Vico C

Luis Armando Lozada Cruz (Brooklyn, New York, September 8, 1971), known by his stage name Vico C, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. of Puerto Rican descent, considered one of the pioneers of rap in Spanish for songs like "Bomba para afincar" and an icon of Hispanic music, since he was the one who started the hip-hop movement in Puerto Rico. His lyrics are mostly oriented towards social criticism, using Christianity as a guideline, a fact that gave rise to his being respectfully called the Philosopher. He is mentioned by many artists of the genre, how inspiration and admiration for being the origin of the urban genre.

During his career he released studio albums such as Hispanic Soul (1991), Xplosion (1993), Con poder (1996), The One Who Had Died (1998), Ambush (2002), In Honor of the Truth (2003), Desahogo (2005), Babilla (2009) and published compilation productions of his greatest hits, as well as special collection series. Many consider him one of the founding fathers of reggaeton; His records are largely based on roots reggae acoustics. Bomb to settle down (1991), Xplosión (1993), The one who had died (1998) and Ambush (2001), among others are good examples.

Biography

She was born in New York where she lived until she was five years old, when her Puerto Rican family decided to move to Puerto Rico, in the Puerta de Tierra sector of San Juan. His parents, Rafael Lozada and Margarita Cruz, were able to see from an early age his son's inclination for the artistic and decided to incorporate him into the Teatro Pobre de América, led by Pedro Santaliz. At the beginning of the 1980s, Rapper's Delight was a radio event and with it, Luis Lozada began to dream of his own future and to follow it.

At the same time, Hip-hop had taken over the Puerto Rican adolescent youth and DJ Negro organized a contest one night for young people to compete rapping in English, the singer with his group/ duo called VG Princes integrated together with his friend Glenn, decided to participate. In this contest Glenn sang in English and Vico C in Spanish.

Her stage name splits into two stories. The first part "Vico" It comes from the nickname that his relatives had for him, who had a neighbor named Doña Vica who was very serious, and Luis Armando as a child had such a serious face and they told him that he looked like Vica, and for this reason his family and friends began to associate him with the lady calling him "Vico". The "C" On the other hand, a girl who was going to make him a T-shirt with his name embroidered on it and proposed to add a big & # 34;C & # 34; around the name (pronounced in English: 'si'). Luis liked the idea of how his nickname "Vico" sounded. with the addition of the "C" in English. He has since been known to many as the famous singer & # 34; Vico C & # 34;.

Musical career

Inspired by Run DMC and Sugar Hill, in 1987 he formalized his career by calling himself Vico, adding the C only as a novelty.^{[citation required]}

In 1988 as a soloist with his DJ Negro, he recorded his first song "No to drugs", because for the first time at that time there was a television advertisement for a campaign against drugs. Dj Negro and Vico C recorded songs in an underground way such as "Sin pena", "Si soy de la calle" and "En coma" during 1988 and 1989, which were recorded on cassette tapes and distributed organically by DJ Negro between the neighborhoods of San Juan.

In 1989 he released La recta final , which became his first professional production and among the songs contained in this album are: La Recta Final, Viernes 13 y El Amor Existe, these became real hits. radials.

1990s

In 1990 Misión: la Cima was released on the market with DJ Negro with the hits Me Acuerdo, She Likes My Reggae, El Filósofo, a song that stuck with his stage name, Friday the 13th Part II (Jason Is Back) Tony Presidio, which was later re-recorded in another production; This same year the production called "Two times under the same tone" together with Jossie Esteban and patrol 15 where, in addition to some previous titles, the song Blanca is included and creates confusion in some places considering it as a 1994 production.

In 1991, he released his album Hispanic Soul, with hits like «Bomba para afincar» «Tradición», Te voy a Tomar, «Yogurt», Dulce Sexy Sensual, an album that consolidates his presence in Latin America.

In 1992 two singles appeared on the market that led him to win a gold record and a platinum record with the singles "Saboréalo" and "María". respectively. These were later included in the album Xplosión in 1993 with hits like Base Y Fundamento, Baby I want to do it, Cosa Nuestra, Pa Mi Colección and Xplosión.

During a tour in the Dominican Republic, he suffers a motorcycle accident as a result of which he has serious injuries to one of his legs that almost leads to amputation, for which he remains hospitalized and due to his constant pain, he becomes addicted to morphine and later to the heroine as recounted in the film Vico C: The Life of the Philosopher of her own authorship.

In 1995 his commitment to the genre led him to produce other artists, until he created his own record label VC Records. From his own company, new names like Lisa M, Fransheska and Lizzy Estrella come out, in addition to accrediting the talent of DJ Negro, DJ Playero and DJ Nelson, who marked the 90s in Puerto Rico. This same year he released the single Humolandia showing the beginning of his fight against his drug addictions.

In 1996 he released the album Con poder, a production with totally Christian content. Released on June 18, 1996 by Sony BMG with songs like Danza, Plomo, Libro controversial among others.

In 1998, he returned after being submerged in drug addiction that separated him from public life and released his album Aquel que había muerto under the EMI label. with which he won his first Emi Award and in 1999 he was awarded the Billboard Latin Music Awards, with which he performed a series of concerts that led to a CD production and earned him his first Latin Grammy Award (2002) for music as Best Urban Album. by Alive.

2000s

In 2002, he returned with the album Embush, but later due to personal problems, he fell back into drugs, being arrested in Miami for cocaine possession. From there he wrote what was his next production that earned him his second Latin Grammy, In honor of the truth in 2003, followed by Desahogo (2005) (presented with an MTV Unplugged concert and nominated to the Latin Grammy Awards) and Babilla (2009).

During those years, he collaborated with various artists such as Sin Bandera, Sindicato Argentino del Hip Hop, Kumbia Kings, Héctor el Father, he was also part of some productions by various artists such as 12 disciples by Eddie Dee, Los Bandoleros Reloaded by Don Omar, Mas Flow 2 by Luny Tunes, La iglesia de la calle by Gerardo Mejía, Caribbean Connection by Machete Music, where songs like "Los 12 disciples", "Raperito" and "La vecinita" were released.

2010s

In 2010, he received two Latin Grammy nominations for the album Babilla, for Best Urban Album of the Year, and for the song "Sentimiento" with Arcángel for Best Urban Song. After Babilla, various labels such as EMI Latin and Sony Music Latin have released several compilation albums by the artist, among these Colaboraciones de ayer y hoy from 2011 with a new song, “Oye” along with to Funky and "Frente a fronte" with Julio Voltio in 2013, the same year where he performed a concert where he would "bury Jason" on Friday the 13th, alluding to one of his best-known songs based on Friday the 13th.

In 2015, he participated in Alex Zurdo's concert De la A a la Z with Funky, to celebrate Alex's 10-year career. The following year, Universal Music Latin released a compilation by the artist called The best of..., where 18 songs from his previous productions were grouped together.

In 2017, he intervened in the lyrical war between Tempo and Residente with the song "Y boquete pa tu techo", where he personified Fidel Castro, Michael Jackson, Oompa Loompa and even Jesus Christ in the video, and appeared the boxer Juanma López. That same year, he was nominated for Best Urban Song with the song "Papá", in collaboration with the Dominican rapper Lápiz Consciente and honored as Vanguard Artist by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

For that year, he had a concert scheduled for Friday, October 13 called "Llegó papá", but due to Hurricane María it had to be canceled. April 13, 2018, was the new date for said concert and it was presented at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico, where two performances were performed, both sold out.

In 2019, he was hospitalized in an emergency after a health mishap. At the end of that year, he released a song called "Dirty", a song that generated controversy due to the content of the lyrics, and closed the year participating with Lunay in a Christmas song called "Te irás con el año viejo", in an album organized by Banco Popular de Puerto Rico.

Vico C's collaborations in this period continued to be sporadic, with the Argentine band Rescate, Redimi2, Noel Schajris and Apóstoles del Rap, Tito El Bambino, Ivy Queen, El Bima, Paulina Aguirre and Taboo, The Bastón Gang, and his son LoUpz.

2020s: Present

In 2021, it was announced that there would be a concert called "V", where Vico would perform with Vanilla Ice at the Coca Cola Music Hall, however, it would be cancelled.

In 2022, he would start the year giving interviews to various communicators such as Benni Benny, also, after his controversial response in 2018 towards the criticism of Jorge Pabón "El Molusco", he would give an interview to the interviewer Puerto Rican where he revealed that he would like to enter into a friendly relationship with the rapper Residente. Ending this year, in November he performed with Gilberto Santa Rosa, at the tribute concert "Puerto Rico greets Ismael Miranda".

In 2023, he signed an agreement with Nain Music, a subsidiary of the Rimas record label, for an unreleased album by Vico C to be released in May 2023, with the first single being "Ask Your Papa For Me&# 34;.

Filmography

In parallel to his musical career, he has participated in the production of Puerto Rican cinema in films such as Victoria (2005) with his nephew Renzo Torres, whose role was that of a rapper censored by the government of that country, in Thieves and Liars (2006) and Feel the Noise (2007). In 2010, he returned to the theater in a musical called Vico C, the story, which told its own story.

In late 2017, he released his own autobiographical film titled, Vico C: La Vida del Filósofo starring his son Luis Armando Lozada Jr. as him.

Discography

Albums of study

• 1991: Hispanic Soul
• 1993: Xplosion
• 1996: With power
• 1998: The one who died
• 2002: Embossed
• 2003: In honor of the truth
• 2005: Desahogo
• 2009: Babilla
• 2023: Ask your dad for me.

EP

• 1990: The final straight
• 1990: Mission: The summit