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November 15, 2021 18 mins

Felix Rodríguez, a.k.a. DJ Negro, grew up in San Juan’s La Perla neighborhood and would go on to change reggaeton history forever.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Previously on a flow was one of those kind of
moments because I'm like, it's gonna be huge. There was
something really kind of profound about the idea that a
single sample could be so central, Like, look, we can
put a thousand songs on this one underlying rhythm one
to three, one to three, one to one to three,
one to three one tot got got got cut cut

(00:25):
cutt found. Look at the fien. Before there was a

(00:50):
hand or reggae and espagnol, there was something else bubbling
up to the surface in Puerto Rico. It wasn't big
or glamorous. But this sound is one of the key
elements of Reydon, not only because of the way it sounded,
but because of what it was telling us about Puerto
Rico in the late nineteen eighties. We're talking about rapp

(01:10):
in ESPANOORI. Look, there's many ways to tell the story,
but I want to tell it by dedicating this episode
to one person, someone who for me, is one of
the artists most responsible for breathing life into the early
underground scene that later became Reydon. I'm talking about Felix
Rods or Negro. To understand the Ya Negro, we first

(01:32):
have to understand where he comes from. If you've ever
been to San Juan, you've probably been to the colonial
Old City back in the eighteen hundreds, when Puerto Rico
was a Spanish colony, I mean before it was an
American colony, which most Puerto Ricans agree it still is.
African slaves were not allowed to live within the walls
of the old city, so right outside the gates, next

(01:54):
to the cemetery and the slaughterhouse and facing the Atlantic Ocean,
slaves and poor workers their houses. This neighborhood has always
suffered from neglect, but it survived everything throughout the years.
We're talking about Labilla did. Negro grew up in a
section of Laberela that used to be a horse farm
and that then was converted into small apartments. They all

(02:17):
shared just one bathroom where just to imagine I lived
in Labella, I saw negative things, many many bad things
happening around in the neighborhood. Labrella at that time was
very tough, very tough. Two Day's generation knows Labella from

(02:37):
the Pasito, but we were there before the Pasito. We
had to fight with people who came down to start trouble,
Like when someone goes into your house and steals from you.
You have to defend yourself. So many things happening Labella
that were traumatizing. I saw people die, so people hanged.
I saw a lot of drugs right in front of me.

(02:59):
The look and well, I had a brother who lived
the easy life of the street. If you really think
about it, it's not easy at all, because you lived
through a lot of wars. You have to know how
to survive to beat the street. Beating the street without
becoming part of it is the challenge that Dio had
to overcome. And Labrella that means playing by a different

(03:23):
set of rules. I don't know if you understand what
hot goods are something that fell off the truck, the
back of a truck. Well, what happened? My dad saw

(03:44):
that I was messing around with the radio at home,
so he waited until some hot goods were brought down
to La Perla, and he bought me a speaker and
turned tabs. And that's where the fever began. Meda joe
ld Dear, how did I beat the street? I became
the neighborhood DJ. The same guys from Laperla began to

(04:08):
hire the boy that was making all that noise in
his room. A little birthday here, a little birthday there,
Baptism here, baptism. They're all in the same neighborhood that
Principio film. Music from the beginning was always an escape

(04:29):
for me from my daily life. You know. Music always
kept me on the path through where I wanted to go.
And that story is written. I made something that today
is heard around the world. This is a flow, a
journey to the roots of Regadon. My name is Lily Luciano,

(04:52):
a CBS News correspondent born and raised in Puerto Rico,
The Cradle of Regadon. You're listening to episode seven d Negro.
You know what I find interesting trying to figure out
how and why stuff happens, Like how did this person

(05:12):
make it to where they are today? It never happens
in a vacuum. In the case of the jay Negedro,
there are three clear moments forks in the road of
you Will, where Dja Negatro was faced with choosing a path.
In all three cases, the decision he ended up taking
was crucial for him and for the future of Redon
in Puerto Rico. The first moment occurred in the late

(05:32):
nineteen eighties, when he was just starting out as a
DJ and was still living with his parents in Laberla.
Do you go? My dad was very strict. I came
home at to in the morning from DJ and at
a wedding, and my dad he always wanted me home

(05:53):
by midnight. So what happens? I arrived at two and
we got into an argument. The thing is, he throws
me out of the house. I go to a friend's house,
a friend of the family called Tony. He lets me
stay in his apartment. Why I figure things out with
my dad in the meantime, he had a place and

(06:15):
he starts to fix it up. He starts in stalling
speakers and stuff, and he hands me the keys and says,
do your disco parties here you can learn some money.
And well, one of those nights I held and open
my competition with a first place price of fifteen dollars.
At that time, in the late nineteen eighties, hip hop
was starting to make its way down from New York

(06:37):
to San Juan, but it still wasn't exactly popular. In fact,
the Jay Negro at his parties, Who's playing house SISA
and pop music? But the day of the competition Dja
Negro heard something that caught his attention. Okay, the first

(06:57):
time I heard someone rapp in Spanish. It sounded so cool,
especially one of the guys. There was one who signed
in English and the other in Spanish. I thought, no, man,
I like this one, the one who sings in Spanish. Anyway,
they won the fifteen dollars. The next day I found
out that he was the brother of a friend of mine.

(07:18):
So I went to his house and I told him,
let's start a duel, you and me, because you sound good,
but your friend doesn't. I already have a little bit
of fame in the neighborhood, but nobody knows your friend
in the streets. Felix was already djay Negro, and because
he who was from a casirio or a public housing project,
knew that, Yeah, I was already DJ Negro, and I say,

(07:42):
let's start a duel DJ Negro and Vile. Because he
didn't have to see yet, they called him Vico at
home because he still didn't exist. The day, Negro and

(08:04):
Bigoci recorded their first song on a cassette player with
the intention of selling the tapes on the street. But
before we go any further, there's a couple of things
you have to understand about the Negro. He's got an
eye for talent, and he's the type of person who
hustles his way into anything. Also, he does this thing
where he repeats himself several times, kind of like Jimmy

(08:25):
two times from Goodfellas, except Djay Negro does it three times.
I start to distribute the tapes. I went to all
the different drug spots and all the different projects. I
used to sell the tapes there because I knew everyone,
because I used to DJing in all the projects. So
I started selling the tapes one by one by one

(08:48):
by one, and they begin to run to run to run.
That relationship between the Negro and the dealers began with
the mix tapes he made of his favorite music, much
in the same way as in Panama. Just those same
people were buying my tapes already. Every time I put

(09:11):
out something new, all I had to do was go there.
And then it was me who wanted up selling to them.
Instead of them selling to me, I was selling to them.
So the cassette start to sell really fast, and I
called Vico one day and tell them we were famous.
In their cars at that time, if you passed over
the amount of bridge, your song was getting played in

(09:32):
the cars and you were hot. You weren't pay out.
Back then, the only thing that was getting played on
the bridge were our tapes, our songs. I tell him, Vico,
people want to see us live, And just like that,
we did our first disco party and it was totally packed.
People were left outside waiting to get in. Did you

(09:52):
need to realize that to take the next step, they
needed to get on a bigger stage. At the time,
or Candle ran a all business promoting the concerts of
New York's hip hop artists in Puerto Rico. So one
day I was sitting in my office and my secretary
tells me, look, there's this guy that wants to talk
to you. His name is Felix. You know he really

(10:14):
he wants to talk to you. Okay, though, was in
the middle of organizing the final details of a Public
Enemy concert and Felix J. Negro wanted to open the show.
So I told him, listen, I'm gonna have to get disapproved,
so I need you to bring me a demo. So
he brought me the next day and I listened to
it and I liked it. A lot, and they ended

(10:35):
up opening it up the concert. They did really well.
Everybody loved them. And uh, that's when I told my
partner ay Way should record this and that eventually came
out as uh the the negi Eco. See. When we

(10:57):
were on our way to record that album, we were
missing a song and Vico was in the backseat laughing
and writing and writing writing. Yea, we got through the
studio and he says, Nego check this out. Then he
sings the hollow we don't today is Friday the thirteen.

(11:24):
That's how the song Friday the thirteen was born. Remember
that viacle. If you listen to Vico's early songs, all
of Vico's lyrics where about stories, story, story stories with
hits like because DJ Nego put Rappanol on the map.
I can tell you from personal experience it was a

(11:45):
bomb like bom baba finger. You know what if you
know you know? Because he wasn't the first to wrap
in Spanish, but he was the best because his lyrics
were universal. They were speaking to everybody. He was touching
on topic is about what was happening in the Casa
Rios and the projects, like drug use and violence. But
he was also talking on a wider plane about capitalism

(12:08):
and inequality. That's why for us he will always be
a philosopher. The philosopher because he and started doing more
shows and even toward outside of Puerto Rico. It was
one of those trips in the Dominican Republic that spelled

(12:28):
the beginning of the end for theo You Go rented
a motorcycle. Unfortunately he fell off of it. In the movie,
they blamed me, let's leave it at that, but that
wasn't how everything really happened. He broke his leg really bad.

(12:53):
They treated him in the Dominican Republic, and then he
got a bacteria, and when he came to pr the
bacteria he got complicated and they had to cut the
bone where the two parts joined, and they had to
like cut a little bit where the rotten part, and
they put a little spacer so the bone could grow

(13:17):
back and make a clean fix. I know it probably
was be gosful. You know, they were kids. They were kids,
so we were how young and you know it happens
the accident was before and after moment. And because his career,
the pain in his leg was so intense that for
a while Vica could only perform sitting in a chair.

(13:39):
He was given pain killers, but that ended up leading
to an addiction to heroin. Well, it was pretty rough
on him, you know, as it would be on any
kind of again young guy, especially him that he was
becoming so big, and he got really depressed and I
had to go nvince him to that he could keep going,

(14:02):
you know that he didn't have to stop. The relationship
between the Negro and C soured. They had released their
second albums La Sima under hord Hook in those Prime Records,
but when it came time to release their third album,
the rift was undeniable. What's wrong? The third album, Hispanic Soul,

(14:24):
comes out and I'm not on the cover. Now it's
just vehic C. Now it's just ic C. I worked
on that album and all of a sudden, I'm not
on the album anymore. They took me out without telling me. Yeah,
that was tough. But remember that I told you earlier

(14:47):
that Negro is not a musician, and that I told
you also that we knew that we couldn't just keep
going sampling things, so we started hiring musicians. They were
in business together then, so because was claiming that why
Negro should participate on the album if he didn't work

(15:08):
on the album. And he had a point, and that's
when I talked to Negro. No no, oh, yeah, Hey, listen.
I was frustrated because it was my idea to go
to the label. I take him to the studio and
they signed us as a duo, not as individuals. On

(15:28):
top of everything, I was fucked because I was broke.
I used to spend every penny open Jo, but I've
always had the courage to find my way back by
any means. And I had a hot dog card at
the time, so I said to myself, I'm going to
sell hot dogs. Yes, hot dogs on the beach and

(15:52):
on the beach and next to the bridge. People saw
me and said, that's d J Nero, That'sja Negro selling
hot dogs. My songs were radio hits, but I was
selling hot dogs. Didja Negodo could feel the stairs and
the ridicule, and it felt like crap, but he tried
to shrug it off like he always did with a laugh.

(16:14):
I tried to have fun with it. If anybody want
hear a picture with me, I would first sell them
a hot dog, and until they bought the hot dog,
there was no photo nothing well selling hot dogs. DJ
Negado brewed about what he would do the next time
he was given a shot. He got his chance soon enough,
when the owner of Joseph Cafe hired him to DJ

(16:35):
at his struggling club. He started spinning on Friday and
Saturday nights, and before long he had the place bumping
back to the brim. And here we have DJ Negdo's
third and final lesson. We started playing and the place
feels up, feels feels up. But one day I get

(16:57):
to work and there's a sign that says we moved,
and I go, what do you mean we moved? If
I'm the DJ and they haven't told me anything. When
I go to the place where they moved, they had
a new DJ, new sound system, a new nightclub, nice place.
Look curious And when I asked why they didn't tell
me about the move, Well, he then tells me, Negro,

(17:17):
you charge us a lot, and if you want to
keep working with us, we'll pay you some quenta fifty
what fifty dollars? After I filled the place for you,
And here's a lesson for everyone. Revenge is a powerful
motivators Ill gave me that day I set out to

(17:40):
open a business to fuck him. I was gonna fuck
them all, So I found the place and I opened
the noise boom. That guy didn't last a month. On
the next episode of A Flow, DJ Negro opens the
Noise and the underground goes crazy. Flow is a production

(18:05):
of Excel Content Studio in partnership with I Heart Radio's
Michael Toura podcast network. The show is hosted by me
Lelia Luciano and was created and produced by Vitennis did Julius.
Production and sound designed by Biso, additional production by David Kones.
Original music by Truco Production, supervision by Alvaro Cespdes. Executive

(18:28):
producers for Excel Content Studio are Nondo Vila Eagle and
Alejandro riv executive producers for I Heart Media or Connel
Burn and to Sell Bounces. For more podcasts from I Heeart,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
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