VICO C
Interviewed by: Angela

Angela: Hi

Vico: Hey, Angela how are you doing?

Angela: Good! How are you doing?

Vico: Todo Bien, Todo Bien, I am good, I am good.

Angela: Great! I just want to say Thank You for doing this interview with me. It’s an honor to be talking to you.

Angela: So I hear that you just went gold with your album Desahogo, Congratulations!

Vico: Thank You, Thank You.

Angela: *Laughing* How does it make you feel to know that you are still loved by everybody?

Vico: *Laughing* I just try to do the best, you know? I just try to speak what I feel without thinking and make the greatest music that could come from someone, you know? I am just trying to do the best.

Angela: Right. With Salsa kind of fading out and Reggaeton blowing up, do you feel that Salsa will make a come back by itself or do you think that it will take artists like yourself putting Salsa and Reggaeton together it will make a come back that way?

Vico: Well no you know, for Salsa to make a come back it has to make a come back because of Salsa, you know? When it came up people loved it and people received it as what it is and not because of who it came from. You know?

Angela: Right.

Vico: So, to me the problem is, with Salsa, they started coming up with cute little singers who didn’t know anything about Salsa or dance or whatever. It worked at the time because it was like something different but they kept doing it and the main thing, the music, you know? Came down. It wasn’t that important and the mixing starting getting a little more soft and then everything was just kind of softer in Salsa. That was what brought it down. Not because of Reggaeton. Reggaeton has been around for years and the Hip Hop, Spanish Hip Hop for more than a decade.

Angela: Right

Vico: The thing is that as Hip Hop and Reggaeton starting becoming more real and Salsa kept going soft, it’s obvious. People want people things. You know what I am saying?

Angela: Uh huh

Vico: They get tired of product and you can’t sell product. By selling products you don’t make a movement, which people will defend. You know what I am saying?

Angela: Uh huh

Vico: When you make a movement, like the Reggaeton you have people who defend it because they relate to it. If they see someone hurting the movement they feel hurt because they feel proud of it, so that is the difference. In order for Salsa to try to make a come back they will have to go back to the roots. Do Salsa and we will see because it’s a new generation and it’s more difficult now. I don’t want anybody blaming it on Reggaeton or whatever.

Angela: Right

Vico: Reggaeton did what it had to do, even if it has a lot of lyrics, which I am not down with. In terms of the movement itself it keeps going real and people keep relating to it.

Angela: But do you believe that Reggaeton is going to help bring Salsa out to the younger generation?

Vico: No, it’s just a variety. In my opinion, I am a Salsero. Salsa is my thing. I respect it and that is why I don’t do it myself. Salsa. Period. But, I came with Gilbertito and gave them nice Reggaeton because I am looking at Gilbertito the singer. The big name and the big singer.

Angela: Right

Vico: I am not trying to do anything with Salsa. It’s not Salsa what I did with him. It’s just Gilbertito Santa Rosa which people respect. That is why I did it. Of course giving people some more variety and more options.

Angela: Right, So do you write all of your own music?

Vico: Oh yea, yea, yea, yea. Yea I write it all yea.

Angela: Is most of it based on real life experiences?

Vico: Ummm. Most. Well it depends, I will have to go through them again and hear them. But, all of them have something, which I relate to. All of them. Some of them are straight experiences, like Mami – a song called Mami in Desahogo and a song called Compañera which I sang to my wife.

Angela: Awwwwww.

Vico: Those are straight personal experiences. The rest, sometimes I make a story but out of real things, which are where I live and in some ways I just watch close, you know?

Angela: Right, Do you think that growing up in PR had a positive or negative effect on your career?

Vico: Oh, well to me it would depend from which context you look at it. You see my bad experiences, well there are bad things everywhere but in Puerto Rico there is more access to it. There is more access in Puerto Rico to the things that destroyed me like drugs, you know?

Angela: Right

Vico: In those terms I don’t repent from growing up in Puerto Rico. Never. Well not growing up in Puerto Rico but in the ghetto. There were lots of negative things. We were just ghetto kids. I was hungry sometimes but I wasn’t that poor to sit hungry all the time. I was hungry for love. I wanted to have a more normal life. You know, like on T.V?

Angela: Right

Vico: You know people, families sitting together and eating and things and they never fought, like big fights. You know things that make you think that your dad was going to get killed or something? So for things like that it was just ghetto. So in Puerto Rico if you take that away, the rest has just been a blessing. Just coming from Puerto Rico is a blessing, not because I am Puerto Rican but because of the things that we have to give. This little island has done some big things in the world. When it comes to sports. When it comes to music. We got Puerto Ricans in NASA. So it has just been a big blessing to me. Especially for my career because I have a passport where I can go anywhere.

Angela: Yeah

Vico: I can bring my music to the world. So, it’s been a blessing.

Angela: So, how do you feel about Reggaeton blowing up the way that it has?

Vico: Well, in a way I feel good but in a way I feel worried at the same time. I feel worried because I don’t know what they are going to keep doing with lyrics. If they keep doing what they are doing right now which is sex, sex, sex, sex, sex. I mean sex is not a bad thing but again it depends on how you use it. If they just keep doing one thing it worries me as a man with conscience and as a father. You know?

Angela: Uh huh

Vico: As a man, not as an artist. As an artist I am happy though.

Angela and Vico: *Laughing*

Vico: What can I tell you? But as a man I am worried.

Angela: Right. Do you feel disrespected by some of the younger artists that don’t give you the proper respect that you deserve considering you are the godfather of Reggaeton and East Coast Latin Hip Hop?

Vico: Well if it would depend on someone recognizing me *LAUGHING* I would be the poorest man in the world. I would be the poorest man in the world, so I don’t even think about that. The more that I look for that kind of recognition of being the first or being a pioneer or whatever, the more old they will look at me.

Angela: Right

Vico: So, you know. I don’t even want to talk about that. I mean I am not saying now but I don’t even tell people that I am the first or whatever because it makes me older. So, it’s not good for business.

Angela: Right

Vico: *Laughter* That is why I don’t even think about it. I want people to hear what I am doing now. Which is better. It could change for good. It could change people to do bigger things. So, I don’t worry about that.

Angela: Ok, but it has been said by many sources that you have been having problems with some of the younger artists like Daddy Yankee and Don Omar. Are any of those rumors even partially true?

Vico: Oh, No, No. Not at all. That is not even in my thinking. Not because there haven’t been chances to create an excuse to say bad things about some of them. I have had the chances, all justified. They are justified in the eyes of human beings but they are not justified in the eyes of God. So, when I think the way that God wants me to think, automatically. I don’t have problems with anybody. The world could have problems with me but I don’t have problems with anybody. I can sleep well. When you start like that you create a barrera, a protector around you.

Angela: Mmm Hmm.

Vico: Of problems. You don’t even let them get through you. I want love. I don’t want war. I want peace.

Angela: Right. Where did you come up with the name Vico C?

Vico: Well Vico is my nickname, for life. I don’t know why. The C came from well… I had this friend, a girlfriend, just a friend in middle school. I already rapped but I was just Vico. She came up with bringing me something from New York and I was like “Yea, bring me a T-Shirt that says Vico in graffiti”. So she was like “Yea ok, well how about if I bring you like Rolo’s shirt?” Rolo was another guy that came from New York with a shirt that said Rolo Cee. That is why the C. His shirt said Rolo and then a C with 2 e’s. She said “You want me to bring you like Rolo’s but instead of Rolo Cee Vico C?” and I was like “Ummm. Yea. Sounds good”. I already rapped and sounded like Run DMC or LL Cool J, you know. It sounded like their names so I liked it. She never brought me the shirt though, but I stay with that name.

Angela and Vico: *Laughter*

Angela: Awww. You never got your shirt?

Vico: *Laughter* I am still waiting for it.

Angela: Is there anything new that is going to be coming out this year?

Vico: I am going to be doing the musical for a song that I have called “Tony Presidio” which is like a hymn. It is one of my best songs, one of my most recognized songs. We are going to do the musical, in theaters.

Angela: Wow

Vico: Come up with a Cd of it and this next record and just keep touring. I am going to Spain now and I am going to work a little more in Europe. I am also going to be doing some more following up to my acting career which I started up when I was a kid in theater. Now they are offering some things and I started doing some movies and stuff for Puerto Rico. TV and the BIG screen. I was always looking to do something on the REAL BIG screen, which is Hollywood. You know? I will get there. We know what we have to do. We know the business. I just have to be patient and work so that is what I am doing.

Angela: Are you going to be doing any more tours this year?

Vico: Yea actually I am doing a tour. I am going to Santo Domingo on Friday.

Angela: Wow

Vico: Santo Domingo, Colombia, Equador, the States, well some places in the States.

Angela: When are you coming to Chicago?

Vico: Oh, I just went to Chicago.

Angela: You did?

Vico: I just came back from Chicago, like 5 or 6 days ago. It was just a gig, you know. Just a show. I wasn’t really promoting it. So, yea. I was there. *Laughing*

Angela: That would have been nice to do the interview here.

Vico: Yea it was nice there. The weather.

Angela: Nice. So, what are your plans maybe like 5 – 10 years from now? Do you think you will still be in the music industry or more into your acting?

Vico: I can tell you about 10. I won’t be on stage anymore. Maybe I will have an office. I want to study Psychology. Maybe I will get something with my name and with my studies. You know?

Angela: Umm. Hmm.

Vico: Make an attraction for people and do something more for people. In 5 years I might be on my laaaaaaaaaaaaast show. *Laughter* You know because I will be 38 and though I might look a little younger I will still be 38. My little girl is now 5 so she will be 10 or 11 and she will need me.

Angela: Right.

Vico: She needs me now but she will need me more when she gets into those teenager things.

Angela: *Laughing* Of Course!

Vico: *Laughing* So from now I have to make a plan on how I am going to distribute my time. But in 5 years I might be doing my last things in music.

Angela: Oh no.

Vico and Angela: *Laughing*

Vico: So how is my English doing? Good.

Angela: Very good.

Vico: Oh Thank You.

Vico and Angela: *Laughing*

Angela: How did you learn?

Vico: What English?

Angela: Uh huh.

Vico: *Laughing* When I was like 15 I went to Pittsburgh for the summer to my uncle’s house and I liked it and started to study for years. That is when I learned and then Thankfully watching movies and I have spend the last 7 years in Florida and I watch the History Channel and all of those things. They kind of talk clearly and with the correct words and everything. I just kept practicing but I learned first in Pittsburgh.

Angela: Nice, well it sounds perfect~!

Vico: *Laughing*

Angela: Well I want to Thank You for taking time out of your schedule to do an interview with me. I know you got stuck in traffic and that was probably horrible.

Vico: Oh, man. Yea that was one of the things but I am alright.

Angela: Ok, well Thank You very much. I wish you all the luck and hope to see you when you come to Chicago.

Vico: Oh yea, yea. Ok. *Laughing* Thank You very much for the interview. I really appreciate it and Thank You for your time.

Angela and Vico: Ok bye.

This concludes my interview with the Puerto Rican Hip Hop and Reggaeton legend, Vico C whom as you can see is very down to earth and humble despite all his haters and success.

~Angela