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The title of Chilean MC/singer Ana Tijoux’s second solo album, 1977, indicates her year of birth—in France, to whence her parents had fled from Pinochet’s regime. “Whenever you have an intense family history, whatever it may be,” Tijoux says by e-mail, “it’s obviously going to have an impact and will be part of your personality. It defines the way you see the world and your sensitivity, above all things. In my particular case, I always had very interesting dinner conversations with my parents about the touchy subjects around the world. Those topics are a reason why I make music and rap.” When the coast cleared and her family moved to Chile, the teen Tijoux dove right into the rising hip hop scene there, one more left-wing than gats ’n’ bling. “I would say that the most notable thing in Chilean rap is the style and context of its lyrics.” By 2001, she’d climbed the national ranks with the upscale outfit Makiza and just as pan-Latin primacy was in their grasp, she bolted. Withdrawing to France again, Tijoux renounced not just rap but music entirely until 2004, when she resurfaced fronting a funk band and sharing a tune with Mexican pop-rocker Julieta Venegas. A Makiza reunion shorted out in 2006. Her ambivalent relationship with hip hop carried over onto her 2007 solo debut, Kaos, which sought to stretch the form in many directions. That (and a second song with Venegas) earned her Latin MTV award nominations and mainstream accolades. 2009’s 1977, however, saw Tijoux return wholeheartedly to her roots in rap. Over grooves in shades of Golden Age NYC with an obvious South American twist, she proved herself a wise and incisive wordsmith at the top of her game. “There are times when I feel like hip hop is very close to me, but there are also times when I feel it’s very distant from my lifestyle,” Tijoux says of the circular path she’s followed. “I listen to all types of music and for me, music is a necessity—almost a physical one. So releasing 1977 was a very personal necessity. To make a rap album, creating lyrics, working with a producer, was kind of catharsis, in a personal way. I was very happy with the result, not only musically but personally.” WITH REBEL DIAZ AND RANDOM |
