Rosalía's 'Saoko', perhaps the best beat of the genre in recent times

Rosalía launches the second preview of her third album ‘Motomami‘, which will be released on March 18. A proposal in which the Catalan singer returns to reggaeton and urban music, although she experiments with different bases including even jazz.

The Motomami album will have nothing to do with the iconic El mal querer and ‘Saoko‘ continues to confirm its line. Regarding the name Saoko, Rosalía makes a double reference: on the one hand to the homonymous song published by Wisin and Daddy Yankee in 2004 and, on the other hand, to the African word spread throughout Latin America that refers to rhythm, music or tastiness.

The singer herself has said: “Naming my next track ‘Saoko’ and ‘sampling’ Yankee and Wisin for me is the most direct homage I can make to classic reggaeton, a genre that I love and that has been a constant and great inspiration throughout the ‘Motomami’ project. I started the ‘Saoko’ beat playing the upright piano at Electric Lady’s Studio B in NY, I remember it like it was yesterday. It was at night and making this beat seemed as fun as driving a Lambo. Then I distorted this piano and added some classic reggaeton drums from a library that NaisGai had sent me some time ago, which by the way is something very special to me because this library has been passed from one generation of producers to another for a long time. Before starting this track I kept thinking that I wanted to see some jazz touches in a reggaeton track and sampling Wisin and Yankee’s iconic track seemed like the best way to open the song. I also thank Noah, David, Dylan and Uzi for sharing this creative process with me. If you notice, the lyrics revolve around the same concept: transformation. Each and every phrase is an image of transformation. Celebrating transformation, celebrating change. Celebrating that you are always you even though you are in constant transformation or even that you are you more than ever at the very moment you are changing.”