RESIDENTE – RESIDENTE (SONY 2017)

On his globe-hopping solo debut, Calle 13 frontman Residente layers his dark and dense grooves with swirling Bollywood strings (“Milo”), eerie melodies plucked from Chinese opera (“Una Leyenda China”), distortion-soaked psych-rock riffs (“La Sombra”), and much more. Menacing and hypnotic, packed with both raw-to-the-core bangers and moments of haunting beauty, Residente often strays far beyond the borders of hip-hop. But the MC’s biting punchlines and politicized rhymes still pack the same sly punch as his Calle 13 classics.