WEBVTT - Willie Colón: Todo Tiene Su Final 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:04.440 I've got a spicy question to kick us off today. 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:08.920 Oh I love spicy. Give me them school bos. 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:13.640 Okay, as besties, what is the biggest fight that you 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:16.680 and I have had that we're willing to share publicly? 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:18.759 We're recording, remember this is a podcast. 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:21.840 I can tell you the biggest fight we've had that 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:24.920 I'm willing to talk about on the mike. 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:32.559 That was not the question. I think the biggest fight 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:36.720 we've ever gotten into is what do you define as 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:43.160 orange on a lip? I define as orange on a yeah, yes, yes, 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:43.720 you're right. 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:45.960 It's are our fights, you know, because we really do 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:48.400 get along and we actually know how to communicate as friends. 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:52.360 But I feel like our fights are definitely make up related, 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:56.800 like your eyeliner placement and you want it longer and thicker. 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:01.280 And if this is red, then what's orange? Our quotes 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:06.040 I've heard you say so, yeah, it's lipstick, it's lipstick. 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:08.200 In line of grass, I will say that we are 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.480 both perfectionist when it comes to our craft, and even 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:15.440 though Joseph is technically the expert at makeup and skincare, 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:20.800 I do consider myself an elevated applicator. You are you 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.040 know what you are and I'm pretty good at doing makeup. 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:24.199 We end up. 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:28.360 Collabing really well because you usually just give in exactly. 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.200 Joseph. When we do get in a fight, which is 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:35.600 rare and usually about stupid shit like what color lipstick 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:38.040 I want to wear on TV that day? How would 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:41.160 you describe yourself in a sight? Are you the aggressor 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:42.400 do you retreat? 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:45.399 You know, I guess when I'm really in the moment, 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:48.560 it's my ego talking and I've just determined what I'm 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:51.120 going to use, right, because I feel like we're really 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:53.440 good communicators. I feel like after I've just kind of 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:55.360 settled down and you're just kind of like, I know 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:57.680 what you're saying, and it's in this light and blah 0:01:57.680 --> 0:01:59.960 blah blah, I can kind of see the bigger picture, 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:04.240 and I don't admit defeat because then I will understand 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:05.480 what you're saying. 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:07.520 Now, I'm just trying to convince you to wear what 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:10.320 I want. Yeah, I was it. You definitely do not. 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:13.480 To somebody that doesn't know you, it would appear that 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:17.440 you are backing down, but you're actually not. You're like string, 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:21.600 You're only strengthening your position, right, And then you're doing 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:24.400 like some kind of weird circumventing to get me to 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:26.639 believe what you said is right, and then I think 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:29.200 I'm actually right. But no, you guys, it was just 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.200 Joseph all along. Yeah, it was like some might call 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:33.280 that gas lighting. 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:38.080 I'm a beauty gas lighter. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that. 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:43.840 One hundred percent. Anyway, the reason we're digging up old 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.600 graves here isn't for any nefarious purposes. 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:50.600 Oh no, that's a wrong kind of spicy ew I said, 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:52.399 nefarious purposes. 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:58.120 Anyway. The point is besties we fight. I mean, sometimes 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:00.200 we just get on each other's nerves. 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:02.760 And sometimes you get so close that when you do 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:05.920 butt heads it becomes life or death. 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:10.040 And when we last left Wrikolon, he found not just 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:12.720 a front man for his Latin jazz orchestra. 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:17.400 But something of an artistic soulmate, h the Nikki Jam 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:19.160 to his daddy Yankee. 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:23.480 Exactly, and together they would release nine full length albums 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:27.160 over six years. Basically, they were the secret Sauce to 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.799 Funya success, ushering in the age of Salsa. 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:35.080 But sometimes when you change the game, you end up 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:36.559 wanting to be the only. 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.920 Player, especially when the game gets to your teammate's head. 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.240 Today we're taking a look at how Willie and Hector 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:48.560 redefined Latin music before going their separate ways. 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:53.240 We better not separate, which we're for Eva, We're bad 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:55.880 girls for life. 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:02.640 I'm your host Lillianavoskar and I'm Joseph Carrio and this 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.920 is Becoming an Icon a weekly podcast where we give 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:10.360 you the rundown on how today's most famous latinv stars 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:14.320 have shaped pop culture and given the world some extra level. 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:17.160 Sit back and get comfortable. 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:20.880 Because we are going in the only way we know how, 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:22.880 with Buenas, Bibas. 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:27.520 Junasriesas, some and a lot of opinions as we relive 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:30.599 their greatest achievements on our journey to find out what 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:44.120 makes them so iconic. Hector Martinez knew he would end 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.320 up being kind of a big deal. He was born 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.440 in Ones in nineteen forty six to a very musical family. 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:54.400 His mother sang, his uncle played the trece, his father 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.599 sang and played guitar, and big fans his grandfather saying 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:00.479 controversial protests. 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:03.200 His father was a mechanic, His father was a mechanic. 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:06.360 His father's sister was a mechanic. Like when Hector cried 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:09.720 as a baby. He did it in key, so no surprise. 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:12.880 When he was a teenager, his music teacher could tell 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:16.560 he had what it takes and took him under his wing. 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:20.320 Teach taught him the meaning of stage presence, and by 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:23.400 age seventeen, Hector had ditched school and was singing in 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:24.479 a ten piece band. 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:28.359 In nineteen sixty three, he and the band chased their 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.600 dreams to New York, where mambo mania was still in 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:35.200 full effect. That's where he met Willie Colonne at the 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:39.239 Ponces Social Club, named for the very city Hector hailed from, 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:42.359 and after joining the band and signing to Fania Records, 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:48.320 Hector dond his stage name Hector Lovo, a play on lavos. 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:50.880 Labo you know that Puerto Rican Spanish where you leave 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.839 off to the ends of the words like labo labos. 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:57.719 Y'all, I heard you saying weeppa in episode one. You're 0:05:57.760 --> 0:05:59.800 one of us now. And by the way, we are 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:02.440 not the only people that do that, but yes, one 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:04.160 hundred percent, that is totally why. 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:08.520 So Lavon Polonne formed a duo. Levo brought lavos and 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:10.719 Cologne brought danois. 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:13.240 Or at least that's how the old guard of Latin 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:16.400 jazz felt about the duo's music. AKA. While most Latin 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:19.279 jazz orchestras up until that point were more or less 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:23.560 purest Gologne took the jazz part to its logical conclusion. 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:26.880 He kept things modern and mixed little bits of rock, 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:30.240 funk and soul and R and B into his band's. 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:35.080 Repertoire, along with distinctly Puerto Rican sounds such as Kibara, 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:36.800 bomba and Lena. 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:41.440 There was still plenty to satisfy long time Latin jazz listeners, 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:46.320 but mambo Mania pretty much got killed by Beatlemania. Case 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:50.840 in point, the legendary Palladium Ballroom closed that year after 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:51.839 losing its liquor. 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:55.160 License, which meant it was time for something new, and 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:57.919 with their fusion approach to Latin jazz, Willi and Hector 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:02.800 established themselves decisively as the next generation of Latin musicians 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:04.240 in the United States. 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:08.240 Starting with nineteen sixty seven's e La Malo and nineteen 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:09.720 sixty eights The Hustler. 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:12.200 These albums did two things right away. 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.480 First, they debuted the duo's mafioso steeze. 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:19.720 I highly encourage you guys to look up these covers online. 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:22.520 We're looking at the pictures right now, and on first 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:27.040 glance you're like, wait a second, what is this? Is 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:30.120 this like a mafia Godfather gone Puerto Rican? 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:30.480 Wait? 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:32.040 Do you know what? We need? This? 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:35.480 Me and you red shurtleneck, black blazers. We're going that's it. 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.960 This is our new becoming an icon season three cover. 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:41.800 Or we should just go dressed as weely go On 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:44.360 and Hector Levau for Halloween. Shut your butt, that's what 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.440 we're doing. It's very, very good. 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:47.920 Right. 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:50.600 So the cover for Hustler has Wheeli, Hector and members 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:53.880 of the band crowded around this pool table and dapper suits. 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:59.280 It looks like they're maybe so Frank Sinatra. It's very 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.600 the god Okay, Godfather, Yeah, it's very Godfather. They're holding 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:08.120 SIGs maybe Wait is that a lot of cash? It is? 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:13.000 I think they're betting. All bets are on here. So 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:17.280 these cover looks are iconic. But the second defining feature 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:20.840 of these albums was Boogloo, a precursor to salsa and 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.280 the direct results of that fusion approach that Willy brought 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:23.800 to the table. 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:28.360 Boogleoo combined the call and response vocals of Cuban Son 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:30.920 with the harder, faster rhythms of soul. 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:36.440 Example, I like it like that. In Layman's terms, it 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:39.439 was easy to sing along to and even better, easy 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.600 to dance to, which is exactly what you want to 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:44.080 set off a dance craze. 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:47.680 And just for a minute, that's exactly what Boogleloo did. 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.800 The genre formed common ground between Latino and Black American 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:54.760 club goers in the sixties, giving the old guard of 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:58.400 Latin jazz a run for their money. 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:00.600 So much so that, rumor has it, the old heads 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:04.920 tried to keep boogaloo down as the style and the 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:08.160 younger musicians playing it started to crowd out the mambo bands. 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:12.600 Those old Latin artists supposedly pressured booking agents and promoters 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:16.560 to blacklist the younger bands from music venues. Why do 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:19.160 old people hate young people so much, you know what? 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:24.280 Because it enforces change. And ultimately Boogoloo was short lived, 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:28.000 but Willie and Hector and Fania along with them, rode 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:33.319 the boololo wave to chart climbing success. Despite being virtual unknowns, 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.720 these first two records sold big. 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:40.719 And with their next album, nineteen sixty nine Guisandro, they 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:42.280 heralded the coming of Salza. 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:46.880 Now we've talked about what makes salsa salsa on the 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:53.360 show before back in our Celia Cruz Trio. Celia Cruz 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:59.000 herself said, salsa is Cuban music with another name. It's mambo, chacacha, 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:03.120 rumba son all the Cuban rhythms under one name. 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:07.520 People have also argued over whether satsa actually describes a 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:12.800 genre or if it's just a marketing term. 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:16.640 Oh my god, I was so young back then. 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:22.200 In April of this year twenty twenty four has been 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:23.920 long bitch, I. 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:28.920 Could not agree more so anyway, og Sansa is musically 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:32.360 not so far off from the Latin jazz that came before. 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:36.679 That's why elder statespersons of Latin music like Diepo and 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:40.520 Celia Cruz could slot so easily into the salsa revolution. 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:43.960 But there's one thing that sets satsa apart from the 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:48.040 crowd pleasing big bands of Latin jazz. Yester years attitude 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:52.120 grit category is street life realness. 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:53.840 Ooh, I want to see what you come up with 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:58.040 for that. The Latin jazz of the post war years 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:02.479 was all glitz and glamour, not unlike a Havannah nightclub. 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:07.240 But Salza she was from the streets. The Puerto Rican 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:11.760 music journalist Jamie Torres writes this the Colonna valduo outlined 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:14.760 a sound of their own, a revolutionary salta in which 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:17.880 the smell of garbage accumulated in the corner of the ghetto, 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:23.480 the aroma of marijuana captivating damn like sounds like my house. 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:26.319 He also wrote that you could hear the screams of 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.840 naked children in the alley, sex workers clapping back at 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:33.240 their pimps, and the wish for happiness among the Bourrigua diaspora. 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:36.720 If you listen to our episode on Los Digres del Norte, 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:41.080 there's actually a bit of similarity with Corridos. Many of 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:44.000 Willy and Hector's songs were just stories about what was 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:48.160 going on around them. Like the title track of Guisando. 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:52.200 Hector sings about a pickpocket named Vincent who sticks his 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:55.760 hand in a purse and finds not a wallet but 0:11:56.040 --> 0:12:01.400 a mouse trap, and Hector basically tells him, you're doing amazing, sweetie. 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:04.960 He sings, keep sticking your hand where it doesn't belong, 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:09.200 and who knows what you'll find next. It's very sassy, 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:14.239 and they get just as real on Noma. Then Candela 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:18.480 a song about neighborhood gossip and the evil eye child. 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:21.520 Did you grow up hearing about El Maldeo? 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:24.720 Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think like everyone well I don't 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:26.680 know everyone knew that, but yes, and Maldo Woe people 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:28.520 would wear evil eyes like all that good stuff. 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.719 It does go to show you how connected Really and 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.320 Hector were to the culture of New York and that 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:40.320 connection would deepen over four more albums, Go Sandestra, Why 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:43.920 are you going to Have? Saw Christmas? La Grande Fuga, 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:48.319 and El Huisio. They also kept up the Mafioso Steve. 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:52.360 Let's talk about these covers. These covers are giving straight 0:12:52.800 --> 0:13:01.400 up criminal, maybe organized criminal, but criminal. Nonetheless, Joseph has 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:03.400 nothing to say for the first time in his life. 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:09.720 That's the assault on Christmas album cover. Just we're not 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:13.200 going to talk about that. That is just hilarious. I 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.800 will say I am in love with some of the 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.920 font choices here because obviously what's old is now new 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:23.720 and like you could make some money on Canva with 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:25.200 these font choices. 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:27.680 Yes, but also you know what, the one, the super 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:29.560 Mafioso one, I mean that kind of looks like a 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:31.000 Tom Ford campaign. 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:33.760 The one where he's basically holding up what looks like 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.920 a bag that would hold over yeah with go sanuestra. 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:42.120 You guys, he's literally standing under what is the Brooklyn Bridge? 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:44.520 I'm not sure. It looks like a bridge in New York. 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.280 Let's just call it a Brooklyn bridge. He looks like 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:49.760 he's standing under a bridge with a body that he 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:51.360 just pulled out from the East River. 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:54.840 And then about we're about to throw down because there's 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:55.840 a weight and you see that. 0:13:56.559 --> 0:13:59.040 Oh shit, he's about to throw that motherfucker in the river. 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:03.560 Yeah, what kind of message were they sending? Do not 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:06.959 come for us unless we send for that ass. 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:11.400 Willi and Hector were the biggest names in salsa, which 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:14.920 made it all the more shocking when they decided to 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:27.320 go their separate ways. After a string of genre defining albums, 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:31.640 Willi and Hector released nineteen seventy three's Lomato, their eighth 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.520 album as a duo and their fourth album to reach 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:35.560 gold certification. 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:41.560 By this record, everything had fallen into place musically. Hector's 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:44.360 vocals were living up to his stage name. On record 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:48.320 and on stage, he was playful, acrobatic, and unmistakable. 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:51.640 The same could be said of released trombone playing, he 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.800 could lay down distinctive hooks like the iconic horn line 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:57.960 on La Murga and find the perfect way for different 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:00.360 styles of salsa music to fold into a each other. 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:04.640 And whereas Boogaloo ended up being a passing craze, Sadza 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:08.160 had become an undisputed force in Latin music. 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:13.320 But between Willie and Hector things were turning sour, and 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:15.880 you could hear it on the record. The Bad Boys 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:19.200 always had some dark lyrics, but the backstreet tales on 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:24.400 Lomato were a little less playful and a little more grim. 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.400 Whereas Guisando told a tale of come up ins for 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:31.280 a petty thief, Gaye Luna Gaya Sol presented the barrio 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.200 as a place where no one lives peacefully, where you 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:36.440 have to watch your words and keep your eyes ahead 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:40.240 to keep your life fun. Fact, this wasn't a song 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:43.080 about New York, but about two streets in La Perla, 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.400 the same poor neighborhood in San Juan, where a little 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.840 under two decades later, Puerto Rican b Regaton would hatch 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:52.040 at a little club called The Noise. 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:55.600 These parallels are wild, y'all, But let's talk about the 0:15:55.640 --> 0:16:00.280 album cover Willie's holding a sleepy Yehito at gunpoint. The 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:03.720 full title says, I'll kill him if you don't buy 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:04.360 this record. 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:08.200 The story here is that this is actually a reference 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:11.960 to a famous National Lampoon magazine cover where a dog 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:14.400 is held at gunpoint. If you don't buy this magazine, 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:18.280 We'll kill this dog. And they say comedy doesn't a twelve. 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:20.760 I mean all of this shit is dark. Yeah right. 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:24.680 The album is dark, The comedy is dark, the magazine 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:28.120 cover is dark. But perhaps the most revealing track on 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:32.720 it might be Dodo piennes sufinad. Everything has its ending. 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:37.280 The lyrics describe a wilting carnation, a world champion losing 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:41.640 that which is dear to him, personal loss, and personal attacks. 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:45.640 Everything has its ending, and the Bad Boys partnership was 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:47.920 about to end in bad blood. 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:52.400 Since the day Willie met him, Hector Levau had been 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:56.480 a playful, somewhat childlike person, maybe even a little immature, 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:59.800 some might say. And in the music business of the seventies, 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:03.040 let alone just New York in the seventies, a person 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:04.440 like Hector, he. 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:08.080 Didn't stand a chance. As coke became the drug of choice, 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:10.359 both on the streets and behind the closed doors of 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:13.359 the record label offices, Hector fell into the trap. 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:17.359 Addiction turned the playful singer with whom Willy had formed 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:20.720 a close bond into a hostile, unpredictable person. 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:23.960 You could kind of see it from the jump, the 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:26.240 whole oh you don't want me to join the band thing. 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:31.040 But the drugs amplified all of Hector's worst qualities. According 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:33.760 to Willy, quote he didn't want the party to end. 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:38.000 He wanted to go on and on and on and on, 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:42.320 quote unquote. Friends started arriving with gifts, saying try this, 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:43.280 try that. 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:48.040 Not that Willy abstained completely. This is el Malow we're 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:52.359 talking about. But some people just can't say no. And 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:54.240 Hector was one of those people. 0:17:54.680 --> 0:18:00.159 And by nineteen seventy four, Hector no showed at several concerts, 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:04.200 were pissed and sober. Concert promoters, many of whom had 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:06.520 direct connections with the mob. 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:10.400 Those good fellow ass record covers weren't just for Steeze. 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:14.320 The music biz had mafiosos up plenty, and if you 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:17.679 lost them money, they'd make sure you lost something of. 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:21.640 Yours, anything from a prize belonging to a loved one 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:26.200 to a limb and what's more, the music was suffering. 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:29.200 Hector couldn't be counted on to show up to rehearsals. 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:31.960 Willy rehearsed with the orchestra on his own, and when 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:34.199 Hector showed up to record, they just went with the 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:35.960 first take and hurried him out. 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:38.320 Real talk, though it says a lot that he could 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:40.160 just nail the first take and move. 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:44.399 On absolutely, and that's probably why Willy and Hector managed 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:47.720 to continue on as long as they did. His talent 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:51.199 was second to none, but his absence from concerts was 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:53.840 a straw that ultimately broke the camel's back. 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:57.600 Because the mafia probably threatened to break Willie's back. 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:01.800 That and the fans were happy, and so was everyone 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:04.600 who worked with him. Hector and Willie would co build 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:08.320 just one more album, nineteen seventy five's The Good, the 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:10.040 Bad and the Ugly. 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:12.879 And as we learned with Daddy Yankee, just because you 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:15.400 got in the booth to lay down vocals, doesn't mean 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:16.840 you were in the same room with. 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:20.320 The other guy, right. And as Willy expanded his footprint 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:23.399 as a producer over the seventies, he would still produce 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:27.400 Hector's albums to great sonic and commercial success, but personally 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:31.080 he kept his distance. Still, Willy had sympathy for Hector 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:34.200 decades later, in two thousand and six, when the much 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:38.280 hated Hector level biopic El Cantante dropped, starring j Loo 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:42.480 and Mark Anthony, Willi would say the real story of 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:44.920 the film would have been Hector fighting with his charisma 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:47.560 and talent against the obstacles of an industry that takes 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:51.480 advantage of the artist. Instead, they made another movie about 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:56.679 two Puerto Rican drug addicts. Oh shit, I know that 0:19:56.720 --> 0:20:00.360 people don't like this movie. No, I know, yes, people 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:02.560 pay in the movie. They don't like the movie. I 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:06.879 actually enjoyed Alan. I might be the only person on 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:11.000 the planet that rented it or whatever, bought it on demand. 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:14.480 I watched it over the pandemic. Funny enough, I was 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:16.800 very bored, and I watched it again and I thought 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:19.520 it was really good. Patrick my husband could not sit 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:21.840 through it. He was like, no, no, no, no, this is awful. 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:24.120 But I really liked it. And it was very much 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:29.440 you know, art imitating life imitating art imitating life. Situation 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:32.400 with Jylo and Mark Anthony in it. She's also good 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:37.080 in it. Girl who she No, don't don't she's good 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:37.400 in it. 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:40.000 I have known you to be a lot of things, 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:43.440 but a liar. You are not a mena. 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:48.240 I'm not a Menidos, but I am a stan whatever whatever. 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:50.240 But actually I would tell you this, I would like 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:54.119 to have seen the story of Hector, like against the 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:56.840 obstacles of the industry, you know, I would have liked 0:20:56.840 --> 0:20:59.320 to see that, because that really is you need to 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:02.119 go through those challenges and you know, like highlighting the 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:03.760 drug aspect, like yeah, that was a big part of it, 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:05.119 but there was just so much more. 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:08.800 Totally. It is not easy to exist and grow up 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:12.720 in the music industry in any decade. Every every decade 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:15.919 has its own devils, right, And for the sixties and 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.160 seventies when they were growing up, it was drugs and mafia, 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:22.359 and that was kind of the end for that. You know. 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:25.520 I just wonder, like, how can you distance yourself from 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:28.440 a friend or collaborator and still like how can you 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:30.280 still work with someone and still care about them? 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:33.760 Okay, so let's pretend we're in a therapy session. If 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:40.119 you were telling me about an abusive boyfriend. Damien. His 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:44.399 name is not dam I e n. He lives at 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:48.919 eighty seven Park Place, New York, New York. That's a 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:51.440 fake address, by the way. What I'm saying is how 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:53.640 I think you have to do it for yourself, right, 0:21:53.720 --> 0:21:57.240 I think you say listen, like, I'm on my own game. 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:00.600 I can't bring all this chaos and catastroph into my 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:04.080 own life. It's what does my therapist tell me, Not 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:07.639 your problem to fix. Yeah, somebody's mad at you. You 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:10.119 take accountability for whatever you did, but it is not 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:12.240 your problem to fix how they feel about you. It 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:16.639 is your problem to work on yourself and accept accountability. 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:19.000 So I think that's how you do it. You and 0:22:19.040 --> 0:22:22.040 with some people they just got to go. Like I 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:24.200 do believe in that too, Like some people just they 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:26.200 get the cut like bye bye. 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:28.920 It's just, you know, I sometimes think it's just so hard, 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:31.199 especially when you've had to come up with someone like 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:34.959 really you know, they learn so much about each about themselves, 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:38.280 and you know, just leaving that behind, or like having 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:40.639 to leave someone you came up with behind, it's just 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:44.120 so it's your past, it's who you also are. 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:46.760 Yeah, I know, but you know what. Michelle Obama I think, 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:49.920 has a super famous quote about this where even though 0:22:49.960 --> 0:22:52.080