Rosalía – “SAOKO”

Rosalía – “SAOKO”

Rosalía is releasing MOTOMAMI, the highly anticipated follow-up to her 2018 breakout album El Mal Querer, next month. We’ve already heard the Weeknd-featuring bachata track “La Fama.” And today, the Spanish pop star is sharing the new single “SAOKO,” which is basically a straight-up rap song that comes with a Valentin Petit-directed video starring Rosalía as the leader of an all-female biker gang. In a statement, Rosalía explains:

Naming my next track “SAOKO” and sampling Yankee and Wisin for me is the most direct homage I can make to classic reggaeton, a genre that I love and that has been a constant and great inspiration throughout the MOTOMAMI project.

I started “SAOKO”‘s beat playing the upright piano at Electric Lady’s Studio B in NY, I remember it like it was yesterday. It was at night and making this beat seemed as fun as driving a Lambo. I then distorted this piano and added some classic reggaeton drums from a library that NaisGai had sent me some time ago, which by the way is something very special to me because this library has been passed from one generation of producers to another for a long time.

Before starting this track I kept thinking that I wanted to see some jazz touches in a reggaeton track and sampling Wisin and Yankee’s iconic track seemed like the best way for me to open the song. I also thank Noah, David, Dylan and Uzi for sharing this creative process with me.

If you notice, the lyrics revolve around the same concept: transformation. Each and every phrase is an image of transformation. Celebrating transformation, celebrating change. Celebrating that you are always yourself even though you are in constant transformation or even that you are you more than ever at the very moment you are changing.

Watch and listen below.

MOTOMAMI is out 3/18. Pre-order it here.

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