Ana Tijoux

MUSIC "I know I don't speak English good, but I make music. So fuck it."

Half the audience can't understand a word of her songs, but it hardly seems to matter — Chilean emcee Ana Tijoux is killing it onstage at her recent show at Moe's Alley in Santa Cruz. The tiny rapper stalks around confidently in an outfit you'd probably read about in M.I.A.'s style book; an oversized blue T-shirt, athletic high-tops, and psychedelic, geometric black-and-white tights that I promise you cannot be found in this country.

The band surges behind her as she launches into her breakout single "1977," about the year she was born, living with politically exiled Chilean parents in Europe during Augusto Pinochet's brutal dictatorship. "Todo lo que cambia lo hará diferente," she chants in the song's chorus — that was the year that everything changed.

Tijoux's banter is in English (don't believe the self-deprecation, she speaks it rather well), but her flow is español puro, tight verses that, when you're unable to keep up with their meaning, impress anyway with their complex structures. When she slyly throws out that "fuck it," the crowd kind of freaks out. They love her, they get her.

It doesn't make sense, really. The power of hip-hop — the most verbal of all musical genres — is in the meaning of the lyrics. How many non-English-speaking emcees make it big in the United States? Even Dizzee Rascal had trouble over crossover appeal and his first language, at least, was English. How do we interpret an emcee like Tijoux appealing to music fans who can't possibly be tracing the metaphors in her verses? I Skyped Tijoux last week to get her take on things.

"The music industry convinces you that you'll never be popular [performing] in another language — and in rap, even more," Tijoux says, sounds of children playing in the background of her phone call. "But it's about music in the end. Hip-hop is international, it's the language of flow." She says she was nervous before her US debut at South By Southwest in 2010, she thought that maybe people wouldn't have the patience for an emcee that spat in another language.

But experience has calmed her doubts. Tijoux has since played stages from New York to Outside Lands 2011 — not to mention gigs across the world. She says she finds common threads of hip-hop counterculture wherever she goes, but is still surprised by regional variances, like Cuba's cumbia inflected music.

Tijoux returns to the Bay next Sunday, September 11, a show at the Regency Ballroom with Venezuelan disco rockers Los Amigos Invisibles and members of Tijuana electronica-norteño group Nortec Collective.

"Sometimes it's frustrating not being able to communicate with some people. It's not about trying to have more crowd or market, it has to do with the number of people you can share a message with. If that means rapping in Chinese, fuck I will do it." Sounds good — so when are her verses in English dropping?

"When it's natural I will do it." She's freestyled in English before she says, but it's not a pretty picture. I guess her monolingual California fans are going to have to wait for the next tour to be able to sing along with Ana.

But in place of new English cuts she's keen, it turns out, on lending her flair to another crew who could use some help these days, um, communicating. What's up, United Nations?

"Yeah! Contract me right now," she laughs. "I'll do all the translations in rapping." - San Francisco Bay Guardian

With female emcee Ana Tijoux’s latest musical installment, La Bala, she picks up off where her critically acclaimed album, 1977, left off–without being as personal.

On 1977, Tijoux spoke very candidly about the complexities of being a female emcee when moving to Chile, as well as growing up in France to Chilean parents during the Pinochet Regime. With La Bala (literally, ‘the bullet’), which just made it’s debut in America January 24th after being released in South America last year, Tijoux walks the line of socially conscious music with a message behind it.

In a recent interview with online site Remezcla.com, Tijoux explains how the new album works as a continuum from 1977, yet a definite progression. Tijoux says, “La Bala is a logical continuation from 1977. I don’t want to repeat what I’ve done before, and I don’t want to fall under the expectations that people have for this new album. To make another 1977 could have been the worst thing I could have done – to repeat the formula. Saying this, I don’t feel like I’m the ‘king of the tree’ of music, it’s just about emotion and sensibility… So saying that La Bala is a logical continuation, the difference is also that there are a lot of classical instruments like tuba, violin, real drums, and etcetera. I wanted this album to be more organic – the perfect mixture.”

That being said, La Bala, is a fluid and poetic album and a great follow-up for Tijoux. Despite not knowing exactly what Tijoux is saying (at least, not without FreeTranslation.com) what I did pick up on was a great and interesting listen. This project definitely shook me straight out of all of my preconceived ideas (thanks to Pitbull and Daddy Yankee) about Spanish rap. Tijoux’s rhyme style is poetic and melodic, qualities which combine to make this album a rather impressive project. The highlights on the album begin with, “El Rey Solo,” which is a beautiful song, and rather smooth, making listeners want to sway back and forth, not to mention the guitar solo on the end of the song which make this a definite highlight.

The production on “Las Cosas Por Su Nombre,” and the opening sample as well, command attention on this track, while, “Las Horas,” is more of a sensual song, powered by strings during the verses and singing on the chorus. The mellowness of “Sacar La Voz,” and the collaboration with Los Aldenanos on “Si Te Preguntan,” makes this album a well-balanced effort. Overall, this is a great follow-up for Tijoux, and she definitely has a new fan in me. - Okayplayer

Two years ago, Chilean MC Ana Tijoux changed the face of Latin rap with her second solo effort, “1977.” An epic statement of purpose, the album introduced audiences outside South America to Tijoux's seductive flow, the smoky texture of her voice and a weakness for rhymes that don't rhyme, rearranging the Spanish language with broken syllables and staccato accents.


Building on that same foundation but adding layers of actual singing and an eclectic gallery of guest vocalists, “La Bala” is Tijoux's magnum opus, perhaps the most sumptuous album that rap en español has known. After she expressed the desire to “rap against violins,” producer Andrés Celis assembled a miniature symphony orchestra of strings and brass, recorded live. On “Desclasificado” the result is gorgeous, a majestic blend of Prokofiev and hip-hop, the ominous orchestration underscoring the sweet drama in Tijoux's delivery.

A knowledge of Spanish is not required to enjoy this album — the sonic richness of the whole thing keeps you entertained. That said, Tijoux's lyrics are particularly incisive. She applauds the recent student protests in Chile on the single “Shock” and evokes the intimacy of meeting an old friend for an evening of laughter and philosophizing on “Quizás.” There are a couple of low moments (a jarring duet with Cuban rappers Los Aldeanos belongs on a different album), but overall, “La Bala” showcases Tijoux as one of Latin music's most sensitive and inventive artists — regardless of genre.

“La Bala”
Ana Tijoux
(Nacional)
Three and a 1/2 stars (out of four) - LA TIMES

Fresh Since 1977: Ana Tijoux Interview
April 27, 2010 by Navani Otero

It always amazes me how universal hip-hop is. I mean I know it’s reached
worldwide popularity however I am still surprised when I see the effect it has in
music in other countries. Take Chile for instance. There, rapera Ana Tijoux is
being hailed as Latin America’s fiercest MC. Born in France to a French mother
and a Chilean father in political exile, she found home in the emerging hip-hop
scene of Santiago de Chile and started rhyming first in French, then in Spanish.
Her first album Kaos got her nominated for the Latin version of the MTV Video
Music Awards in 2007 for Best New Artist and Best Urban Artist. At the same
time she was nominated for song of the year together with Julieta Venegas for
“Eres Para Mí”. After taking South America by storm now Ana Tijoux is invading
America. Her US debut, 1977, named after the year she was born, pays
homage to the classic albums of hip-hop’s golden age—Illmatic, 36 Chambers
and Midnight Marauder. The album encompasses her life in both Chile and
France with sophisticated lyrics and dynamic beats. After years of sharing the
spotlight with others she has finally arrived in her own right–a raw, direct, and
mature solo MC. On the heels of launching a 20 city U.S. tour Ana talks to
BrooklynBodega.com about being a female MC in Chile and why she loves hiphop.
BB: How did you get started in hip-hop? Ana Tijoux: I began like 12 years ago
freestlying with my friends. I never thought I’d make it my career you know. It
started because I used to write a lot as a teenager; just my feelings and
thoughts and then it progressed. Then I started doing it on a more professional
level.
BB: It’s always amazing to me to see the reach of hip-hop culture in other
countries. Who did you listen to growing up as a kid in Chile? Ana Tijoux: I
loved Bahamadia, The Roots, as well as Bohemian and folklorico music. Just
a mix of genres.
BB: What is it about the genre of hip-hop that drew you to it? Ana Tijoux: I
love the force; I love the energy, just the freedom. The reason I love hip-hop in
my case is because it’s one of the places where I feel I can be really free. When
I rap I don’t think at all – I just write it, I feel it. The lyrics are so freeing for me
because I just say whatever I feel, it’s a great moment for me, that’s what I love
about music, the intuition of it. I don’t know how else to explain it, I just feel it.
BB: Do you ever feel like you receive a lot of criticism for being a female
rapper vs. a male in the industry? Ana Tijoux: No, I never do. I always get a lot
of support from those around me, at least here in Chile. If perhaps that did
happen I wouldn’t put any attention to it because it’s about music and about
energy at the end of the day. It’s bigger than being a guy or a woman; it’s about
the universe that you want to show.
BB: What artists influence your music? Ana Tijoux: There are so many! I
couldn’t say one person because I love so many types of music. I love afro
beat, I love Fela Kuti, Erykah Badu, and I love Brazilian music – so many
different musicians.
BB: Are there any other Latinos in the game right now that you respect, that
you think are doing it right now? Ana Tijoux: I really respect the music of
Ruben Blades. I remember being young around 8 or 9 and hearing one of his
songs – it was the first time I heard lyrics that were so profound that touched
my soul. I remember thinking wow, how can I create that? I wanted to use
words to create that feeling for someone else. To touch that very special,
sensitive place we all have. It’s about the lyrics, the funk, the energy, the
sadness. I think of him as a rapper, he doesn’t make rap music but for me it is
an energy.
BB: What American artists are you really into right now? Ana Tijoux: I really
like Invincible. I think she has a lot of talent. I love her lyrics, her voice, and her
energy. I really like her as a person too; she is a complete artist to me. There
are so many others, too many for me to list. Too many people are making great
music, they are blowing my mind! I hate them (laughs).
BB: Tell me about your new album 1977. You cover a lot of different
topics. Ana Tijoux: I talk about everything. I don’t like to just stick to one topic
like love or politics; I like to talk about everything. The point is to not stop what
you feel. The idea of the album overall is humanity – to learn about yourself and
be real to yourself. It’s not about one topic – it’s about the beauty of the fight,
about love, about music, it’s about the crisis, it’s about everything.
BB: Speaking of Invincible earlier, she is featured on your song “Sube”. How
did that collabo happen? Ana Tijoux: I am very critical when it comes to rap you
know. A lot of times I may not understand everything the artist is saying in
English so I rely a lot on their flow and style. So when I came across
Invincible’s music I - BrooklynBodega.com

Chilean rap per Ana Tijoux makes
her Los Angeles debut tonight
March 23, 2010


When the great earthquake of 2010 roared through Santiago last
month, hip-hop artist Ana Tijoux was performing at a club. She had
made it through three songs when the walls around her began to
tremble.
Then the lights went out. Fortunately, no one inside was hurt, but "it
was a little strange," Tijoux said, speaking by phone last week from
Austin, Texas, where she was making her North American tour debut
at the South by Southwest music festival.
As one of South America’s best-regarded young MCs, male or female,
the prodigiously loquacious Tijoux is seldom at a loss for words.
Formerly the frontwoman for the socially clued-in hip-hop outfit
Makiza, she has developed a growing following with her jazz-inflected,
unusually melodic rapping and witty, politically savvy lyrics.
But in the weeks since the devastating temblor, Tijoux hasn’t been
moved to set down any of her thoughts about the traumatic event in
song, especially while Chile continues to be rattled by seismic
aftershocks.
"It has inspired fear more than inspiration," said the artist, who will
perform in Los Angeles for the first time tonight at Little Temple.
Salvaging inspiration from life’s strange rumblings is, of course, part of
an MC’s job description. Tijoux fulfills that obligation impressively with
her debut album, "1977," which has just been released by North
Hollywood-based Nacional Records.
The title refers to the year of Tijoux’s birth, when her parents were
living in exile in Paris. Like other left-leaning former students, they’d
been forced to flee Chile after the right-wing Gen. Augusto Pinochet
overthrew the democratically elected Salvador Allende in a military
coup on Sept. 11, 1973. In the years that followed, Pinochet carried
out a brutal campaign to imprison and execute political opponents.
"When I was a child, Chile was always a subject around the dinner
table," Tijoux said. "It killed a generation in Chile, so it affected
everyone."
Several of her album’s song titles suggest themes of struggle and
conflict: "Obstáculo" (Obstacle), "Crisis de un MC" (Crisis of an MC),
"Problema de 2" (Problem of 2).
But in fact, Tijoux said, her youth in France was "the most incredible"
experience.
Her playmates included the children of many other political refugees,
from Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Palestine and elsewhere. Her father
worked as a truck driver, and she often accompanied him on crosscontinental
European odysseys, giving her a wide exposure to different
languages and cultures.
Her mother was a social worker, and when Tijoux went with her into
the streets of Paris, she heard a multitude of different voices and
music, including one particular style that spoke in the urgent cadences
of the urban immigrants themselves.
"All the children in the street listened to hip-hop," she said.
When her family returned to Chile in 1993, it was like finding a new
world full of rich possibilities for making art.
"There I discovered a country with a great story," said Tijoux, who has
been nominated by the MTV Latin America VMAs as "best new artist"
and "best urban artist." While studying literature in school, she began
immersing herself in Santiago’s inchoate hip-hop underground. The art
form, she said, "seemed like a platform to talk about all kinds of
things" in a way that was cathartic.
Tijoux is one of those rare rappers who actually can carry a tune as
gracefully as she can craft a lyric. Her singing abilities have caused her
to be recruited to perform on tracks with the Argentine electronictango-
alternative group Bajofondo, and to pair up with Mexican rocker
Julieta Venegas on her hit song "Eres Para Mi."
Tijoux expresses reverence for what she calls the "golden age" of rap,
exemplified by albums such as Wu-Tang Clan’s "36" and A Tribe Called
Quest’s "Midnight Marauder." And she makes no bones about her
distaste for the braggadocious, jewel-encrusted, pistol-packing,
penthouse-strutting rap that came to dominate the airwaves in the
late 1990s.
"Bling makes me laugh, because we don’t see it in Chile," she said.
"Hip-hop was born as an art of daring, celebrating, struggling."
-- Reed Johnson - Los Angeles Times

URB.com April 28, 2010

Ana Tijoux Rhymes from Santiago to New
York (MP3)

Old school hip hop meets global perspective
“What’s up, New York?!!” screamed Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux at
Manhattan’s Le Poisson Rouge during her first US tour last earlier this
month. “I’ve always wanted to say ‘What’s Up, New York?’” she told
the crowd, a wide smile across her face.
Tijoux had been waiting a long time for that moment, and now is her
moment. Her whirlwind string of performances (more than a dozen
dates in 30 days) to support her new solo album, 1977 (Nacional
Records), kicked off at SXSW in Austin and took her to more than 10
cities in the US and Canada. No doubt, an ambitious tour for a
Spanish-language female rapper barely known here. But Tijoux’s easy
flow, sharp verbal skills and confidence clearly appeal beyond
language and genres.
In this new album (her second, after 2007’s Kaos), named after the
year she was born, Tijoux invokes that liberating feeling she first felt
during her early idyll with hip, when it became a necessity for her to
transmit her thoughts and experiences into spoken word. “My
relationship with music has always been by chance” she says over the
phone from her home in Santiago, a few weeks after returning from
the US. “I didn’t say ‘this is what I’m going to do.’ I’ve always liked to
rhyme and hip hop was the exact middle ground between music and
poetry.”
Like a modern-day Proust, on 1977 the 32-year old dips into her early
influences such as Wu Tang Clan’s 36 Chambers and A Tribe Called
Quest’s Midnight Marauder as well as her personal history growing up
in France as the daughter of Chilean political exiles, returning to the
motherland when she was just 17, her young mind still molding.
Produced by Tijoux’s longtime collaborators Foex and Hortadoj, 1977
is straightforward, honest hip hop with jazz undertones, told in Tijoux’s
husky, but precise, smart verbal delivery. Among the features on the
album is a track with Detroit MC Invincible, whom she contacted via
MySpace and met for the first time during a SXSW performance last
month.
Tijoux was born Anamaria Merino in Lille (north of Paris), and like
many children of immigrants in France at the time, Tijoux started
listening to American hip hop barely in her teens. At the same time,
her parents introduced her to political Chilean folk music that resisted
Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. In fact, she considers folk singers
Victor Jara and Violeta Parra as much rappers and influencers as Jeru
The Damaga, Pete Rock and J Dilla. When she moved to Santiago, an
identity crisis—cultural, political, generational—ensued, and she found
in hop hop the right vehicle to express herself. “There were many of
us, kids who came from Sweden, Venezuela, Argentina…they call us
“los Retornados” [“those who return”], and we were about that quest
for an identity” she says. In 1997, Tijoux joined Makiza, which became
one of the most important hip hop groups in Latin America and whose
1999 hit “La Rosa de los Vientos” became an emblem of a postdictatorship,
global generation.
For a small country, Chile has a vibrant hip hop scene. Every summer
for the past few years, Tijoux’s DJ has organized a J Dilla tribute,
where more than 500 people congregate to listen to Dilla joints all
night long. During her tour, which was also her first time ever in the
US, Tijoux made a stop at J Dilla’s grave in Los Angeles to pay her
respects. Not only that, but Tijoux had the opportunity to have
breakfast at Ma Dukes’ house in Detroit. “In Chile we’ve followed the
Detroit school for a long time. She’s a wonderful woman,” she says of
J Dilla’s mother. “It sounds weird to say but after talking to her, I was
able to understand Dilla better.”
During her tour, Tijoux was received warmly, not just by Latinos but
by audiences of all backgrounds. More than a Latina MC, Tijoux is a
prime example of a 21st transcultural rapper shaped by politics and
global massive culture, which she is in turn shaping. On 1977, she
raps just as tight in Spanish as in French, and judging by the ease with
which she addressed audiences here, she could no doubt rap in English
too.
Next for Tijoux? Another visit to the US in July, and starting to gather
ideas for her next album. For now, she’s back at home in Santiago
“clearing my head and my things” and wants to learn some piano.
Although, she says, “I’m much more self-taught, I like that instinctual
feeling of having a musical perception, of playing something because
you feel it. I’m really attracted to that.”
Words by contributor Nuria Net. Nuria is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of
Latino culture guide Remezcla.com. - URB magazine

A passion to rap

Can a Chilean female hip-hop artist make it in
the US? Don’t doubt Ana Tijoux.

By James Reed
Globe Staff / April 24, 2010

Ana Tijoux — who will release “1977,’’ her debut album in the
United States on Tuesday — embraces what she calls old-school
hip-hop from the early 1990s.
Ana Tijoux was 8 years old and growing up in France, but she knew
even then that she related to hip-hop more than anything else she had
experienced.
The stuff she was listening to, everything from Public Enemy to the
French rappers she heard through the street kids her mother
counseled as a social worker, talked about isolation and
empowerment. They were themes that spoke directly, and
passionately, to an only child of Chilean parents who were exiled in
France in 1976 to escape Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.
What Tijoux didn’t know back then was that her own story would make
for a compelling hip-hop career that’s finally bubbling up from the
underground. On Tuesday, Nacional Records will release “1977,’’
Tijoux’s debut album in this country that puts her at the forefront of
Latin American hip-hop, which has even fewer well-known female MCs
than its US counterpart.
“I write about what I know, but also what I am and what I want,’’ she
said over coffee and couscous in Harvard Square this month before
playing to a full house at nearby Tommy Doyle’s. “Why don’t I rap
about bling? Because that’s not a part of my life, and it’s what
destroyed hip-hop for me. It made the music so commercial that
people don’t have to think.’’
Instead, Tijoux embraces what she calls old-school hip-hop from the
early 1990s in the spirit of artists who influenced her. Her experience
of living in exile — first in France and then figuratively in Chile, where
she struggled to understand the culture upon returning when she was
14 — has become the driving force of her craft.
“Chilean hip-hop is obviously not like what you have in this country,
but it’s distinct in its passion,’’ said Tijoux, 32. “We don’t have so
much money for the production, but the passion we have is amazing.’’
You hear that passion on “1977,’’ which features Tijoux’s machine-gun
rhymes couched in pulsating hip-hop and trip-hop beats, turntable
scratches, and spoken-word samples. Reminiscent of Manu Chao, the
title track plays like a manifesto, telling the story of Tijoux’s battle with
feeling like an outsider as an adolescent.
When she performed the song backed by a DJ at Tommy Doyle’s, she
was the guest musician at Clandestino, a popular Latin rock dance
night, and the crowd’s reaction spoke volumes. From crossed arms
and puzzled faces to dancing and hands waving in the air, it was a
reminder that Tijoux’s greatest challenge outside South America is
finding her audience. Spanish-speaking rappers and reggaeton artists
have made inroads on the charts, but female MCs like Spain’s Mala
Rodríguez have had a harder time.
Tijoux reminded the Tommy Doyle’s crowd that hip-hop doesn’t have
national borders, but that idea seems lost on booking agents who
haven’t quite figured out what to do with Tijoux. Last month at South
by Southwest in Austin, Texas, instead of hip-hop showcases, she
mostly played on bills with other world-music acts who shared little in
common with Tijoux aside from the same native language.
But Tijoux, whose first taste of mainstream exposure came in 2007
with a guest rap on Mexican rocker Julieta Venegas’s hit “Eres para
mí,’’ knows it takes time to build a fan base. She’s worked hard to get
this far, particularly at home in Chile. In her teens she started to write
freestyle rhymes and devoted three hours a day to writing and
rapping. When she started to make a name for herself in Santiago’s
underground hip-hop scene, first with a group called Makiza, she’d
play anywhere and anytime, usually for free or at least the price of her
bus fare.
Eager to understand the lifestyle — “I wanted to live hip-hop in all
senses, and I used to sign my name everywhere and did graffiti, but
only three times’’ — she started hanging out with rappers and graffiti
artists. There weren’t many women in the scene, so Tijoux found
herself almost always in the company of men, but she said she’s rarely
ever felt sexism among her peers. If anything, she says she feels
protected by them and united in a greater mission.
“People don’t know that we have amazing rappers in Latin America,’’
she said. “I’ve been waiting for this all my life, and now that I’m doing
it, it’s not just for me. It’s for everyone.’’
James Reed can be reached at jreed@globe.com. - Boston Globe

Chicago Reader Thursday May 25, 2010

Rapper Ana Tijoux is a multinational child, born in Lille, France, in 1977 to
a French mother and a Chilean exile father. After the Pinochet regime
unraveled and Chile transitioned back to democracy in the late 80s, her
family moved to Santiago, where she embraced hip-hop—already a
musical lingua franca for much of the world. By the late 90s her trio
Makiza had become stars by adapting the aesthetic of New York's Native
Tongues crew—not just the sound but the "conscious" lyrical style—for
South America, rapping in Spanish and tackling subjects relevant to
Chileans, not just copying the postures of stateside hip-hop. In 2006
Tijoux got a jolt of crossover exposure when she rhymed on "Eres Para
Mi," a huge international hit by Mexican singer Julieta Venegas. She
released her first solo album the next year, and her second, 1977, came
out last fall (Nacional will release it in the U.S. next month). On the new
record, where she raps in both Spanish and French, she reminds me a
little of Bahamadia: her nimble delivery and barrages of consonants give
her voice a percussive bounce that complements the beats, and she sticks
to a narrow range of pitches, creating a cool sort of tension. The backing
tracks collide live instruments and samples of instruments (vibes, flute,
bass, guitar, strings) with turntable scratching and hard-funk grooves for
an old-school feel that's alternately plush and harrowing. All Natural, Inc.;
Olmeca; and Phillip Morris open. —Peter Margasak - Chicago Reader