"Obatalá No Quiere Guerra" - René Ferrer

• artist:René Ferrer
• featured artist:René Ferrer
• region:Rio de Janeiro
• release year:2006
• style(s):Afro, Cuban
• country:Cuba
• formats:Audio File / Digital, CD (Compact Disc)
• record posted by:Cambucá Music
• label:Cambucá Music

“OBATALA NO QUIERE GUERRA” – René Ferrer
Cambucá Music

Obatalá is the African spiritual entity which reigns above everything. The Creator of the World, of the human being, animals and plants. The biggest of all Orixás , who, in Brazil, is known as Oxalá. “He is the one to soothe our vibration. The one around to calm us down. The one who speaks through us” says the Cuban musician René Ferrer. “To me Obatalá speaks through the music.” “Obatalá No Quiere Guerra”, second sole album of the singer, was the first project chosen as first launching of Cambucá Music record producer. In the album, René – who already has trodden in rap – sings, plays the guitar, drums and signs all songs. The album mixes the sheerest Cuban tradition with the mellow and beat of the Brazilian music. “I would call it a pop album, which appeals to many people.” Those are lyric, acoustic songs recorded in 2005, Rio de Janeiro, with lyrics that talk about music, love, peace and war.

René Ferrer was born in Havana in 1974. As it happens in that country, music has always been part of his life from the very beginning. “Both my mother and grandmother sang at home. I caught the spirit.” He recalls. He then started to work as a roadie. When 27 he takes part in the first band, O Some Time. In the traditional Cuban Music band he would play percussion. That is when the rap wave exploded in Cuba. And, in 200, he became “rapero” in the Di Anja band. “We were performers. We would wear make up, hang posters in the body and the show had fire eaters. The rap went on mixed with African drums and music.

The next musical stop was as vocal in a rock band. Of trash metal! We started by mixing styles: trash metal with Cuban music and rap. Of course it didn’t work!” says René. It was then he met the Brazilian producer Guga Stroeter, who was looking for musicians in Havana. He met René and invited him to take part in a Record. “I went into a recording studio, and three sound tracks came out from this session. They are part of the collection “Soy Rapero”, a collection of Cuban rap by the Brazilian Record company Sambatá. The Record was produced by Stroeter and Kassin, entirely recorded in Havana and launched in 2002. It had excellent repercussion. In the following year the rappers went to São Paulo for a show in the festival “Agosto Negro”. A link was born between René and Brazil. A relationship to be strengthened by his marriage to the Brazilian film director Carolina Sá.

“Then started the earnest to make a sole performance”, he says. The album, “El Loco Soy Yo”, was launched in 2003 by Sambatá and distributed by Trama. In the United States, it was launched by the Universal Records. “It was sensational. At this time, I already started mixing rap with the traditional Cuban sound”. René then started to compose guitar music, flirting with the acoustic music. “Obatalá no Quiere Guerra” reflects this new sound. The mixing of Cuban tradition and pop. “I bring poetry to music, it is the essence of my story”, says the musician who now lives in Rio de Janeiro besides his wife and the couple’s on year old daughter, Branca. René, who never studied music, has self taught knowledge. “Music comes into my mind finished, with arrangements and lyrics” A gift from Obatalá.