Salsa Beat Machine

Following a request by a user, we have created a new Salsa Rhythm & Timing video for the song “La Rebelion” by “Joe Arroyo y La Verdad”. This song is commonly known as “No le pegue a la negra”, which means “Don’t beat the black woman”. The song is about the slavery in America, in the 16th century, telling the personal story of a black slave whose wife was beaten. Finally, the slave could no longer stand this treatment, and rebelled, protesting about beating his wife.  The story happens in Cartagena, Colombia, the place where  Joe Arroyo, the singer, comes from.

From a dancer point of view, this song poses several challenges that can be easily spotted when watching the video:

1. The speed (tempo) of the song changes constantly throughout the song. We have included a speedometer in the video so you can visually see the speed changes. As you can see, the speed varies by more than 15% across the song!
2. There are two short phrases that occur in the song. A phrase is usually 8-beat long, and fits with a single forward-and-backward footstep cycle.  A short phrase, consisting only of 4 beats instead of the usual eight, challenges the dancers and requires them to break or use some other trick in order to accommodate to the sudden change of the “1″ beat.
3. The Clave pattern breaks twice, using a technique called “3:3 Clave License”. The Clave is the fundamental pattern that holds together the rhythmical structure of the Salsa music. A “Clave License” happens when the arranger of the song decides to break the Clave pattern in order to match changes in the phrasing. This phenomenon is common in Cuban music, yet unusual in music from New York. We will publish a detailed post about the Clave, its role in the music and Clave changes, so keep an eye open.

For your convenience, here are the lyrics for the song. If you feel like translating them into English, please leave a comment with the translation below:

Quiero contarle mi hermano
un pedacito de la historia negra,
de la historia nuestra, caballero

Y dice así:
Uhh!
Dice!

En los años mil seiscientos, cuando el tirano mando
las calles de Cartagena, aquella historia vivió.
Cuando allí llegaban esos negreros, africanos en cadenas
besaban mi tierra, esclavitud perpetua
Esclavitud perpetua
Esclavitud perpetua

Que lo diga salome y que te
de llego, llego, llego

Un matrimonio africano, esclavos de
un español, el les daba muy mal trato
y a su negra le pego

Y fue allí, se rebelo el negro guapo, tomó
venganza por su amor y aun se escucha
en la verja, no le pegue a mi negra
No le pegue a la negra
No le pegue a la negra

Oye man!!
No le pegue a la negra
No le pegue a la negra
No, no, no ,no, no, no,
No, no, no, no, no, no…

Oye esa negra se me respeta
Ehh, que aun se escucha,
se escucha en la verja,
No, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no le pegue a la negra

Negra que me dice..

No le pegue a la negra
No le pegue a la negra
No le pegue a la negra
No le pegue

Y con ustedes… chelito de casa

Vamos a ver que le pegue a jeva
Porque el alma, que el alma, que el alma
Que el alma, que el alma se me revienta

Ehh, no, no, no, no, no,
No le pegue a mi negra
porque el alma se me agita mi prieta

El Chombo lo sabe
y tu también
no le pegue a la negra

Overall, there is a lot to learn from watching the video, listening to the music, reading the annotations and clapping the Clave rhythm along with the song. We hope you enjoy this video, and we encourage you to request a timing video for your favorite song by leaving a comment below.