Reggaeton News:
Beyond Gazolina, The Mas Flow Family Talks About the Future.
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It’s been a long and exciting roller coaster
ride for Luny Tunes and the Mas Flow Family. Life after “Gazolina”
has brought them unprecedented international acclaim. Nowadays, it seems
the entire planet wants to get down to their tunes.
Enjoying the poolside action at the Shelborne Hotel
in South Beach, Bones better known as the “musical chemist”
and Teddy, the savvy mastermind behind Luny Tunes marketing are in high
spirits. “ I think that we have conquered every corner. Do you
know what I mean? Says Bones. “We are doing our best to keep everybody
sandunguenado. We are getting ready for what’s next. We call it
the new generation of music.”
" Musical Chemist" Bones from the Mas Flow Incorporated.
Gazolina: The Inside Story.
A handshake and a promise was all it took to make Gazolina
happen. “Yes, it was all done with a handshake. It was a verbal
contract.” Explains a smiling Teddy. For producer Bones, it was
all business as usual. “From what I know Gazolina wasn’t
even his (Daddy Yankee) favorite song. He didn’t think this record
was going to make money because it got so heavily bootlegged at first.”
Unbelievably, Teddy tells us that Daddy Yankee was
thinking about retirement.” He actually felt like quitting the
business. That’s the way the business is, there is so much bootlegging
that you don’t’ even know who’s got the original record
because there are so many leaks with different versions of the same
song.”
At the time, Teddy didn’t think that it would
become a global hit. “Before it blew up it was just another record,
we had done so many tracks with Daddy before, that we really didn’t
think anything of it. “
But things just didn’t happen because of good
luck, Teddy attributes Daddy Yankee’s personal style and tireless
work ethic for the success of the track “He made it big not only
because people liked the product but because he knew how to move the
product. He does press everyday. He does a show everyday. So it proves
that you can really do it if you focus and get your product out there.”
Bones has another theory “The way I look at
it, things started to happen when the song became a crossover hit. But
then again, I don’t really think that gazolina was the one that
made the reggaeton movement in the U.S. That credit
goes to Nore’s Oye Mi Canto, before that nobody was paying attention
to what was happening in Puerto Rico.”
Luis "Teddy" Diaz, Mas Flow Marketing & Publicity
Not The Same Sound.
Mas Flow2, finds the Luny Tunes team playing with different instruments
that are not typically associated with reggaeton.
Bones makes it a priority to produce diverse and exiting
tracks. “We have come to find out that we can use any instrument
or melody from any country and make it work with reggaeton.
I’m always looking for the new sounds, on our last CD, Mirame
had an Indian chorus and Verme was R&B with Dancehall.
So, is there a music genre that has not been absorbed yet by reggaeton?
“In the next CD I want to experiment with adding Japanese music
to a Reggaeton track. The thing that music producers in the U.S. still
haven’t got is the dembow beat; we know how to use it and how
to put it together. “
Open Door Policy
Unlike most of their peers, Mas Flow believes in working with
a diverse group of artists. Teddy knows that it’s all about one
thing. The music. “We are producing the next Wisin y Yandel CD
and we just finished doing a track for Ricky Martin and also did a song
for R Kelly.”
From a music producer’s standpoint, Bones feels
that is important to put personal issues aside and concentrate on creating
music. “ That’s why we are successful. We put all the artists
that don’t talk to each other, you know the ones with personal
beefs, and make them do records together. We are making good music and
we want to make everybody like each other.”
And as far as the “Tiraera” (MC Battles)
between artists, Bones thinks that is best for musicians to focus their
creative energies into coming up with quality lyrics. “To tell
you the truth, it’s all supposed to be entertainment but sometimes
someone crosses the line and people do get hurt.”
Reggaeton Goes Global.
The days when a contract was made with a friendly handshake
are a thing of the past. Now, Teddy and the boys do everything by the
book. It’s hard to believe but it’s taken reggaeton more
than fifteen years to finally get to this stage.
And with a global audience comes a new set of responsibilities.
Promoting and touring outside of Puerto Rico can be a demanding proposition
for most artists.
But Teddy feels confident in the job ahead. “I
basically do everything involving marketing and promotions for Luny
Tunes and Hector El Bambino (The Father). So yeah, we didn’t know
about things like publishing, ‘cause it was all happening in our
backyard. But now the movement has grown outside of Puerto Rico and
things have changed. We are having to learn everything about publishing
and contracts”
The key to global success lies with following a carefully
planed business strategy. “We are thinking about doing the whole
world. We already done South America and Spain and we also want to go
to Europe and Asia. We re doing things al paso,, everything step by
step” .. However Teddy confesses the main goal remains to triumph
in the U.S. market. “All I know is that before we do all that,
our number one objective is the U.S. We are going to try to conquer
the States.”
Bones in particular, enjoys the rewards provided by
years of hard work. Remembering how it all began he says “It may
have started in Panama, but we were the first ones to take it as music.
Before that it was just calle music, musica de malquesina. You know?
Garage music. It was music played by gangsters and hustlers.”
Not Fade Away.
Some people like to think of reggaeton as a passing
fad, resuscitating memories of the early days of hip-hop when pessimists
proclaimed it was “just another Disco”.
The fact is that Urban Latin music has always been
with us in some way or form. Salsa, started as a street music. Reggaeton
took of after Salsa began to gradually lose its street-edge among the
younger crowd. To put it simply, people want music that represents their
lives.
And then, there’s the essential ingredient that
makes Latino music exciting. Dancing. A smiling Bones openly admits
“To tell you the truth, I was a person that didn’t like
(at first) the reggaeton. But look at how hip-hop started, just look
at that! And you cannot stop something that a girl loves to dance to…We
love buying the albums because girls dance to it. People listen to reggaeton
because it makes them dance and as long as that happens reggaeton will
be there”
Leaving their hotel lobby, Bones and Teddy step out
into the warm South Beach night. Tonight they’ll take time of
from their world conquering strategies. Tonight, it’s time to
have some well deserved good times.
Barrio 305
©Barrio305.com
