Gringo's Guide To: Life Lessons From Bad Bunny's Album

Dramos deep dives into messages from Bad Bunny's new album that we can apply to our lives.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Alright, let me talk about here we go. He said,
you live in life as a gringo, where you question
where you fit in every time you mingle, they say
you do. This would not that my life as a dingo. Yes, hello,
and welcome to another episode of life as a gringo.
I am dramas of course, and today, man, don't hate me, okay,

(00:32):
I need you to just stick with me on today's show.
All right, let me adjust my cheer.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Okay, all right, I need to stick with you on
today's show because.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
We're gonna do. I don't I don't want to say
like a breakdown on analysis. But I've been sitting with
this fucking bad Bunny album right photos, and literally as
days go on, I find myself falling in love with
it more and more, but also just recognizing like the

(01:10):
gift that it is because of the messaging so bad
money fan or not, I really feel like I'm gonna
get something out of this. You gotta bear with me,
Puerto Rican or not, You're gonna get something out of this.
Bear with me? And especially do you find yourself around
the ripe old age of thirty and up? I really
like I talked about this on my Instagram, but I

(01:31):
want to expound upon it. I really think, like to
really value and appreciate this album, you gotta be thirty plus.
And I said that as like a joke and like,
of course, some like kids got mildly offended by that
and like don't understand nuance. But anyway, I really think
you've had to have seen some shit, live some life

(01:53):
to really and again that happens for all of us
at various ages. I'm making it Instagram ninety second video.
You gotta bear with me. I won't try to get
a message across, but.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Now that we have the ability to.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Expand in long form here on the podcast, when I
say that, I mean you have to have had experienced
life and the highs and lows that go along with life,
and the losses that come along with life to really,
I think, understand and take in all that he's saying
and all that he's reflecting on it with the album,
and also to feel it in the way that so

(02:28):
many people are feeling it and for it to also
sort of be a wake up call for so many
of our lives. Right, like the central message being the
idea of life is short and moments are fleeting and
we have to savor and value those moments, you know,
because they're gone. They're here today, got tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
You know, life goes by incredibly fast.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
But I kind of wanted to just dive into a
couple a couple of records on the album We're here
to play music. This isn't like that kind of show,
but I've just been like stewing on it, and I
feel like, for so many people who listen to this podcast,
we're all about transformation. We're all about our culture and
growing and learning, and I feel like this album hits

(03:14):
on so many of those themes, and there's so much
to sort of take away from it, specifically from the
vantage point of somebody like a bad bunny who has
gone from bagging groceries in a small town in Puerto
Rico to being the biggest global superstar in the entire world,
and that journey and that sort of whirlwind of a

(03:39):
journey and all the ups and downs that he went through,
and it sounds like a person who sort of feels
like they may have lost themselves a bit or refound
themselves when they went home to Puerto Rico. And I
think Home has an idea right Home could be a
person who could be a feeling, a version of yourself,

(04:00):
whatever it might be. But this idea, right, that hero's journey,
that's literally what Bad Bunny I think. That's that's why
this shit, Oh my god, I'm like having a fucking
as we're talking here. This is the culmination of his
hero's journey. I've talked about this a bunch, but Joseph
Campbell developed the idea of hero's journey. It's what every

(04:21):
good movie plot follows, Star Wars follows, is the idea
that the hero has to leave home and go through
all these trials and tribulations, only to then return home
with all of the knowledge that they have gained and
they bring it back to their people and recognize the
value that there is in their home, the place that
they you know, that has their loved ones. Basically, and

(04:42):
the reason I think that story and this album is
hitting so hard is because it follows that hero's journey
of somebody like Bad Bunny who literally made all of
his dreams come true, only to realize that while the success,
of course has been a blessing, as I said in
my social post, none of it matters if he doesn't

(05:02):
have that connection to home, to his loved ones, to
his people, to being in community, to being a part
of something larger than just himself, right, and being an
advocate for the people of Puerto Rico, recognizing like that's
the real prize in this life. And that's why this
album is so fucking powerful, because it makes you just
reflect them so many of those themes that many of

(05:24):
us struggle with or trying to make senseff throughout the
course of our lives.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
So I kind of want to just touch on a
few things.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
I really think that there's so much you know, you know,
I hite the ter him self help, but there's so
much value here in the world of wellness and self
help just from like the messaging of somebody being so raw, so.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Honest, and so vulnerable on this record.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
So bear with you. Like I said, you don't have
to be a bad Bunny fan. You don't even have
to listen to the album. Just hear me out when
it comes to some of this stuff. And we're just
gonna do this. And I don't know if this makes
sense for the people to back or for me head
that yeah, for people to back. Okay, just a deep
dive into some of the records and the themes on
this album and how I think we could all relate
to it.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
So without further ado, let's get into it.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
Say a lot of the people in the say A
lot of the people in the say A lot of
the people in the.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
All right, So the to me, this journey starts with
this first song on the album, and it's it's this one,
I will admit is a bit Puerto Rican. It's a
bit new Eurekan in terms of the messaging, but I
think it's something that resonates for anybody who listens to
this podcast. Right the start of this podcast, the basis

(06:43):
of this podcast, as I'm sure you're all aware of it,
is like this idea of otherness, right, and sort of
all of us trying to figure out where do we
fit in right neither neither yeah right, the idea of
not from here or not from their type of thing,
always sort of living in this gray area in terms
of our culture. Are our identity for some of us,

(07:04):
our racial identity, ethnic see, whatever it might be, and
trying to find the means to live authentically in a
world that is constantly trying to sort of label us
and create a cast system. If you will right and.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
For for the first record, in Neva Yoga, he samples a.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Song called Ubano and Nevyoga from and that song is
from the perspective basically of New Yorkians enjoying a summer
in New York City. And what is special about this
record to me personally what touched me on it was like,

(07:49):
here's somebody in Bad Bunny who is extending an olive
branch to New York, to New Yorakans and celebrating New
York and celebrating the Latin specifically in his case, Puerto
Rican culture that has been so prominent there, you know,

(08:09):
since the fifties. And for me, as a Puerto Rican
of the diaspora, it was a beautiful moment of feeling seen.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
I feel like so many.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Puerto Ricans of the Aspera Latinos of the diasper were
able to resonate with that the idea of like for
so long, you know, it's like the people who are
from the island who live there are considered the real ones, right,
and the rest of us are like this other sub
category that it's like y'all can't sit with us type
of thing, almost right, And then you have this dude

(08:46):
who is the epitome of authentically Puerto Rican right from
the island, sings in Spanish, just learning English like yesterday, right,
Like he's just literally like mister Puerto Rico, right, the
most samous man from the island, and him extending that
olive branch and tying in New Yorkan culture into Puerto

(09:11):
Rican culture, if you will, and sort of making us
understand that they're both intertwined, right, the beauty of that.
And I apologize if we get super perto Rican here,
but just bear with me, but this is as as
Puerto Ricans we're gonna get to a degree. You know,
I can't make any promises, but as far as the

(09:32):
messaging goes. But you know, there's a long history of
the New York and Puerto Rico connection. And obviously it's
not just New York. There's other cities like Chicago and
Orlando these days and a lot, right, but specifically talking
about New York with this record, you know, there's a
long history of that connection that the first time the
Puerto Rican flag was ever flown was in New York City.

(09:54):
It was designed and presented in New York City before
it was even legally allowed to be used in Puerto Rico,
and I mentioned like, since the fifties you had this
great migration. You know, you had my great grandparents who
came over here in the fifties. You had even music wise,
you know, I would I would bust, you know, fuck
with my dad, you know, bust his shops all the

(10:17):
time because I would. I would say to him, you know,
because he's mister, like call me a New York and
growing up and my mom. But I would make fun
of him because it's like, yo, the music you love,
Like my dad's hero is hec the Level who, if
I'm not mistaking, was born in Puerto Rico but became
famous when during his time living in New York and
working with New Yorkans. But I would bust his shops
like Yo, the music you love was created and elevated

(10:42):
by New Yekans like south Side, people like Willie Golong
and Find You at All Stars like these are New Yorekans,
Franky Luiz right, these are our guys who their music
has played all over the island and every generation has
grown up, you know, sort of with their parents forcing
them to listen to it. You know, since it came
out and it's so deeply ingrained in our culture. And

(11:04):
Mark Anthony, you know, his version of Bresciosa is so
famous on the island, but again, a New Eurekan and
it's it's ironic how we're made to feel lesser then,
but we've contributed so much to the quote unquote authentic
Puerto Rican culture. And I think the beauty of this record,
Revayota is, in my opinion, my interpretation of it is

(11:27):
bad Bunny again extending that olive branch and creating a
bridge between New Eurek and and Puerto Rican and and
sort of saying, hey, we're all the same here. Like
the thing that aligns us, the thing that truly makes
us Puerto Rican is a love for our culture and
a love for our community. That's that's the thing, That's
what That's the only thing that matters, not geography. And again,

(11:50):
you know, as I've expressed countless times on this podcast,
as somebody who has been searching for identity within their
culture and where he exists and where he's a part
of it, you know, this is another beautiful moment of
like confirmation almost like yeah, I belong here, I belong
a part of this conversation. I have something I can contribute,

(12:11):
and I one hundred percent celebrate my culture, and yeah,
I don't know how else to kind of say it,
and I wish and I know that for some people, again,
if you're not perto Rican, maybe you're not having this moment.
But I think all of us can relate to that
in some sort of degree, or we can look to

(12:32):
different artists who maybe have put on for our motherland
or whatever it might be, or even if that hasn't
been the case, you know, as far as like mainstream
success goes, I think even with this, you can sort
of use us as an example of the fact that
you do belong, that there is a place for you,
that you do have something to contribute to your culture

(12:53):
and your community, and that it goes beyond geography as
far as where you were born, but more more importantly,
the love that you have for your culture and your
dedication to continue to not only celebrate tradition and celebrate culture,
but to add your own special little stamp to it
in some sort of way, right, And and I think

(13:15):
that's what is so beautiful about the song. And yeah, man,
I think it's just fucking beautiful that that Okay. That's
so that's maybe more a little bit more personal if
you are Puerto Rican, and if you're not Puerto Rican,
maybe maybe it won't be hitting as much for for you.

(13:36):
But I just think again, I think that basis of
this podcast is so many of us trying to find
ourselves in our culture and our community, and I think
it's a beautiful thing to sort of have, you know,
maybe the group that at times made us feel lesser
than it's beautiful to kind of have that co side

(13:59):
the fact that you know, like no you belong and
more like visually, I look at it as almost like
they're pulling you up a seat at the table, right
and you've been like watching them from afar and like
how nice was that? In school? Like if you ever
you know, found yourself like alone into class and do
you have any friends? They were like you got scheduled
at lunch and your friends wearing the same lunch pier

(14:19):
as you, and somebody was kind enough to like extend
you a chair to sit at their table. Like how
much of a relief that felt? Like, I feel like
that's what this is in song versions, So that's beautiful.
Now from the next one that I want touch on.
I'm not gonna touch something entire out that. There's just
certain points that like we're super eye opening or reflective
for me. But the next one for me, uh, the

(14:42):
song by let This is a solid side record and
let me tell you, I don't know what came over me.
I'm in the car driving about the highway. The record
starts out kind of like a typical I don want
to say tip, but like a Bad Bunny record. It's
a little out there with some of the sounds, like

(15:05):
it doesn't even sound like it's a Latin record per se.
And then all of a sudden he introduces this like
horn section, like no vocals, you know, or not really
any big vocal over like just a horn section, no
drums or anything. And I don't know what the fuck
came over me. I just start crying literally from the

(15:26):
a sound of a horn. And then this shit just
drops into like a beautiful classic Sousa record, And I
even I played it for my parents and they were
moved by it, like they were just like, oh my god,
that's beautiful, right, that's the first time, Like they love
Bad Bunny for what he does for Puerto Rico, but
like I saw in so many people's tiktoks, like they

(15:47):
were like, oh, this is the first time I can
actually listen to a bad Bunny record with my parents, right,
and they can appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
And there was like this connection.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
I had that beautiful moment, like we're eating lunch, I
was just playing them the music, and actually I'm reflecting, like, wow,
that's a moment in time right there that I didn't
even realize, like.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
How special that was sharing that with my parents.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
My parents are both like really into music, not as musicians,
but just as fans. Like, you know, I can remember
being in the backseat of my mom's car on the
way to school and she'd be blasting like Datong and
like India and Mark Anthony, like to get herself pumped

(16:33):
up for the day. And she'd be singing and dancing.
And my dad, you know, had like the big stereo
at the house and a ton of different CDs and
like he would make mixes for like parties that they
were going to and things like that, you know, And.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
And he was a big Sasa fan, and.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
You know, so I grew up with them playing me
the music they loved, and of course as a kid,
you don't wreckize the beauty of it, like, oh, that's
just old music, right. My dad used to listen to
music like of his grandparents. My dad's a old soul.
But even the Sadas stuff that Marc Anthony, it was
like there were certain songs I fucked with, but like,
for the most part, I wasn't going to go home
and like play the CD for myself, right, I wanted

(17:17):
to hear something else. And you don't really recognize how
special these records are until you get a bit older
and you can sort of hear them differently. And I
think that is what bed Bunny sort of arrived to
with this album, where it's not just a thong or
a Latin trap, but he's hitting on some really old
genres of music from like Bomba la Plana and Sadasa

(17:42):
and he's tapping into nostalgia.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
Right, A lot of this stuff.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
That many of us grew up listening to that was
our parents' music, he's now reintroducing it in a fresh
way that makes us appreciate it, right, And I think
this is the beautiful thing about music, right when it
comes to culture, when it comes to your your people,

(18:09):
Like music has always been away from you know, the
earliest days of man as a means of communication.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
Right, A lot of these sounds.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
Like ban like these are sounds that came from from Africa, right,
So you're talking about during the slave trade when they
were dropped off in places like Puerto Rico. They were
playing this music, right, and it was almost like this
form of rebellion. It was like this this way of
them protesting the erasure of their culture, and it was

(18:40):
like a spiritual protest almost, right. And you know those
sounds right, Like when I reflect on it like that,
the sound of that horn being introduced, I think it
made me so emotional because it brought me back to
being a kid and being surrounded by that music constantly.
And again, now that I'm older, I realize how beautiful

(19:02):
it is. Like when I see it, you know, on
the island, I've seen live bands playing it, or I
see the people dancing to it. I don't dismiss it
anymore as like old music, old people stuff. I like,
can stop and appreciate it for what it is, Like
the fact that there's like this unspoken language that happens
when a SASA band starts playing and you know how
to dance sausa and like all these little things, and

(19:23):
particularly now in today's current day and age, and especially
for many of us that are a couple of generations moved,
maybe even it's easy to start losing parts of our culture.
And honestly, that's sort of the American way to a degree, right,
is you begin to just adapt to the way things are,

(19:45):
and as you move out of areas that are heavily
populated by your own people, right, you're then less and
less exposed to the things that remind you of your culture.
And over time it's easy to sort of prioritize that

(20:05):
culture less and less and to be a part of
it and participate less and less.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
And I think that's what happens, Like, you know, when
you get to the suburbs.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
You know, when I was in the Bronx as a kid,
and we me and my grandmother, just like I was
surrounded by Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, you know, and you're
hearing the music, and you know, you're you're seeing in
the summers, you know, the people selling the Puerto Rican
stuff during around the time of the parade, and you
know the bo they got person only speaks Spanish and

(20:34):
all these things, Right, You're just surrounded by hearing all
you know, your people's native tongue and the sounds of it,
the language, all these things. But again, being in the suburbs,
you know, it was easy to start losing that and
for it to become foreign to me and for me
not to appreciate it. And I think as you begin
to assimilate, you sort of let go of anything that

(20:54):
makes you feel other or makes you look othered. And
the beautiful thing about like him happening into these old genres,
it is sort of you reminiscing on the place that
they had in your life as a kid, reflecting their importance,
and now sort of reawakening you to the fact that

(21:14):
it's your job to continue these traditions for another generation. Right.
And that's again I think what was so incredible for
a lot of people listening to this album. It's sort
of awoken this pride inside of them and made them

(21:35):
realize how either how much of it they were missing
in their life or how important it is in their life,
you know. And and when you recognize and you are
able to be present to that importance, you then recognize
you have to savor it. You have to encapsulate it
if you will, right, you have to nurture it and

(21:57):
you have to uphold it for the next gener you know,
and you an album like this, I think for me,
when I talk about getting emotional when it's we're even
listening to the lyrics, it's recognizing how special that connection is.
Like and I went to uh my, one of my

(22:17):
DJ friends was doing uh he DJ's like Thursdays like
this Latin night. The album came out on a Sunday,
so like, you know, nobody had had a chance to
listen to it in a club really for the most part,
and that was gonna be the first chance. And he
threw a bad Bunny night and like he did a
brilliant job with it. Shout out to DJ Aldez, but

(22:38):
he uh he went got flags and like it was
like there was like this surreal moment that happened where
I look into the crowd and it's just to see
if people waving the Puerto Rican flag and I'm like
man and my age and younger and they're playing like
the salsa records and shit, and it's like whoa like

(23:00):
and I felt so at home. I felt so overcome,
and we're just like This is not like you know,
it's not It's not like a fucking I don't know,
a pack ground at Madison Square Garden. It's a club,
a small club in Jersey State, New Jersey, right right
iv down the island. And I just felt overwhelmed with

(23:21):
cultural pride and and and just warmth and fulfillment and
like at home. And that moment was given to us
by this person who sort of made it a point
to document our culture and reignite it and reinvigorated for

(23:46):
the next generation to pass it down, right, to make
sure that our beautiful culture doesn't get lost and doesn't
get watered down beyond recognition.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
And that's what's so beautiful, because you feel that shit
in your soul.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
Right, I had the I thinks doctor Mary Albuquy, she
does a study on like how trauma is passed down
from ancestry, but I also believe like the good shit
has passed down from ancestry as well. Right, That's what
comes over me when I hear that music, or when
any of us are feeling some sort of connection or
attachment or something is speaking to us.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
Via our culture.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
I think it's something from the ancestors that is ingrained
in our DNA that makes us have some sort of
emotional attachment and emotional reaction to it that is so
incredibly beautiful, And again interchange sousade, but you know, regional
Mexican music whatever whatever it is, right, like, whatever whatever
that is for you. But I think that it's a

(24:42):
reminder of the importance of upholding the traditions and the
culture for the next generation and making sure that it
doesn't get watered down as much as we possibly can
and remaining remains authentic because up to us as adults, man,
we're like, we're the next generation who's responsible for upholding tradition,

(25:06):
and if we don't, it gets lost, you know, and
eventually it's unrecognizable or non existent. Like we're the documentarians
whose job it is of this generation to keep the
fucking keep the culture alive.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
And that's through you know the shit I'm about to
take sauce lesson.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
That's like through that, right, learning how to dance outs up,
and that's me keeping the culture alive that I can
pass that down to the next generation and appreciating this
music like bad money with this music is encapsulating and
reuniting the culture and keeping it alive in that way,
and how we speak about it and how we get
excited about it in those events, like I talked about,
like all of that contributes to us keeping our beautiful

(25:48):
culture alive and making sure that it's preserved. I've been
looking for that word preserved for the next generation. And
that's why that is so special. Yeah, man, I think
it's just a beautiful thing. And I want to touch
on two more things here, maybe three, maybe three. Yeah,

(26:10):
but we'll take a quick break here and then we'll
be right back and we don't get deep.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
All right, we are back. I want to touch on.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
I want to touch on the title track for the albumotos.
This is the one if you've seen it on social media,
Like the trend is to post pictures of like you
and your grandparents, your parents, or or pictures of them
when they were younger, whatever.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
It might be, like a collage, and it's this idea of.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
Like the whole idea of the bias photos is like
I wish I took more pictures, right, It's the idea
of nostalgia, of savoring the moment, of celebrating those who
are no longer with us or who are getting older.
It's really this idea of like presence to the idea
of how short life really is. And this one's emotional,

(27:10):
you know, for a lot of people. And that's why
I made kind of like the joke about this album
being for those who are, you know, thirty plus, because
once you hit that age. I know other people have
gone through traumatic things at all ages, but I think

(27:32):
it's safe to say for most of us, once you're
thirty and over, you are at that point in your
life where you begin to lose loved ones in various ways.
You know, grandparents for some parents, you know, aunts, uncles,
you know, friends, whatever it might be.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
You've begun to suffer some sort of loss.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
And you know it's.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
It's particularly.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
Emotional because then a lot of times, the unfortunate part
about it is we take moments for granted, and myself included,
you know, we we are so focused on the future

(28:33):
and and where we're going, and many of us were
goal oriented and all these things that we sacrifice, moments
that we think are little, but in reality are the
big moments, right, Holidays, birthdays, all these things where we
sort of expect tomorrow even though it's not promised, and

(28:56):
it isn't until we get an abrupt wake up call,
oftentimes be it in the form of some sort of
loss or scare or tragedy, that we sort of recognize
the preciousness of life and how fleeting it really is,
and how special these moments that we get to spend
together are, especially with those that we love. And I

(29:21):
think for a lot of people, this song is a
reminder of that, a reminder of moments not to be
taken for granted. And a song like this, I think

(29:47):
for a lot of people they reflect on those they've lost, loved,
ones that they had, and you can't help but become
emotional in that reflection, right, And I'll share a personal
story that this one hits hard for me. I lost

(30:12):
my grandfather this past August, and it hits hard for
me in the opposite way that I think about the song.
I do wish I took more pictures. But what I

(30:33):
will say is in the last two years I spent
more time with my grandfather than I had in maybe
the previous tenth Right, he lived in Puerto Rico. Prior
to the end of twenty nineteen, I hadn't gone to
the island for years, and I got to spend Thanksgiving

(30:56):
with him twenty nineteen, we did a family trip out there,
and then I saw him again at the beginning of
twenty twenty one, and then from there I was in
Puerto Rico every few months, and every time I went,
I made sure I took the drive out there to

(31:18):
go see him and spend the afternoon with him. And
we really got blessed with a gift my grandfather. He
had he had he began to have problems with like
his lungs. I think it's emphasema, is technic what it is.

(31:38):
And we had we had a scare in in twenty
twenty one, so its twenty twenty two. I went where
I started go to see him a lot. We had
a scare in twenty twenty one and summer twenty twenty
one and it seemed like we were going to lose him,

(31:59):
and then all of a sudden he made a full
recovery in the hospital and somehow we were blessed with
like another two and a half years with him, and
one thing that I'm forever going to be grateful, And
I still get emotional, I still get sad when I
think about it, but I'm proud of myself. Well, first

(32:26):
of all, I'm grateful for the gift that was that
scare that woke us up to the fact that you
need to make the most of this time. And I'm
grateful for the gift that was that two and a
half years of time that we had, because as much
as as it hurts that he's not here, and.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
You know, as I go back, I still go visit.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
His wife and I'll spend time with her, and his
chair is still there by the door, you know, where
he'd be waiting for me whenever I would go. And
it hurts right to look at that empty chair, but
it I'm so grateful that I like woke up and realized, like, yo,

(33:19):
you have to prioritize this. You don't know how much
time you have left with this man, right and take
advantage of it. And like I can honestly say, like man,
I did. I did that, and to the best of
my ability. You know, every time I was out there
and made it a point to go see him. It
didn't matter if I was only in Puerto Rico for

(33:40):
three days and you know I didn't want to take
the forty five minute drive without traffic over there. I
did it. I forced myself too and I'm so happy
that I did and so grateful, and.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
I just.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
Want to try to make it a point as much
as I can, the best that I can two do
that for all of the special people in my life,
so that I don't ever have to live with that

(34:25):
regret that I didn't make it a point to spend
enough time with them, you know.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
And I think that that that's like the messaging of
that song.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
The feeling that it brings up is like that nostalgia
because there are other people in my life where they're
sadly gone, and I feel like I could have done
more to maintain that relationship and make them even more
of a part of my life. And I'm, you know,
sad about that, but you know, I think overall, man,

(35:13):
it the thing that I think resonates with me or
are like something i'd heard somewhere. I may have mentioned
this before on the podcast, but they talk about when
you begin to really break things down into numbers, right
like your parents are getting older, if you're lucky enough,
they're still here, and you're like, Okay, maybe I have

(35:39):
twenty Christmas is left with them, twenty more birthdays to
celebrate with them, ten more depending on their age, right,
who knows how whatever realistic number it is. When you
break it down in that way, you realize, oh shit,
those numbers go by quickly. Those numbers aren't even a lot.
I've actually spent more time with them than I have
left to spend. And that's like a gut punch. But

(36:07):
sometimes that's what you need to force you to prioritize
what's really fucking important in this life and also make
you try to be as present as possible in those moments.
And man, it's tough, dude. I even with all like
the work I do, I still find myself taking those
moments for granted and regretting it. But this life goes

(36:34):
by quick man. And again back to like why you
have to be thirty plus to really appreciate it. Anybody
over thirty can reflect on the idea of like bro,
it felt like yesterday that I was twenty one, twenty two,
twenty three. Parts of me still feel like I'm in
my twenties. It went by fast. I just got like

(36:57):
an email about like anniversary with iHeart. I think I'm
on like nine years working. It's I literally remember my
first day like it was yesterday. I remember there was
an artist named Sean Hook performing in the coffee lounge
that we had. I remember sitting at their shitty computer,
feeling at paperwork. I remember being walked down to hr

(37:19):
like getting my picture taken for the ideep edges, you know,
for my fifteen dollars an hour overnight part time job.
It feels like fucking yesterday, man. And life goes by
so quickly, and if you don't appreciate it, I make

(37:43):
it a point to be as present as humanly possible.
You're gonna find yourself living.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
With a lot of regrets about how.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
You spent your time and getting that back. And that's
what this song really touches on, like the importance of
these things. And even with him right again, he even
building off of this. He's just announced he's doing a
residency in Puerto Rico. I think it's from like the

(38:16):
end of June till August or something like that. All
his shows are going to be in Puerto Rico. And
it's the idea, like he doesn't want to be anywhere
else but Puerto Rico. And again, like this man has
traveled the entire world, has made all of his dreams
come true, has been the celebrity has dated the celebrities,
and he's at a point in his life where he's saying, like,

(38:38):
this is what's most important to me. I've done it all,
and I recognize this is what brings me the most
joy and what is the most valuable to me. It's
my island, my home, the people I call home, the
place that I call home, the culture I call home.
I need to just be present in that. And you know,

(39:03):
and I sucked when I relate to that. I like, obviously,
I'm not never been bad, bunny, I've never done it
in that way. But I also I think made a
bit of a radical change as far as like how
I used to live my life and how I prioritize
certain things. And like, again I've mentioned this a bunch,
but like, you know, I see my parents every week.

(39:26):
I talk to my mom every day. That wasn't the case,
you know, when I was really on my grind and
I was living right outside the city and all this,
Like I maybe saw my parents once a month at
that point. You know. But I've seen enough, experienced enough,
and matured enough to recognize how important it is to

(39:47):
have that relationship and to see them and to maintain
that and to sit down and eat dinner and share
meals together and talk and all those things. You know
how important it is to them, but also to me,
and how grateful I'm going to be, hopefully, you know,
years and years and years and years and years and
years from now and they're no longer with me, I'm

(40:10):
gonna be so grateful about the fact that I prioritize
having this much time with them, and that I moved
closer to them, and that, even though it sucked commuting
back into the city when I had to, the fact
that I'm fifteen twenty minutes away from my parents has
been such a blessing. But yes, it's about treasuring that

(40:40):
time you have. Man I was going to touch on
a couple of things. He has a record called uh like,
uh look at so Hawaii. I won't go super deeper
that I thought we talked about a bunch, but like
he references not wanting what happened to Hawaii to happen
in Puerto Rico and Hawaii. You know, you have a
place that has becomes so expensive that Native Hawaiians can't

(41:00):
afford to live there, and their culture has been erased essentially,
and it's just a tourist haven, and it's speaking about
how Puerto Rico is slowly becoming that and could become
that if it continues on the same path.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
But you know, like I said, we've talked about that
a bunch.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
The last one I want to talk about is called
boet now is a slang word in Puerto Rico for pothole.
If you're not familiar, Puerto Rico has, unfortunately a pothole issue.
There's a lack of attention to the infrastructure on the island,
and potholes are a everyday problem that people on the

(41:44):
island have to deal with, like big powholes, like fuck
up your car potholes. And in this song, Bad Bunny
does a brilliant job of sort of being tongue in
cheek and using the pothole as an analogy for a

(42:09):
toxic relationship, but also while still commentating on the current
status of like how bad that isn't Puto Rico. That's
a part of every day life. But the sort of
messaging is just like a lack of attention and care
leads to something like a pothole on the roads that

(42:31):
can destroy and fuck up your entire day, your car,
and I know somebody, a friend of a friend out
there where she was telling me a story of how
she hit a pothole. She's a bartender. She hit a
pothole driving home one night, and it completely fucked up,
like the whole underbelly of her car, to the point
that the car was totaled.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
And how that now.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
Has created a hindrance for her because she can't afford
to buy another one and now she basically has to
live close to the metro area. But the rent is
so expensive and it's kind of like a give and
take because it's like she's paying expensive rent because she

(43:16):
has no choice because she can't afford to buy a car,
or she can't save for a car, but she's paying
expensive rent. Right, Like she would rather be able to
move a little further outside the metro area, but then
she would need a car to get to work every
day because she doesn't have one. It's this whole like
catch twenty two, and all of that caused by a
fucking pothole essentially, right, and a lack of attention to

(43:38):
lack of care by the local government and their infrastructure.
And he compares that to a toxic relationship one where
you have somebody who is really not treating you the
way that you deserve to be treated and continues to
add unnecessary stre to your everyday life because of the

(44:02):
lack of Karen attention that you're receiving. And I think
for anybody who has been in a toxic relationship before
where your partner was toxic, it's kind of fucking crazy.
How as human beings we can normalize just about anything,

(44:24):
and we can build up a tolerance and learn to
live with just about anything. And I've been in that
position before. I was in a really toxic relationship. And
when you reflect on it, and you know, through therapy
and things, and I actually even continue to attract those
types of people, or be attracted to I should say,

(44:48):
And a lot of it, you realize, is like this
lack of Karen attention to yourself as well of recognizing
where you're vulnerable, of not giving yourself the love that
you need but instead looking for it externally. And when
you do that, you leave yourself open to people who

(45:11):
know how to say and do the right things to
make you feel wanted, but are just not people who
are good or are not in a good place in
their life, and are really depleting your energy every single day,
every moment that they're in your life, right, and you realize,

(45:34):
you know, how much of yourself you lost in the
process of like just trying to get by in this relationship, right,
and not loving yourself enough to recognize that you deserve
better and to take the hard step to get out

(45:55):
of that, or to have the fear that you might
not meet somebody else, or to have the fear there's
something wrong with you, right.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
But and that goes beyond like romantic relationships.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
There's job situations that are incredibly fucking toxic and are
taking from us every fucking day and making us a
shell of ourselves. I've been in that situation as well,
where you're like a zombie just walking in there and
you're just like mentally checking out and just doing what
you have to do to get in and get out.
And it's almost like there are times where you would

(46:25):
fucking zone out for the entirety of your shift and
you would leave and just be like, what the fuck
just happened today?

Speaker 2 (46:31):
And that's no way to live, right.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
You're really dumbing yourself down, You're dumbing down your quality
of life. And again it's like that lack of care
and attention to yourself and your needs is inviting pure
fucking chaos into all the other aspects of your life
and is depleting you, right, and it's wearing you down,
and it's beating you down every day. And that's why

(46:56):
it's so important to have boundaries in this life and
to you know, be unafraid to remove yourself from situations. Right.
It's almost like, you know, that's saying, like the devil
you know is better than the devil you don't.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Know.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
Many of us stick to jobs because it's safe, because
it's a consistent paycheck, even though it's fucking horrendous, Like
we feel terrible whenever we're there, and uh and and
that's just an incredibly unhealthy and miserable way to live.
And it speaks the idea that, you know, the life

(47:31):
we want is outside of our comfort zone. Right, if
you're miserable in a situation, you have to be bold
enough to take the risk to fix the situation, to you.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
Know, create the life that you want. And the path
may not and probably will not.

Speaker 1 (47:47):
Be easy, but you still have to push yourself to
demand better of yourself, to know what you truly deserve
and to be unafraid to give it to yourself, right,
to give yourself the care and attention needed to get
out of a toxic situation, whatever it might be, friendship, relationship, work, job,
whatever it is, right, you know, addiction, whatever it might be.

(48:08):
It's giving yourself the care and attention to handle the
infrastructure that is you right and putting in the hard
work that it takes to repair whatever's holding you back
from making the change that you need in this life.
And that's incredibly powerful to me as well the messaging
behind that. And honestly, I could go on for days
with this stuff, but I know we've dabbled in a

(48:29):
lot here, so.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
We'll take a quick break here and.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
Then we'll kind of like just I think, summarize a
bit of everything and my final thoughts here after the break,
time for comp All right, So I feel like I

(48:54):
touched on a couple of random different themes from like
the theme again listen, you gotta listen to this album
nothing but anyway. What am I trying to get out here?
I think, you know, it's a big takeaway for me,
outside of the direct messaging of it all. It's the

(49:16):
importance of doing the thing that you love doing.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Because it really does matter.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
And and you know, we're not all gonna be lucky
enough to touch as many lives as somebody like a
bad Bunny, But there's value in the thing we love
and the way that it can touch other people, and

(49:54):
the thing that is burning inside of you that speaks
to you that you love so much, your gift to
share with the world. And yeah, bad Bunny's doing it
in a larger scale. But again, the reaction you saw it

(50:15):
was like this man was able to use his gift
to touch people in a way that only really he can.
And it just sort of shows you the inherent value
in the things that we love doing that come naturally
to us, how important they are not only for ourselves
but potentially for the lives that they could touch. You know,

(50:46):
you never I always subscribe to this idea you never
know who's listening, you never know who's watching, and especially
today's day and age.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
Man, it's not about reaching millions of people.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
It's just out contributing in our own little way, whatever
it might be, whether you like podcasting, you fucking coaching,
doing art, whatever it is, like the world is thirsting
for our perspective. Right, there's somebody out there who's longing
to be seen, and our our or our talent, our gift,

(51:22):
our effort might be the very thing they need to
find themselves, to relate to someone else, to push them
to just keep on going. And that's why. If there's
one thing I want you to really take away from
this all is you know, share your gifts. Don't don't

(51:48):
allow the fear of public opinion to keep you from
sharing your magic with the world. The world needs it,
somebody in this world needs even if it's just personal
social interactions with people. Don't make yourself smaller like somebody

(52:08):
out there needs to hear you, or needs to catch
your energy, needs to befriend you, whatever it is. I think,
more than anything, this album is a reflection of what
happens when somebody truly finds themselves and decides to live authentically,

(52:34):
magic happens. I would argue this is probably going to
be his biggest album by far. This one has had
the biggest I think impact that it's only out for
a week, and the irony is this is his most
raw and authentic album he's ever done. Because he didn't
just give us club bangers He didn't just give us

(52:56):
peaton or Latin trap with you know, wordplay. He gave
us heartfelt music that meant something that had real messaging
that people could relate to and get behind. And the
world is like obsessed with it because we're all starving
for authenticity. In a world of social media where everything
is fucking fake, everything is manufactured, and people are trying

(53:16):
to find the next big thing and catch the algorithm
and keep up with trends. We're starving for real and
authentic art and communication and just fucking people. And that's
why it's important for all of us to do the
work to find ourselves and be unafraid to share ourselves
in a healthy way. Boundaries is important, but be unafraid

(53:37):
to share ourselves with the world. The world is starving
for us in some way, shape or forth somebody out there,
and I think that's the bigger overarching takeaway from this
album is as I've always said, authenticity is your superpower.

(53:58):
This dude tapped into the greatest art of his entire life,
a career defining album, all because he chose to show
up one hundred percent as his authentic self. He didn't
follow trends right nobody said bombanana or the next thing. No,

(54:19):
but he decided to happen, said even Salasa. But when
he was making this album, people our generation wasn't talking
about salsa. Then of course people like Alejandro tapped into
it and why not just put out something. But when
he's conceptualizing these songs, that wasn't even a conversation. But
he tapped into authenticity what he was really feeling, and

(54:42):
the world has resonated now as a result.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
And that's what makes this project so special.

Speaker 1 (54:47):
That's what makes him so special, and that's what makes
all of us so special, is the moments we're able
to tap into our authentic self and just give ourselves
to the world, to those in our life. Unabridged two

(55:08):
in some way, shape or form, feel a bit human
as a result of seeing us just living as a human.
I don't know how else to explain that, in a
world that is getting increasingly less less less and less human,
we're all starving for just raw human interaction, to know

(55:28):
that we're not the only ones going through what we're
going through, or experiencing what we're experiencing, or starving for
what we're starving for, and raw and honest communication and
art and talent are the things that keep us all
connected and inspire us to keep on fighting another day.

(55:50):
And I think that's what this project did for so
many people, myself included. All Right, I'm exhausted. If I
got I went in on this little digestion of the album.
I hope you enjoyed it, and yeah, keep sharing your shit. Man,
fuck the opinions. I know it's hard. I get a
lot of backlash, and I hate on social media any

(56:11):
of the comments. At times. People are fucking mean and terrible.
But for all those terrible comments, there's like ten good ones.
Or there's somebody out there watching it that you see them,
you run into them, you talk to them, and they're
just like, man, thank you for what you're doing. I'm
inspired by it. Even if you don't hear that. Trust me,
somebody is lurking because I'm more of a lurker than
a commentary and saying like, damn, I'm really proud of

(56:32):
that person, and like, I'm inspired by what they're doing
and it's giving me a little bit more freedom or
strength to be more authentically mean.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
And that's all that matters. We're all leaving our stamp
and again we're.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
Continuing on to celebrate our culture as well by living
more authentically as well. That just I don't know. I'm
gonna stop there because I'm just fucking running around in circlestance.
But thank y'all so much for tuning in. I'll catch
you on Thursday for a brand new episode for Thursday Trends.
So then stay safe and we will talk soon. Life

(57:12):
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