Residente Calls J Balvin A Racist Imbecile On New Diss Track
Residente and J Balvin have been feuding since September, when Balvin accused the Latin Grammys of discriminating against reggaeton artists and called for a boycott (despite being nominated three times). Residente thought that was stupid, and went on to compare Balvin’s music to a hot dog cart: “Almost everybody likes it, but when those people want to eat well, they go to a Michelin-starred restaurant.”
Balvin has gotten into hot water a couple of times since then. In October, he released a video for his song “Perra,” which means “bitch” in Spanish, that featured him walking Black women on leashes. After apologizing and removing the video out of “respect,” Balvin faced another controversy when he, a white Colombian, accepted the award for Best Afro-Latino Artist Of The Year at the African Entertainment Awards. Following another backlash, the award was promptly renamed the Best Latin Artist Of The Year.
Residente has been paying attention to all of this, and now, he’s collected all of his criticisms of Balvin into one scathing eight-minute diss track, a freestyle released yesterday as part of Argentine producer Bizarrap’s BZRP Music Sessions series on YouTube. “He’s an imbecile with dyed hair who put Black women with leashes on their necks,” Residente raps. “A white guy who lost his way, all divine, accepting his award for Afro-Latino … The worst and most grave thing is: This asshole is a racist and he doesn’t know it.”
In an Instagram video Residente posted on Wednesday, he claimed that Balvin had found out about the diss track and tried to stop it from coming out. “He called the producer, who’s a kid, to stop the track, but this kid has balls and he didn’t give in,” Residente said. “They threatened to sue my label if I released the track. They asked for a call with the head of my label to stop me for releasing the track.” Regardless, the track is now out in the world, and you can listen to it below.