It's always nice to see artists using their platform to speak on important matters, especially when those matters involve calling out injustices with the actual possibility of educating the masses and igniting a change. This was the case when Puerto Rican artists, Bad Bunny, Residente, and iLe came together to drop a heated protest anthem on Wednesday, titled “Afilando Los Cuchillos” - which translates to “Sharpening the Knives” in English. The political tune was aimed directly at controversial Puerto Rico Governor, Ricardo Rosselló, and has garnered more than 1.2 million views on YouTube so far.
The song, and its accompanying visuals, arrives in the midst of the widespread protests that are taking place, in a plea for the official to step down from his position. Public demonstrations in San Juan have erupted as a result of nearly 900 pages of leaked texts between Rosselló and others in his administration, coming to light. The aforementioned texts revealed exchanges that were homophobic, misogynistic, and (as the cherry on top) mocked the victims of the tragic 2017 Hurricane Maria. The artists take to calling Rosselló out by name and describing him as a homophobe and a dictator. With challenging lyrics such as: “We are sharp, like knives/Sparkling up to the edge/Weed must be removed from the plantation/So that none of them take advantage of what is mine,” the trio take a clear stance on their opposition.
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In a statement to NPR, Residente broke down the knife's symbolism as "a metaphor to be used to cut through systemic corruption on the island." Bad Bunny took his activism one step by further, by taking to both Twitter and Instagram recently to announce that he would be rescheduling his European tour to join his fellow Puerto Ricans in protesting against the government. “I am going to go down to the island and I would like to see you all join me and those who have already taken to the street,” Bad Bunny previously tweeted in Spanish. “These people think that we are afraid and we will demonstrate to them that they are wrong!!”
