Song You Need to Know: Myke Towers, Pin Pin
Salsa meets trap on a highlight from Puerto Rican rapper s Lyke Mike album
Elias Leight, provided by
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Lyke Mike, is 65 minutes of dogged, hard-nosed trap full of blaring bass that’s sure to wake up the neighbors, clenched, claustrophobic drums, and drubbing raps.
But “Pin Pin,” which comes early in the 23-song set, offers a welcome moment of levity: Towers builds the track around a cheery salsa sample, a brassy snippet borrowed from Tommy Olivencia’s “Periquito Pin-Pin.” This salsa/hip-hop hybrid has proved effective in the past, from Meshell Ndegeocello’s “Hot Night” to Common’s “Stolen Moments – Part III” to C. Tangana’s “Mala Mujer.” Towers’ take on the sound is fleet-footed but thunderous, like tap-dancing with cinderblocks. The horns surge upward in a joyous, irrepressible loop, while the hard-bitten drums serve to tether everything to the ground.