Shoutout to Mofongo - Oye Mi Canto by N.O.R.E

In 2004, N.O.R.E. released the single “Oye Mi Canto” along with Daddy Yankee, Nina Sky, Gem Star and Big Mato.

Before I move on….CAN WE PLEASE APPRECIATE THE MATERIAL??? This music video embodies what reggaeton aesthetics looked like back in the early - mid-2000s. The beach, a room with lots of lightbulbs on the wall, women in bikinis, dudes with jorts as pants and t-shirts to their knees and let’s not forget all the country shoutouts by Nina Sky.

Who is N.O.R.E.?

N.O.R.E. is a rapper from Queens, New York. Before he was a solo artist, he was part of a rap due called Capone-N-Noreaga. When he made his solo debut, he started going by N.O.R.E.  Fun fact: his solo debut album had so many well-known New York artists like Jay-Z and Nas. In fact, N.O.R.E. wasn’t really known as a reggaetton artist during the beginning of his music career. After the release of his third album, he went back into the studio with the goal of making Spanish-language music that celebrated his Puerto Rican roots. 

What is this song about?

So the chorus of this song is sung by Nina Sky and honestly, they carry the whole song. The first verse by N.O.R.E. suggests non-consensual touch on a woman….

 Throughout the rest of the song, N.O.R.E. is making it clear that this is the first time he is making a reggaeton song while referencing aspects of his culture like Mofongo. Perhaps one of the most interesting shoutouts is to Big Pun who was a huge influence for “Oye Mi Canto” and even his song, “Still Not a Player”, was sampled in the chorus.

“The Latino people haven’t been spoken to in a while, since [Big] Pun died. They haven’t felt like they had something proud [in hip-hop] to stand on, so being both Latin and black, I wanted to rep my Latin side for once. Why not do it with this new music, instead of doing a Spanish rap record? This is what speaks for the inner-city Latino youth.”

- N.O.R.E. in an interview with MTV

 Last Note

As I was doing my research on this song, I found a behind the scenes clip of the music video provided by Pepsi Musica, a music countdown show from the early 2000s. Before we had access to BTS highlights on Instagram stories like today, we needed to rely on archival footage like this to see how Latin Music history was being preserved. Writing about this influential song made me realize the importance of sharing stories, writing articles, and archiving music history. It’s empowering to know more about music than what is presented to us.