Sech’s T-Shirt

Sech’s T-Shirt

Good Morning Mis Amores,

Today’s my birthday! And literally the first thing I thought of was patreon and how I appreciate all of you, no joke. I figured let me get right to this post I promised. 

This analysis is also exclusively able to be viewed on perreo.academy password: T3g0Calde!

So back on 3/9/22 Sech Posted this picture wearing this T-Shirt. The T-Shirt is designed with female artists including Natti Natasha, Karol G, Farina, Nathy Peluso, Ivy Queen, Becky G, Anitta and Rosalia and it’s entitled “Reggaeton Queens”

There are multiple things that is wrong with this, its hard to even know where to begin.

I’ll start with the fact that 3 out of the 8 women aren’t Reggaetoneras and how in Latin Music there’s this emphasis to unite or give the facade of a united front–that goes as far as uniting artists of different genres under one umbrella. Now, does it matter that they aren’t Reggaetoneras? In this context.. of a T-Shirt that reads “Reggaeton Queens” I would say yes. The three are Anitta, Nathy Peluso, and Rosalia.

Aside from this unification which honestly is very annoying because instead of including them they could have included Glory Glou, La Sista, Jenny La Sexy Voz, a number of other badass women. The second issue I have with this shirt, is the one I feel is most glaring is the lack of diversity. If you follow me, and if you have been following me, you know that I’ve been trying adamantly, to stress how less than 5% of Reggaetoneras are Black women. 5% mi gente, and so to see women who not only appropriate but do so AND don’t make reggaeton its almost to say–we could’ve included the Black Reggaetoneras but these artists are “better”. It only leaves me to speculate as to why that is?

The third issue I have with the shirt is that Sech has it on. I understand in this music space that a lot of artists are oblivious to the inner workings of their team. Its impossible to be in sync all of the time–there is a lot going on. I can imagine someone passing him that shirt and him saying “duro” and that same person saying “put it on! Take a picture!” and Sech either being tired or like “well I guess this is what I have to do” -then deciding to put it on and take the picture. The reason why I can’t accept that is because of the legacy Black men have in Reggaeton. 

Notice how when I give the statistics I say less than 5% of women in this Reggaeton space are Black. Women specifically because Black men are in abundance and always have been: El General, Nando Boom, El Chombo, Los Rakas, Akim, Kafu Banton, Zion Y Lennox, OG Black, Mackie of Yaga Y Mackie, Angel Doze, the list goes on and on. The problem is Black men, like everybody else, do not watch out for Black women. They don’t put us on, they don’t say “hey come collab with us” Black women are out here by ourselves and if we’re put on its by some miracle, and judging by the amount of Black women we see at superstar status in comparison to Karol G or Natti Natasha or even Becky G? Bueno i’ll leave that inference up to you all.

Ahora sidenote but I swear it relates, you know that I am releasing music soon. And as the time gets closer my anxiety increases because I am hyperaware that I am entering a scene that excludes women who look like me, Black, Thick, Afro Caribeña from the mainstream imagination. I had a conversation with my manager and she said to me after I asked her “why aren’t there more Black women? like wha is the actual reason? is it that they dont want to be Reggaetoneras and do other music? (Goyo, Jenn Morel, Melaner) or is it that they get black balled? What is the reason?” 

She said to me “Well who is trying?” And I got flustered because you know I love my twitter threads highlighting Black women, and we went through the list together of everyone I KNOW EXISTS in this space. We boiled the number down to 5 of women who actually want to create Reggaeton and 3 of the 5 have been left in the dust due to bad record deals, I am LIVID.

Getting back to this T-Shirt fiasco, Sech putting on this t-shirt was hurtful because it was the moment me and all my socio critic friends were afraid of witnessing: the moment that he, a darkskinned fluffy man, validated the non existence of Black women. We would’ve appreciated a comment in his caption saying “faltan muchas” or “y mis negras donde estan” or something but you see, that’s considered to be Off Brand. When you’re in these circles and at this career height you don’t ask this question.

Lately I’ve been asked a lot “Gata, how do we listen to music ethically knowing how fucked up some of these artists are?” And til this day I don’t know how to answer that question. I know that music resonates with people differently, it saved my life. So if a song by dare I say Balvin resonates with me and “picks me up” how can I not listen to it? What i’ve been doing personally lately is blocking artists I can’t fuck with politically. Yes, I literally have Bad Gyal, Rosalia, Karol G, blocked on Spotify. What’s annoying to me on a personal level is Balvin I saw him blow up from his “Ay Vamos” or “Ginza” before he got annoying to this max level. I don’t listen to his new stuff not really, there are some songs that I mean what am I going to do? A lot of people around me play it its hard to not hear it you feel me? But I do try to put an emphasis on artists who I swear deserve more visibility/support.

So where do we go from here mi gente? Well i’m designing a shirt that i’m releasing today. I’ll make a separate post with the promo code. The best I can say is to support artists who deserve visibility and to not lose sight of this type of bullshit. I don’t want to denounce Sech because him existing is literally so important, but damn I wish he’d divert from the path 99% of Black men take in this music and advocate for Black women.

That’s all I got to say regarding this.

I owe you guys another post, i’m on it.

Thank you again for all of your support.

xoxo

Gata

P.S. Let me know what you think!