I’m still on Lesson 1 of Disc 1 of my Rosetta Stone – Espanol, but I’ve learned enough Spanish to know that “Gallo Negro” means “Black Rooster” in English. Of course, there’s another word for “rooster” in the English language that could give “Gallo Negro” a very different meaning. After running this high-powered hip-hop/salsa track by someone who is fluent in Spanish, I’ve been told that the song is about a badass singer–nicknamed “Gallo Negro”–whose music “sings the truth” that will “break the hex” of oppression and vice and inspire people to reach the “summit of life” and alter the landscape of the future. That’s so, so much deeper than I was expecting.
Illya Kuryaki & The Valderramas consists of two musicians from Buenos Aires, as opposed to one Russian spy and at least two people with the surname Valderrama, as the name would suggest. They put out their first album in 1991 and list Prince, Michael Jackson and The Wu-Tang Clan among their primary influences, which makes them the greatest musical duo of all time if my math checks out.
