The Cuban rapper El B (Bian Rodríguez) published a song on his Facebook profile where he directly attacks the singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez, using the troubadour's own words as a rhetorical weapon against him.
The song borrows the phrase from Silvio Rodríguez's classic "Ojalá" and recontextualizes it as a direct attack: hopefully something happens that suddenly erases you, fool, you and all the shameless ones who remained silent.
The immediate trigger was the incident on March 18, when Silvio Rodríguez wrote on his blog "Segunda Cita": I demand my AKM, if they launch. And let it be clear that I'm saying this very seriously, referring to a possible U.S. military intervention in Cuba.
Two days later, the Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces formally presented him with a replica of the AKM rifle and his combat rifle at an official event presided over by Miguel Díaz-Canel and General Álvaro López Miera, who acknowledged during the event: This is purely symbolic.
The gesture was presented under the concept of "War of the People" and sparked a wave of outrage among artists in the Cuban exile community and dissident figures, who accused Silvio of serving the regime while activists and musicians remain imprisoned.
Beyond the direct attack on Silvio Rodríguez, the lyrics of the song delve into the criticism of the Cuban regime and its social impact. El B describes a population marked by scarcity and fear, “a people ravaged by hunger and fear,” and openly denounces state repression, including the imprisonment of minors and activists: “a regime that threatens and jails children and activists who aspire for a free Cuba.”
In his lyrics, El B points directly at the troubadour: “an artist demands a weapon to defend lies,” placing that stance within a broader context of social crisis, repression, and lack of freedoms on the island.
The song also evokes Celia Cruz as a symbol of exile who could never return: "Celia Cruz died without seeing Santo Suárez again," and issues a warning regarding any 'pardons' from the regime: "their pardon is an insult if they don't release political prisoners."
The topic is set against a backdrop of escalating criticism that other artists have voiced in the weeks leading up to this. Last Tuesday, Paquito D'Rivera pointed out that Silvio Rodríguez knows that Maykel Osorbo is imprisoned for singing and has not denounced it to international figures like Chico Buarque: "No one has told him that there is a person, a Grammy-winning artist imprisoned for singing a song they did not like." On the same day, Descemer Bueno urged that Buarque be reminded of the existence of the Cuban political prisoner and referred to Osorbo as our Antonio Maceo of this time.
Maykel Osorbo (Maykel Castillo Pérez), co-author of "Patria y Vida" and winner of two Latin Grammys in 2021 while he was detained, is serving a sentence of nine years. In January of this year, he was arbitrarily transferred to Kilo 8 prison in Pinar del Río, where he remains without medication or adequate shelter.
This is not the first time that El B has publicly confronted Silvio Rodríguez. Back in 2019, he rejected having the troubadour represent him, accusing him of acting calculatively by opposing Decree 349 just to divert popular pressure. That same year he stated: Now I live in my stronghold, without a homeland but without a master.
The rapper concludes the song with a warning that encapsulates the spirit of the entire piece: "when the dictators fall, let us not allow the traitors to return as heroes." The post also announces a concert by El B in Miami on May 15 at the Flamingo Theater Bar.
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