Puerto Rican Power

Tego Calderon's mix of hip hop, salsa and dance hall reggae is a potent new sound

Tego Calderon

Tego Calderón was born in Puerto Rico in the city of Santurce, and later grew up in the city of Loíza, on the northern part of the island. Calderon's mother, an elementary school teacher, instilled in him respect for language, and his father was a government worker who shared his own love of jazz and salsa with Tego. After attending a music school in San Juan, a three-year stint in the U.S. at Miami Beach Senior High in South Florida sparked a fervor for hip hop. He began rapping in English, and when he eventually returned to Puerto Rico, it lead him to meld his roots and his newfound interest, creating something entirely fresh. His reggaeton music is a mixture of salsa, African rooted bomba, hip-hop and dance hall reggae. His lyrics speak of Puerto Rican peoples struggles and involve topics of racism, inequalities, and Puerto Rican ghettos, issues he toiled with while growing up surrounded by these places and situations. Calderon's poetic chronicles are a significant part of a pioneering genre that was recently able to fill Madison Square Garden.

Tego's debut album, El Abayarde (The name of a small, stinging ant native to Puerto Rico), nearly sold a quarter of a million copies. His sophomore album, El Enemy de los Guasibiri, debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Top Latin Albums Chart in the Jan. 31st issue. The set is a collection of tracks from other artists' albums, (all having been released prior to El Abayarde) that feature Calderon as a guest vocalist. Calderon has also recorded with such acts as 50 Cent, Roselyn Sanchez, Wyclef Jean and Cypress Hill.

He was most recently lending his name to Voto Latino (www.votolatino.org), a new nonpartisan and non profit organization dedicated to motivate Latino youth to participate in the nation's political process. Co-founded by actress Rosario Dawson, the organization seeks to boost voter turnout rates of voting age Latino youth with public service announcements (PSAs) on MTV Networks this fall. The PSAs will feature leading Latino celebrities such as Rosario Dawson, Fat Joe, Nina Sky, Zol Saldana, AB Quintanilla and Tego Calderon, among others.