Enter Da BoomBow / Toma2os / BoomBow Arts / 2023

Reviewed by Mauricio Novoa

Enter Da BoomBow is the epicenter of a somewhat unexpected crossroads: Salvadoran rappers based in Salt Lake City influenced by New York City’s Boom Bap hip-hop era and Caribbean dembow. Through these geographical and genre crossings, Toma2os, consisting of brothers El Necio and Patas Arriba, take the listener through a sonic landscape that is equal parts modern rhythms and past voices that shaped our Latinx diasporic cores.

The roadmap laid out by El Necio’s production, full of a collage of sounds like the lasers in “F.A.N.” or the triple beat switch on “Born Guanaco,” gives Patas Arriba the perfect patterns to bounce over as he matches the diversity of the production with different vocal inflections and sounds, like the somewhat autotuned vocals midway through “Filthy Ass Immigrants” and when he reaches deep into the trenches of his throat on “No Me Importa.”

Lyrically, Patas Arriba follows the traditions set by predecessors like Big Pun and Snow tha Product by switching from Spanish to English as he goes from the dance floors to open the album to calling out the police in “¡R¡ot!” However, he reminds us that he doesn’t just come from SLC by way of El Salvador, but that his influences come from those who called home Cuzcatlan, saying on “No Me Importa” “reppin’ that Nawa-Lenca, your Ku Klux ain’t ready for this Cuzca-teka.” Salvadorans haven’t broken into the mainstream with other Latinx MCs in the national landscape, so the opening statement on “BoomBox Junkies” offers an apologetic “sorry to be late.” Still, in that time, Toma2os absorbed their predecessors' magic to create their art. Nowhere is this more evident than on “F.A.B.,” a homage to The Notorious B.I.G. Starting with a sample from a 1992 demo called “All Men Are Dogs,” subsequently used in Busta Rhymes’ “I Knock You Out,” Patas Arriba carries Biggie’s spirit over the dembow beat with playful rhymes that take some of his most well-known verses and translates them for a Spanish speaking audience (“tengo una lyrica ducha pa’ tu pupusa” an exceptionally clever example). 

Herein lies the most hip-hop aspect of the album – before copyright lawsuits became the norm, samples were the backbone of hip-hop production. They were beautiful examples of taking different art pieces and using them to create something new and exciting. The drums from one song, the bass from another, the vocals of a completely unrelated artist, and you had a track that not only allowed the rapper to showcase the dexterity of their rhymes, but perhaps most importantly, gave recognition and love to the artists our parents and grandparents played at house parties, as they drank Pilsener while dancing, and the cousins locked themselves in a room watching MTV. In other words, the memories and musical knowledge that inspired artists and their producers to create in the first place. None of us just come to our passions – we’re introduced to them through masters of the craft. But along the way, this relationship between current artists and the owners of their inspirations was criminalized, evident in such cases as the Gangsta Grillz raids in 2007. But on this album, the listener can imagine the brothers’ Saturday mornings, an adult playing Celia Cruz in the kitchen while they listen to Biggie in their room. On “Born Guanaco,” the piano from DMX’s “What These Bitches Want” follows the sample of Fiebre Amarillo’s “Yo Soy Guanaco.” “La Vaca” opens with El Necio starting with a sample of Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” before going into the Caribbean-inspired instrumental where Patas Arriba interpolates the Merengue classic “La Vaca.” Sir Mix-A-Lot makes an appearance at the beginning of “O.M.G,” creating what seems to be El Necio’s signature of starting with a sample before switching to the song’s main beat. And in the album’s closing, “Adoro,” the song begins with a haunting sample of Armando Manzanero’s “Adoro,” which leads into the only track where the same sample that introduces the song is the main component of the entire thing and possibly Patas Arriba’s most impressive flow of the album.

Salvadoran creatives in the U.S. are more visible than ever, with writers like Javier Zamora and Yesika Salgado selling out at bookstores nationwide. Yet, many spaces are confused as to what to do with us. Patas Arriba, in “Born Guanaco,” tells us that he’s told to “go back to Mexico,” perfectly encapsulating how Central Americans are forgotten in the blanket Latinx market and our work is often not held with the care it needs to understand the artist behind the work. But on Enter Da BoomBow, Toma2os never lets us forget who is behind the mic and that “El Salvador got no saviors.” Even as different corners of the world influence the sonics and the samples, the drums beat with the people who come from the same pueblos and campos – all while they bring back voices that came before and remind us what we’ve been missing.

P.S. This album is also a perfect listen for your ganja session.