Yeruza: Malianteo With a Conscience; The Light of Salvation Snuffed out too early

I did not pay attention to Yeruza until about a year or two after his death when several records were coming out of his with known artists.  I had heard of him, but whatever came into my network I ignored as it came across as generic Malianteo stuff, which it was.  For those uneducated on the subject, Malianteo is the equivalent of Gangsta Rap but in Spanish and sometimes done over Reggaeton beats as well.  

I am not a fan of generic malianteo.  I can understand how misguided youths living a lifestyle comparable to a gunner in the old west can relate to those songs and love every malianteo track done with the most minimum level of competence.  Some of you are even living the beefs in Puerto Rico and DR picking sides within Philadelphia, New York, and Florida.  I do find it disgusting when y'all celebrate the death of your rivals on social media.  That shit needs to stop!  It's shit like that which is going to send this culture backwards.  I hope they don't do to Pressure or Chimi how they did Yeruza and y'all have a jolgorio online over it.  It's a shame because Hades and Slick are pretty gifted rappers.  In an ideal world, you would want these talents to come together and give back to their communities instead of living in very dangerous and tense circumstances.  Maybe that could still happen... someday.  But how many more people have to die for there to be that level of peace in the culture?

Back to Yeruza.  At first, I brushed him off as many people my age do with many new talents even when they're skilled.  We only have so much time and unless there is a lot of hype around a certain new artist, when your work doesn't stand out enough from the bunch, old heads like myself will often ignore it.  Yeruza came out when I was in my early 30's and now I am in my late 30's.  But I have been a part of this culture too long to abandon it now.  I won't delve into details why.  And I'll be honest, I did not listen to a single work of Yeruza which impressed me until "CODA".

It took me a couple of months to get to "CODA" after it was released.  I did not know Yeruza's full story until that album came out.  And his baby boy adoring him through a statue rather than touching his real face on the cover was so tragic.  It is a very powerful image and a dark reality often opaqued within everyday society.  Like Yeruza, there are literally hundreds of thousands of young males under the age of 25 suffering a similar fate in Latin America alone, much less the rest of the world.  All this is due to the war in the streets over drug points and the DEA's pointless never-ending war on drugs which they themselves facilitate to line up the pockets of many corrupt federal agents playing both sides in favor to their greed.  If the world was truly just, we could end the war on drugs tomorrow.  But that is how we know that Jesus Christ's teachings are true and that the way of men is evil, therefore the world is an evil place.

So I finally heard "CODA" about 3-4 months later.  My first impression was amazement.  Those first few songs really hit you hard and Yeruza did something that I hadn't seen since Anuel.  He really had that Tony Montana, kill everything that moves mentality, on record with a merciless and cold hearted violence which can only be expressed in such vivid detail by someone that lived and/or was surrounded by that level of violence.  There was also a lot of pain in Yeruza's voice much like early Anuel.  But he also had a penchant for catchy hooks and club bangers with fire beats by Hydro.  It was good, but super ignorant.

What made Anuel such a big star, was that although his violence on record was without conscience or mercy, he had a tenderness with the girls.  He was killing all his enemies on record, but with the girlies he was tender and sweet making really good romantic/perreo music like "Nacimos Pa Morir" or the legendary "Street Poem".  Had Anuel never had those songs for the girls to balance out his Tony Montana "Scarface" Malianteo, he never would have made it as big.

I would have probably rated "CODA" a 6 until the last few tracks where Yeruza did something Anuel and nobody else making modern Malianteo has done.  He gave it a conscience.   Street wars is a lot like real wars from veterans who fought in Vietnam and Iraq.  There is a lot of stress and constant worry about your life to the point many suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  The problem with Malianteo in Spanish is that everyone wants to be untouchable like Tony Montana looked like when they shot him a 100 times, but no one, not even Tony is untouchable and I won't spoil the end, but most of us saw it...  There is no vulnerability in today's Malianteo artists and that's why many of them cannot find a larger audience to relate to.  They get rid of their humanity on record many times and literally glorify violence.  

For years they used to say, incorrectly, that Gangsta Rap artists of the past like Eazy E, NWA, Ice-T & The Geto Boys glorified violence which was mostly untrue.  They had a lot of social commentary in their music.  Some of it was senseless violence, but they always had works with conscience and introspection to balance these things out like Ice T's "High Rollers" or The Geto Boys's "Mind Playing Tricks On Me".  Modern Day Latino Malianteo has none of this balance whatsoever.  In fact many Malianteo artists like Slayter, YVNG Chimi, and Sombra PR paint themselves as invincible killers on record impervious to any opposition.  It is very ignorant.

One won't elaborate about the Malianteo of yesteryear though it had a conscience.  Voltio, Tego, Ñengo Flow and Tres Coronas had plenty of conscience and introspection in their lyrics.  But that's not the focus of this piece.  What I want to highlight is that before he died, Yeruza was the only Latino artist who showed some conscience amidst the street violence.

I have only heard "CODA" twice in its entirety.  And I haven't heard it in about a year and a half.  But I remember being more impressed with the second half because of its lyrics.  On the song "110 MPH" featuring Yeruza's also deceased father, Bobby Jacko, who passed away from similar circumstances as his son did; Yeruza doesn't express remorse in how he lives, but there is a vulnerability.  There is a sense, that if he perceived he could have lived differently, Yeruza would have taken a different path in life.  You never see this in modern Malianteo.  He talks about how the injustice within the government breeds more violence within impoverished neighborhoods.  He shows what no other Malianteo artist of today demonstrates, a conscience.

There is one more song where he demonstrates some vulnerability in "LLY".  The fact that he showed conscience and vulnerability on a Malianteo song is something missing today.  I see some potential with Hades 66 filling the void left by Yeruza.  It's a shame we never got to see what could have been and I believe had Yeruza gone with more introspection and vulnerability in his lyrics, he would have changed the game for the better.  We are all human, and these Malianteo artists have to realize the public is too smart and sees through their false facade of invincibility.  And with the tragedies that have befallen many artists as of late, it may be a route less artists want to take.

Reggaeton Party Mane's Final Rating for Yeruza's "CODA":  7.5/10.  This was a vastly imperfect production but all the potential in the world was there.  Yeruza could make catchy club bangers as well as ultra violent songs that were amazing.  But in showing a conscience and vulnerability that no other Malianteo artist of today demonstrates, Yeruza showcased a more relatable and empathetic side to his "vida loca".  I think more artists should follow suit.  It would be good for the youth to hear the realities of the lifestyle rather than the false narrative of invincibility.

Listen to Yeruza - CODA (2023) on youtubemusic

RIP TO Yeruza, Jenay, Bobby Jacko, Pacho El Antifeka, El Taiger, Maestro and all victims of gun violence.