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In conversation: Athlete-turned-rapper Eladio Carrión on the fine art of practice

NPR Music

NPR

Music

4.33.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2023

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Felix Contreras and Anamaria Sayre sit down with the Puerto Rican hip-hop artist Eladio Carrión to discuss what drives him, learning Spanish through music and how he's changing the game of Latin rap.

Audio for this episode of 'Alt.Latino' was edited and mixed by Cher Vincent, with production support from Suraya Mohamed and Robin Hilton. Our show editor is Hazel Cills and our project manager is Grace Chung. Our production assistant is Sofia Seidel. Our VP of Music and Visuals is Keith Jenkins.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Okay, you rode your bike into the studio today into the building. You're very athletic, right?

0:06.1

No, because you're a runner, right? That is true. There is a distinction between athletic,

0:13.0

though, I think, and active. Yes. But I was the kid who got picked last in school every single time.

0:21.0

Also, there's an element of skill involved in athletics. There's an element of skill involved

0:26.8

in athletics that I think is difficult to achieve if you're naturally born horrible at them.

0:35.6

And why are we talking about athletics today on a music show?

0:39.8

On a music show, because you would be surprised, Felix, or maybe you're not. But perhaps

0:44.8

others would be surprised about how connected they are, music and sports.

0:51.3

And they both involve discipline. They both involve focus. And you have to spend a lot of time

0:56.8

practicing to achieve successes and meet your goals. And you have to be a person who is inclined to

1:07.6

not get distracted by other things. Which leads us to our guest this week.

1:20.6

El Adio Carrion, he is a hip-hop artist, rapper from Puerto Rico, but originally,

1:33.4

born and spent a lot of his childhood in the US. And we talked about athletics because he was a

1:38.8

competitive swimmer for 10 years in his youth. This guy, I mean, he is like the epitome of focus.

1:48.0

He is like you can read athlete all over his attitude, his face, his energy, the way that he

1:54.1

applies himself to music is like, oh, I, that feels recognizable. And our show this week is about that,

2:00.8

that focus of being an artist, that focus that it takes to be an athlete. And you know what's so

2:06.4

interesting about that too, Felix, is we started by talking with him about how he used sports as

2:13.3

a tool to explore himself. And we see how he does that later as a musician. I mean,

2:18.1

like we mentioned, he spent time in the US and then moved to Puerto Rico. And I love to say that

2:22.8

he is not a Latin hip-hop artist, but rather a Latin end hip-hop artist. And I think he does that

2:30.0

with his music because he's getting to know himself every time he makes a record. And he says the same

...

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