Abusivo 'De Hotel A Hotel' album

“Music is the sound track to life,” says Abusivo. And a rich life full of experiences and influences is precisely what Abusivo bares for his listeners to hear in his sophomore album, De Hotel A Hotel. Born Victor Pérez on August 8, 1980 in the Lincoln Heights section of Los Angeles, Abusivo’s attraction to music came at an early age.

At the tender age of six, Abusivo became captivated by rap. His cousin Tiv is responsible for introducing him to it and since elementary school, Abusivo has been consumed by the music. He and his cousin used to sit in Tiv’s room listening to music on his cousin’s record player through the headphones. They would have to take turns listening because they didn’t want their parents to hear the explicit lyrics. When he was eight, Abusivo bought his first cassette tape with his own money. The record was by NWA and the album was Straight Outta Compton. He had to send his cousin in with his own hard-earned cash because he was too young to buy an album with an explicit lyrics warning.

At age twelve, Abusivo began writing poetry. “As soon as I picked up the pen,” remembers Abusivo, “I knew that the pen was my destiny for a career in music.” From the start, his poetry was always lyrical and written with the intent to be performed. He began putting his lyrical skills to test right away as his cousin’s wing-man. His cousin, who is older than him, realized very quickly that girls would think that the young Abusivo was adorable as a child-rapper. And what turned out as his cousin’s scheme to attract ladies became pivotal in Abuviso’s development as an MC. It was in backyards and at block parties that Abusivo learned about timing and eventually mastered the art of freestyling. He was so young and so shy, that when he first started out, he would rap facing the wall or facing the corner, too embarrassed to face the crowd that was listening to him. Like many MCs, battling became the grounds for his development as an artist and battling is where he earned his name. At 18, he had already earned a reputation for his brutal battling skills. His rhymes were all about truth – no matter who his opponent was. And, as the saying goes, truth hurts, especially when the truth leaves topics like your opponents’ appearance, skills and even their mother as fair game. “My style was very hard and my language very aggressive in comparison to my opponents. I utilized any one of their weaknesses to win a battle.” He was so quick to clown and so brutal in his delivery, that people used to tell him he was abusive. Being an abusive battler led to his well-earned title, Abusivo.

At the ends of the 1990s, Abusivo met David Salas, son of composer Rudy Salas. Abusivo was dying to record, so he saved up his money for studio time, but studio time is expensive and at the same time Abusivo had an obligation to help his mother with the bills. So he offered to intern for David in return for being able to use his spare time in the studio to record his own material. Months later, David asked Don Abusivo to look for a rapper with skills in Spanish to translate a song by Vic Demone. To David’s surprise, Abusivo proposed himself, translating what would become the famous track, A Soldier’s Story. This early work led Vic Demone to ask Abusivo to write many other themes for his album, eventually lending Vic credibility in mainstream hip hop. In the early part of Abusivo’s professional career, he began ghostwriting for a number of artists, including Phastlane, Cali Lifestyle, Rosali Rodríguez, and up-and-coming Machete artist, Luna.

Musically and lyrically, Abusivo’s music is most influenced by rap. Raised in Los Angeles by parents from Zacatecas, Mexico, Abusivo’s childhood is not unlike that of many children of immigrants. While on the one hand he sought out the urban music that surrounded him, his parents’ music was an unavoidable influence. “When I was young, we were too poor to go to concerts. I could never afford to see the acts I wanted to see. So the closest thing I had to a concert was seeing groups play in the park for free. That was always my parents’ music – mariachi and banda.” In the house, his mother’s music reigned – Los Bukis, Los Yonics, Los Terricolas, Vincente Fernandez and Joan Sebastian. But in the streets, his music was pure hip hop and Abusivo credits artists like Notorious B.I.G., Slick Rick, LL Cool J, Mack 10, NWA, Eazy E and Eminem for influencing his style.

Ghostwriting for artists gave Abusivo his first shot at recording an album with a major label – Universal Latino. But at that time, the label was fixated on urban regional music and Abusivo felt that his first album, Alcen Sus Copas was not really his true voice. His forthcoming album, De Hotel A Hotel, to be released in November on Machete Music, represents in his own words, “my best work yet and an opportunity for people to see what I’m really about.” Produced almost entirely by David Salas, the album is complex, both musically and lyrically. What sets Abusivo apart from everybody else is truth. Abusivo is turns the brutal honesty that earned him his moniker back on himself. And through humor, he is able and willing to take the listener on a journey through the most personal of topics and make them laugh though the entire experience. The listener will find De Hotel A Hotel to include deeply personal stories about life and struggle, ballads about love, bouncy dance hits and social commentary through the lens of his own experiences. With tracks in English, tracks in Spanish, bilingual tracks, hip hop influences, Mexican roots, club hits, personal stories and love songs, De Hotel A Hotel represents Abusivo and his real voice – truth, in all its complexity.

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Abusivo - De Hotel A Hotel