with the artist, listens to his interests and his proposals for current music, and recommends what kind of song to do: something electronic, rapped, or moved with dembow.
image source, Getty Images
“I like to work at the same time with the artist who comes to the studio. I am not one to prepare the beat before. I prefer to talk, see what situation he is in. And then I give my point of view and say: ‘With me I think you should do this kind of song,'” he told Forbes magazine about his creative process.
The success of his songs is also attributed to improvisation. And it is that the letters change until the last moment.
The song with Quevedo has said that it was written in one night. The I knowyeszion 51with the Puerto Rican West Indian Villainone of her most streamed songs on Spotify with over 180 million views, was mostly written at the time it was recorded.
Producers as Artists
Bizarrap has been recognized for much more than his musical talent. Billboard magazine, which dedicated a cover to him in November 2020, has identified him as a genius of music. marketing.
The mystery that he generates with his image, the collaborations that enhance any of his initiatives, and the way in which he uses social networks, in which he spends a lot of time anticipating his videos, are part of his success.
He himself accepted it in an interview with the publication.
“Bizarrap as a concept is a brand. How to reach a larger audience and make more people listen, conceptually, it’s marketing. I had a year left to finish my degree but as I saw that my path in music was growing, I decided to take a break and apply what I already knew to my project,” he said.
image source, Getty Images
As he said, he studied marketing and, in fact, worked for two years with the Warner production company.
But in addition, the press has also held him responsible for conceptualizing the new category of “artists” that frames today’s producers, especially in the urban genre, who are recognized by the public as well as singers, quite unlike what what happens in pop and rock, genres in which the minds behind the hits are often unknown.
“Bizarrap is the first of a new breed of artist in Argentine popular music. The star producer is a figure that was vacant until Biza decided that his voice and face would remain a mystery, but that his work from the controls would go to occupy the center of the scene and to establish itself as the main author”, says Clarín in a note from a few weeks ago.
He, for his part, affirms that -although it sounds contradictory- fame comes from his shyness.
“I like to put the artist before me, even his name appears before mine. I don’t know, I feel that from my position as producer I can place the artist showing his face and, nevertheless, have my leading role. I suppose it is something that comes from my shyness, from my personality,” he told Forbes.
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