The story behind Residente’s depressing new song

'René' is the new video and song by Residente, one of the most important and well-known Latin American artists of today. A priori, one might think that it is just another song, but the reality is that we are in the presence of one of those songs that play with the most intimate fibers of the listeners. From the title we can make a kind of distinction between René and Resident, one of the axes on which the song revolves.

This can be seen in the live Instagram he released after presenting this new melody, where he explained that one of the main problems that led to this musical expression was that people confuse him with his artistic persona, something that it reflects in a part of the lyrics, where he says: "Although they recognize me on the street, they don't even know me anymore."

That is to say, his friends, themselves often confuse Resident with René. 

All the nostalgia of the past times is reflected in this song, which, according to what El Tiempo mentions, talks about “the difficult moments that happened in his childhood ”, which ended up leading to his complicated actuality.

What is the story of the new Residente song?

The first thing we see is that the video of "René", has a duration of more than seven minutes, something unusual in this genre. In the same way, there is a rather unusual situation, because, according to what Radio Miter mentions, this video clip was the first moment in which Residente has shown to the world his five-year-old son Milo.

Based a little on what the rapper published on social networks, we can deduce that it is one of the most intimate and important songs of his entire trajectory, which includes being previously known throughout the planet for his group Calle 13, which later led to his solo performance as Residente.

The story of this song seems somewhat tragic, in the sense that his Instagram reveals the reasons that led him to launch it. In a letter he says that, during a tour in Mexico and before going out to the stadium, he felt really bad. He even thought he wanted to jump off the balcony, but he didn't understand the reasons … until he called his mother and talked to a friend from university.

Thus, the day after this fact, he began working on this song, where he could clarify a little the feelings that were going through his mind at that time. This can be seen in that, at the beginning, a female voice appears that evokes his own mother, who is helping him with homework because since he is a child he has suffered from an attention deficit, something commented on the El Nuevo Día website.

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What are the lyrics about?

The lyrics of this song caused a stir among followers of this artist, many of whom think he is in a real "depressive state", while others also have come to fear for his life, as he himself admitted that he thought of the "escape of suicide. " Anyway, throughout the writing, some clues are revealed that allow us to understand his sentimental state.

The whole song can be understood as a kind of return to the past, through nostalgia, where he reviews some of the most important facts of his life . According to the Infobae website, we can see the pain of the murder of his close friend Christopher, who was also mentioned another of his most personal songs on Calle 13, known as 'Adentro'.

Another important point is the separation that he had with his ex-partner, Argentina's Soledad Fandiño. In the lyrics, he explains that he is divorcing, but continues to rhyme. However, this song is also useful to learn about his and his family's past, like how we discovered he had some fights with his stepfather or his mother's love.

This is mixed with his artistic side, such as the fact that his grandmother could not see him play in the stadiums , due to the “censorship” he had on the part of the governor of Puerto Rico of 2009, Luis Fortuño, after having insulted him in a performance, apologizing to the people of his own country, showing that, in addition to being a valuable artist, he is also a human being with feelings.