Hear
LIT killah He is 24 years old and has been in his career for 7 years. And to be fair to his story, his journey goes back even further, when he made a name for himself in freestyle competitions like The Fifth Stepthe same one where they passed Duki, Paulo Londra, Wos, Trueno and others. That is why his show that he will give this Saturday, May 25, within the framework of the Movistar FRIstlye (at 7:30 p.m., at Ciudad Cultural Konex, free for Movistar customers, It makes perfect sense. “I haven’t played in Capital for a long time, so I’m stuck,” she tells THE NATION. “I’m going to play with a band, we’ll cover the songs; we are going to break it. Playing in your country is different. Sometimes I look at the faces in the front row and I know them because they are the ones who have been putting up with me for years. And there will also be competition from freestyle before, so I’m sure he’ll be there supporting the kids.”
Born as Mauro Roman Monzon In La Matanza, LIT killah consolidated a style of improvising and rhyming focused on techniques and metrics, which made him stand out from the average for his inventiveness. In 2017, when trap in Argentina was cooking with the first hits of the genre, he did his thing with a series of singles that extended until 2021. “Apaga el cellular”, “Si te vas”, “Bufón” , “Tan bien” and “Flexin” are part of that stage. “What I remember about all that is that it was a very nice experience, because not having anyone behind to look at, it was like drawing the path. And I don’t speak for myself alone, I speak for all the kids who were there at that time, who weren’t many, either. There were six or seven of us who had mostly left El Quinto, plus Khea and Cazzu. Since there was no overpopulation of artists, you could do anything that was original. You could make a song in the style of any artist you like that wasn’t going to be made here.”
–How do you see the scene today for a new artist compared to when you started?
–When I started making music I already considered myself known, because here in Argentina they knew me. I put together my story, let’s say, my story. Today the move is already set up. So perhaps it is a little easier in terms of opportunities for new artists, although perhaps it is not so easy to stand out, because the world is already looking this way. Before we had to force the world to look here, now everyone is looking at Argentina. And on that side it is good, because there are already many paths and many doors open; It is more difficult for those who have been there for a couple of years because it is typical. Did you see that one has to constantly renew oneself if one wants to maintain oneself? More difficult than paying for one, two, three, four songs is to keep adding songs over time.
–What things do you do to stay current?
–I plan to get together with new people, people who are coming out now, to renew energy and also to learn. Because you never stop learning, so I feel that that is key to continuing to maintain yourself over the years.
–And isn’t there a risk of being influenced too much by fashion and losing one’s artistic identity?
-Yes and no. Because, for example, even though RKT is fashionable now, I’m going to go out and make an RKT album. They have to be things that I really consider suit me and my taste. I am also very interested in going to the opposite side of what is being heard, sometimes because I feel that there is much more merit. And a more notable merit is the fact of sticking it with something that is not playing at the moment, as has already happened with songs like “Among us”, which is an R&B in 3/4 that had never been done here yet. I always aim to try to continue making mixes that go a little against each other, to see if I have luck.
–How do you handle the pressure that seems to exist from releasing music so often?
–It’s standard, it’s not that you ask someone specifically from a record company or anything, but if you don’t do it, you fall asleep. The important thing is not to let yourself be consumed by that and not to despair. For example, last year I was going to release an album but I didn’t end up releasing it. I made about 40 songs to put on the album, it was going to be mid-reggaeton and when I was about to finish, I said: “I think everything I’m doing is shit because it doesn’t represent me.” I didn’t want to see myself singing that, I threw everything away and started from scratch. It felt like something generic, the themes were good, but they didn’t represent me. So I had the whole year almost without releasing music, even knowing that the industry asks you for music every two months. I noticed it because obviously the statistics began to go down, the numbers went down and many things but I didn’t care because I was being faithful to what I did. And at the end of the day the artist is not a product.
–Is there a fear that the public will forget about you?
–Personally, honestly, that never happened to me, the fear of being forgotten. Because if I had that fear I wouldn’t have thrown that album away, for example. I always had a lot of confidence and security in myself in that sense. Ups and downs are normal after so many years. I was in a pick, then I went down, then I will go up and down again. That up and down will always be there. I know that as long as I do things well, even if I hit rock bottom, then if I put my mind to it I can rise again. It will always depend on you, so that is what gives me peace of mind.
–And I suppose that the enjoyment of achieving something that represents you artistically is above all that.
–That’s the important thing. I had to cancel many songs that people thought were hits and didn’t represent me. Every topic you bring up, you have to defend it, promote it, speak in interviews, you have to share it and want that topic to catch on. It ends up being an investment and if you invest in something you’re not sure of, it’s not going to turn out very well.
–In that context, how do you defend “Camionetota”, the last song you participated in, which sounds like formula reggaeton with the same old lyrics?
–They are those types of songs that I continue to make when opportunities arise. You always work mainly thinking about your individual project as an artist, and sometimes you get proposals from outside to do featurings, which is the sound of another where you put your style. That perhaps helps you to be in the hybrid, let’s say, in the middle between what you like and what the industry does as well. All the artists who are in that song work in a reality show. The voice in Spain, it has that context behind it. Sometimes you don’t want to miss those opportunities for very powerful meetings. Everything has its context and its explanation, too, in terms of the strategy that one wants to maintain because that same audience that perhaps knows you from that song is the audience that you want to attract to your sound.
–Of course, it is understood that it is a strategic issue. Because from an artistic point of view and from the relationship with the music and the lyrics, perhaps it is difficult to understand why releasing a song like this in 2024.
–Start thinking that music is a matter of judgment and all audiences are different. In other words, you’re sad and you’re not going to listen to reggaeton, you’re going to listen to a song like “Carta de Farewell,” but if you play that song in a club, it will cut you off. When one grows as an artist and has that hunger and desire, strategically, to expand audiences and they take these types of songs that may seem ugly to you or may seem ugly to me, then you have many people in the club who He says: “Please play me that song, it’s my favorite.” It depends on that, for tastes, the colors and it depends a lot on the criteria.
