«They often make me feel racism, they want to kick me out all the time»

Through a park in Torrejón de Ardoz where school children play on the skate park, El Chojin walks one market morning. Tall and thin, with a well-shaped beard and large dark eyes, he is one of the pioneering rappers in Spain, with around fifteen albums published and more than half a million monthly listeners on the platforms.

-What is the rap?

–A style of music that is part of hip hop culture. As a way of understanding life, it makes you feel like a protagonist in your society, that you take the reins and don’t expect others to fix your problems. There are those who write books or graffiti, design clothes, paint pictures.

–Where is hip hop expressed?

-In the neighborhood. In Congress they talk about a Spain that the vast majority of us do not see and will never see. What we see is the street, the small and large businesses, the buses, the stops… Little is said about the neighborhood but here are the real problems.

–And what are those problems?

–Injustice and disrespect. From there all the others emerge.

–Gender, race injustice…?

–And social class, origin. At the core is that we are taught to demand respect but not to offer it. This is how society works. The prosperous Europe we live in could not exist if the rest of the world was respected.

–This disrespect is transferred to artistic creation. How have you adapted to the changes in the music industry?

–Blows. I work for people. And if they consume music in a different way, we have to give it to them in a different way.

–Has society changed too?

–It is evident that there are things that have changed, such as the way feminism is treated, but the substratum has not changed. My first letters are still valid. The politicians who lie continue, the big businessmen who want to make more money at the expense of the poor being a little poorer, the great powers capable of sacrificing thousands of people.

Against racism

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of his first album, “which even came out on cassette,” El Chojin is preparing versions of those initial songs, which will feature collaborations from “artists who say: what’s this man doing here?” «Dedicating yourself to art does not give you permission to work less than someone who gets up in the morning and goes to an office. “From writing a lot, a lot of material comes out,” says El Chojin, whose lyrics on some 400 songs have a deep and intelligent social criticism against materialism, violence, corruption or racism. “In Spain they want to kick me out all the time,” he says.

–Do you feel racism?

–Yes, I have grown up in a country that has constantly shown me that it did not love me, and that is very complicated for a person because it separates them from society, and makes them not feel part of the common project. With all the political speeches we hear now or with comments towards my family members, they often make me feel racism, which has caused me trauma and mental health problems.

-What type?

–There is no one who does not have mental health problems, just as there is no one who does not have a cold from time to time. You have to be aware that they exist and that they must be taken care of. I had them before I knew that concept existed and I was able to recognize them thanks to rap, because it isolated me and I began to think about what an expert was. At thirteen, when I started writing, he was an expert only on me. I saw that I should be fine but I wasn’t and I understood it as a part of me.

–He is 47 years old, what is maturity?

-I have no idea. If it is the end of something, I have neither arrived nor have the intention of arriving. If someone comes to me with a new style of music, I’ll listen to it. If maturity has to do with the feeling of having arrived at a place from which you can no longer move, I neither have it nor want it.

–How do you connect with the new generations?

–Treating them like people. I feel like I entered university five minutes ago. I remember those years and it is not difficult for me to understand what it is like to be 18 or 22 years old. I think I can connect with young people because I don’t demand that anyone be something they’re not.

couple of kings

Chojin captivated a very different audience than the one that usually listens to it on platforms and at concerts when Queen Letizia recited one of its lyrics at a public event. She will now sing to the King, at an event in Madrid (June 3 at Casa América). “I’ll rap one of my songs.”

–What message would you like the King to listen to carefully?

–The attendees at these elegant events do not value this type of music but when they hear me their faces change and they come closer surprised. It happened to me with the Queen. But the Queen is a natural person, that she sits and talks to you. The King is something else. I don’t understand what I’m talking about there.

–Do you really believe that a song can change a person’s life?

–I know that music can change a life. Mine has changed. Without music I would have been a totally different and perhaps sadder person. It is the closest thing to magic that exists, capable of changing your mood or making you travel back in time. When the message prevails, it helps you not feel alone. Music is therapeutic.

–What is the most recent thing you have written?

–He was talking about Palestine, about the shame it should give world leaders to let thousands of people die. There are 15,000 dead children.

–What reflection do you have after three decades of career?

–We are in great need of understanding as a society. I say obvious things that most people don’t say but want to hear, that’s the key. I feel like I contribute something when a person on the other side stops feeling alone when they hear me say something obvious.