Music Review // Scott y los Pelmazos "Naftalina"

 

Even though this song has lyrics in Spanish so I don't know all of what is being said, there is still a universal language within music which can have you enjoying this even if you don't know the words to sing along.   Beats come in with this smooth bass line.   A blaring sax joins it and the words are more of a spoken sense than they are singing.   This, and other reasons, make me feel like this is more of a hip hop vibe in terms of genre.

On a large scale, I think of this as being that type of hip hop that I would have been listening to in the 1990's on cassette.  Artists such as Wreckx-n-Effect and Us3, who utilized the saxophone in their sound as well, come to mind.   It's a fun throwback in that way, as it feels more like a party song like House of Pain's "Jump Around" than it does the type of hip hop that is closer to the gangsta side of things.

I have a theory that largely anything which can be done has already been done.  That is to say if you think you have this great idea for a movie, odds are good that someone else has already had that idea and that movie exists.   In that sense, I feel like there must be an entire genre of music out there which is hip hop but is specifically in Spanish.   I'm not going to dive too deep into it, I'm just going to assume that it is there and might even have its own name.

Among other artists who create a hip hop sound and do so with their words in Spanish, this song might have different comparisons.   But on the large scale and really just trying to have that mass appeal, this song is the reminder that if you get a nice beat with a steady bass line, the language barrier no longer exists and you can just be playing without anyone even thinking about it any more.