“Something With Meaning” Lyrics
Album: Residente o Visitante (Resident or Visitor), 2007
Style: Hilarious but explicit rap song, slow tempo, increasingly disturbing lyrics
Country: Puerto Rico
Listen: YouTube. This song is hilarious because of its disturbing build-up and then the abrupt end after the first end. Residente Calle 13’s voice acting in this song is great.
***Warning: Explicit language, graphic descriptions of violence.***
Translation:
La gente está jugando con mi mente
Y ando con la mirada borracha.
Mi cabeza está pensando en remolacha,
Por eso no tiene sentido esta guaracha.
People are playing with my head
And I walk around with a drunk look.
My head is thinking about beets;
That’s why this song makes no sense.
Nada de lo que digo hace sentido.
Estoy botando fluido por los oídos.
Ya yo no soporto este ruido.
Por favor que se detenga la orquesta
O si no voy a volarme la cabeza (gracias).
Nothing I tell you makes sense. [*lit. Nothing of what I tell you makes sense.]
I am squirting fluid from my ears.
I can’t stand this noise anymore.
Please make the orchestra stop
Or else I am going to blow off my head (thanks).
Ahora si que no me desenfoco.
Residente, ¡te estás volviendo loco!
OK, Visitante, organiza la orquesta en un segundo
Que vamos a conquistar al mundo.
Now I definitely won’t lose my focus.
Resident, you are going crazy! [*note: Residente = Calle 13’s lead singer]
Okay, Visitor, get the orchestra together in a second [*note: Visitante = Calle 13 musician]
Because we are going to conquer the world.
Al que se meta, mi escopeta se la desenfundo
Y le hago un boquete profundo.
-Dígame, capitán, ¿cuál es el plan?
-Mmm eh, mmm eh… no sé.
Whoever gets in the way, gets my gun [*lit. On whoever butts in, I will draw my shotgun]
And I will make him a deep hole.
-Tell me, captain, what is the plan?
-Mmm uh, mmm eh… I don’t know.
Pero presiento que va a haber mucha sangre.
Vamos a cortar cabezas con alambre de púa.
Vamos a secuestrar gente desnu’a y arrancarle las tetas,
Los pipi, los culo, las tota, con to’o y pelota.
But I have a feeling that there will be a lot of blood.
We are going to chop off heads with barbed wire.
We are going to kidnap naked people and cut off their tits,
Their wieners, their ass, their pussies, with balls and everything.
Siento un chillido en el tímpano
Que me mantiene abriendo la bocota. [*boca = mouth; –ota suffix = big]
I feel a shrill ringing in my eardrum
That keeps making me open my big mouth.
Chorus:
———————————————————————–
Quiero salir corriendo sin ropa
Por todas las carreteras de europa,
Y voy hacer~ una fortuna~
Pa’ guardarlo en una lata de tuna.
I want to go out running without clothes
Through all the streets of Europe,
And I am going to make~ a fortune~
To keep (it) in a tuna can.
Quiero salir corriendo sin ropa
Por todas las carreteras de europa.
Quiero salir corriendo sin ropa…
I want to go out running without clothes
Through all the streets of Europe.
I want to go out running without clothes…
———————————————————————–
Nadie me entiende,
Ni yo mismo me entiendo.
Toda esta gente de mi se está riendo.
¡Miren como me están viendo!
Nobody understands me,
Not even I understand myself.
All these people are laughing at me.
See how they are looking at me!
Tengo ganas de ocasionar un incendio
Con una batería, botando gasolina,
Un pal’ de cables enrollados en la barriga,
Un rollo de tape y algo de babilla
Y detonar con alegría.
I have the urge to start a fire
With a battery, throwing gasoline.
Some cables encircling my belly, [*enrollar, verb = to coil; to roll up]
A roll of tape and some audacity,
And detonating (it) with joy.
Tú no sabes lo que yo daría
Por ver tus estrías descosiéndose
Y botando sangría.
Todos los días yo rezo
Pa’ que pase eso.
You do not know what I would give
To see your stretch marks coming apart
And squirting sangria. [*sangria (a dark grape drink) is a euphemism for sangre (blood)]
Every day I pray
For that to happen. [*lit. So that happens.]
Residente, te estás volviendo loco.
Resident, you are going crazy.
No. Solo me siento confundido
Y estoy escuchando el mismo
Zumbido en mi oído,
¡PARA!
No. I just feel confused
And I am listening to the same
Buzzing in my ear,
STOP IT!
Tranquilo, acuéstate en la camilla,
Tomate esta pastilla.
Ahora aguante la respiración
Que por ahí va la inyección. ¡Uuh!
Calm down, lay down on the cot,
Take this pill.
Now hold your breath
Because here comes the injection. Uuh!
Mis neuronas ya están en función.
Voy decidido a fusilar el reggaetón. [*fusilar, verb = to execute by shooting]
Todo lo veo en cámara lenta.
La piel se me está poniendo amarillenta.
My neurons are functioning now.
I have decided to execute reggaeton. [*alt. I am going, committed to destroying reggaeton.]
I see everything in slow motion.
My skin is turning yellowish.
[Chorus: “Quiero salir corriendo sin ropa…“, x2]
Ending narrative (that I can hear):
[Whistling]
Hey, Calle 13,
Cabrón…
Yo te iba a llamar.
Hey, Calle 13,
Sonuva’…
I was going to call you.
[Punching and muffled shooting sounds]
[Bullet casings fall on the ground]
Pero no me llamaste…
But you didn’t call me…
Espera, Calle…
Wait, Calle…
[More bullets]
[Sound of walking toward a party, door opening]
‘ta bie’ [está bien] loco, Calle 13, te quedo cabrón lo de…
It’s real crazy (in here), Calle 13, it turned out badass, the…
[Shooting and screaming begins]
Espera, cabrón…
Wait, bastard…
Ay Dios mio!
Oh, my God!
[More massacre sounds]
Ahahahaha! Ahahahaha!
Hijos de puta! Cabrones!
Ahahahaha! Ahahahaha!
Ahahahaha! Ahahahaha!
Sons of whores! Bastards!
Ahahahaha! Ahahahaha!
[Shooting continues]
[Manical laughter]
[Violent sound effects cut off suddenly]
[In a normal music producer voice]
Ya, ya, para, está muy violento.
Ya, está muy violento pa’ los chamaquitos, ya.
Enough, enough, stop, it’s too violent.
Enough, it’s too violent for the little kids, enough.
Yo le digo a los chamaquitos que esto es fake.
Son como la mayoría de los reggaetoneros que son fake.
No son de verdad. No son reales.
Está bien.
A fuego.
I (want to) tell the little ones that this is fake.
It’s like the majority of reggaeton artists who are fake.
They aren’t for real. They aren’t sincere.
Okay.
Later.
Translation Notes:
I did not like this song at all when I first heard it several years ago. I barely knew Calle 13 then and I did not realize that this song was meant satirically, as a criticism of reggaeton. I think I might have stopped listening to it before I reached the end, the first few times I came across it. I like it now, though, and appreciate the over-the-top ridiculous lyrics.
—
Calle 13 = 13th Street
Residente = Resident = lead singer of Calle 13
Visitante = Visitor = musician, beat producer, and sometimes vocalist of Calle 13
PG-13 = PG-13 = female vocalist, sister
Calle 13 is a family band composed mainly by two step-brothers who go by the stage names, Residente and Visitante. When their parents divorced, the two brothers still kept in contact. “Residente” moved to a gated community and would have to identify himself to the door guards as a resident of 13th street when he went home. “Visitante” identified himself as a visitor.
—
Ahora si que no me desenfoco.
Now I definitely won’t lose my focus.
Ahora si que no… = Now for sure [something] won’t happen.
Ahora si que… = Now for sure…; now definitely…
Ahora no… = Now [something] won’t [something]; literally “now not”
—
Tengo ganas de ocasionar un incendio
I have the urge to start a fire
I have the urge to cause a fire [*lit.]
ocasionar [verb] = to cause; to occasion; to bring (a situation) into existence
—
Un rollo de tape y algo de babilla
A roll of tape and some audacity
babilla (noun, slang) = audacity, boldness; anger, fire (emotion); courage, etc.
—
…ver tus estrías descosiéndose
…see your stretch marks coming apart
descoser (verb) = unstitch; unravel; undo
coser (verb) = to sew
—
Ahora aguante la respiración / que por ahí va la inyección. ¡Uuh!
Now hold your breath / because here comes the injection. Uuh!
The verb aguantar (to hold on; to bear; to resist) is conjugated in the formal imperative here. It is an order, but it is meant to be polite.
que = that, because, for
Explanations are often preceded with que, or es que (it’s that…), or porque (because).
(que) (por ahí) (va) {la inyección}
(for) (by that way) (goes) {the injection}
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