Calle 13 heads to Latin Grammys rapped in turmoil

All eyes will be on the Puerto Rican hip-hop duo Calle 13 at tomorrow’s annual Latin Grammy Awards — and not only because they lead all nominees with five nods, including Record and Album of the Year.Calle 13 arrives in Las Vegas for the 10th anniversary of the biggest night in Latin music wrapped in controversy after singer René (Residente) Pérez unleashed his scathing tongue on a variety of Latin American leaders while recently hosting the MTV Latin America Awards.Mixing foul language and stinging political commentary, Pérez said, “Latin America is incomplete without a free Puerto Rico” and called the governor of the island a “son of a b” for the controversial layoff of 25,000 public employees.

“I made him famous,” Pérez, 31, said of Luis Fortuño, the embattled governor whose belt-tightening measures have led to large protests, the likes of which have not been seen on the island in decades.

The five-time Latin Grammy winner also said the president of Argentina should “stop using Botox” and wore a series of T-shirts emblazoned with a variety of messages.
Among the highlights: President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia belongs to illegal paramilitary groups, Honduras’ interim President Roberto Micheletti “rhymes with Pinochetti,” as in the former Chilean Gen. Augusto Pinochet, and one shirt saying Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez has been “nominated for Best Pop Artist.”
The reaction was swift. In Colombia, Calle 13 was disinvited to a January festival in the pro-Uribe city of Manizales, and in Puerto Rico, the governor charged that Pérez’s words had “disrespected all Puerto Rican women and mothers.”

The mayor of San Juan, Jorge Santini, labeled Pérez a “tecato,” a drug user, and pulled the plug on a show Calle 13 was supposed to have in Puerto Rico last Saturday. In response, Pérez, who says he’s never used drugs, challenged the mayor to a drug test.
“Santini has been the most amusing,” Pérez said with a laugh. “That was a circus.”
The island’s newspapers, TV and radio shows have been busy debating whether Calle 13 went too far. Even Pérez’s mother had to weigh in. But two week after the Oct. 15 MTV awards in Los Angeles, Pérez had no regrets.

“Yes, it was the best,” he said from Venezuela, where Calle 13 performed last week. “It was the only way to capture the attention of Latin America, where there are worse problems than layoffs ... if not, no one was going to pay attention.”