A little over a year ago, junior producer Louis Amoeba posted a meme showing him and rapper Hoke playing chess in the middle of an auditorium filled with people waiting for their pieces to make a move. These audiences were the media, graffiti artists, rappers, indies, music professionals looking for new talent… On the other hand, they appeared beyond expectation in the modified photo: First, “distorting noises”; second, “to smoke”.
Here is a good summary of the situation at the time and the way of working that was abstracted and liberated from everything: no tags, no promotions, no admins, no press (“I’m leaving after seeing the tax and negotiations”Hoke raps ‘Auto’) and with top secret activity in networks. and without haste. As a result, Hoke and Louis Amoeba released their joint album (‘BBO’) in September, making it the third best debut ever for a Spanish album this year.“I am fatherless”says the rapper in his “Speedrun sketch”.
The two of them unarmedly beat the algorithm – their album has far exceeded 10 million “plays” on Spotify – causing the whole world to walk in the same directionand they’ve won a battle against the signs of this time that require overexposure and the demonic rhythm that TikTok embodies better than anyone else. His only weapon was talent.. “When work is done well with love and time, they don’t need a lot of decoration,” adds Carlos of Los Xavales, who reacts to and comments on music news from YouTube and Twitch channels.
Until the release of ‘BBO’, an album they’ve been working on for an unusual amount of time today, very little action, just a few singles and yes, live performances of some of the songs from the album.. “It’s like the opposite strategy: instead of stuffing you with stuff, I give you little pills to make you want more,” says Aleix Mateu, co-author of Getting the Flu. Urban music: A generational change, a new cultural paradigm’. “There is something of quality in itself and also a ‘hype’ has been created. [expectativa] and a cult around the artist,” he adds.
Endless Spanish artists celebrate and applaud the launch of ‘BBO’ on social networks. The ball got so big that its tour was scheduled for 12 dates and now there are 23: two in ‘his’ Valencia, two in Barcelona, two in Bilbao, two in Zaragoza, four in Madrid… And the phone is 2023. for hot. Exactly on its debut in the Catalan capital this Friday, during the short hour of the concert in room 2 of Razzmatazz, the passion for ‘BBO’ was spotted without nuance.
A year after the meme released by Louis Amoeba, these two boys from Valencia have released ‘BBO’, an album beyond its history. The result is work in progress, with an intergenerational character.. This is where Aleix Mateu shot more or less: “The album works as a milestone for this new generation of rappers who are trying to take great care of the way they rap and perform masterful rhymes…”. Some of these flamboyant new rappers are on the record: Ergo Pro and Ill Pekeño. The foundation and secret to the success of ‘BBO’, an 11-track album, is easy to explain: An album that has been studied, pampered to the smallest detail, versatile and full of talent.. “He’s super solid in both the music and vocal parts. He creates his own universe,” says Mateu, a member and expert of the El Bloque collective.
‘BBO’ is an album of many small tracks that fit together. The entire album adopts the aesthetics of the Olympic Games (everything visual is done by them) and is a constant game between sport and the neighborhood – metaphors, parallels…., the street, graffiti, firing the police, marijuana… Hoke’s universe, 26 years old. In fact, if you look at the title ‘BBO’ it is a graphic resource showing the five Olympic rings. “The game with the Olympics is great, that kind of thing creates an identity,” says half of Los Xavales. Of course, some of the lines that sum up the play may be from ‘Five O’.: “Olympics in the neighborhood, doing cardio; running from the commissary, from Patraix to the stadium”.
For example, there are references to Cruyff, Ronaldo and David Meca. Actually, the album starts like this (“Hawkeye”): “I cut the ribbon of the castle, athlete; eight streets that always roam; in lleca, static, I burn a commodity: went from Morocco to Cádiz like David Meca”. The same song also talks about super swimmer Michael Phelps, who was punished for smoking marijuana.: “Nikes on the cable, we’re in the ‘game’ like Michael Phelps”. It is known that sneakers hung from electrical wires point to drug counters.
“His rap style is stunning, yet calm, he talks about smoking and his moves and presents it in a super polished, super rendered way,” explains Mateu. ‘BBO’ is also the expression of a youth who must grow rapidly out of necessity. In ‘Corbo real’ he says: “Day 3 you have to reach more; you have to reach the moon, you have to arrive on time; there is no time, the ‘gas’ bill is coming; think of the bill in G’s, you see darker every time”. “I associate Hoke with a down-to-earth man who talks about what he’s been through, where he’s going and what’s going on around him. That’s being ‘real’ for me.”says Carlos of Valencia, like the authors of the album.
The album ends with the same intrusive sound it started with, such that the end and beginning overlap and begin again: like a running track. The production of Louis Amoeba, who signed an album with Ébano as ‘The Last 2 People in the World’, is excellent.. “He did it again, paying attention to productions to the maximum detail and keeping up with Hoke’s rapping style and not being fooled by typical or contemporary tricks,” says Aleix Mateu. In the first of the two concerts of the ‘BBO’ tour held in Barcelona, the audience applauded the producer as soon as the concert started. Followers who applaud the new princes of Spanish rap and expect an equal or better future from them. As Hoke said: “My little brother and I did it and me and my little brother shared”.