Propiedad Privada

Album Review

In 2008, the war between rival drug cartels in Mexico became increasingly bloody — and anyone who regularly watched the nightly news on Univision or Telemundo (major Spanish-language television networks in the United States) was likely to hear about one killing after another, including some gruesome decapitations. Not surprisingly, all the murders in Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, Acapulco, and other Mexican cities brought out the usual narcocorrido bashers, who claimed that narcocorridos (corridos about drug trafficking) were encouraging the problem. But that is sort of like blaming the movies of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola for Camorra-related violence in Naples, Italy or Ndrangheta activity in the small towns of Calabria; in other words, art that examines organized crime is not the root cause of that crime. And even if los Tucanes de Tijuana quit performing narcocorridos altogether, that alone wouldn't make Mexican drug cartels go away. Besides, it would be a shame if los Tucanes gave up narcocorridos because they perform them so convincingly, which is evident on Propiedad Privada ("Private Property"). Not everything on this 2008 release is a narcocorrido, but narcocorridos dominate the 53-minute CD — and los Tucanes candidly address the harsh realities of la vida mafiosa on compelling tracks such as "Producto Garantizado," "El 42," "La Camiseta," and "El Paisano." Some musicologists will describe these narcocorridos as a regional Mexican equivalent of gangsta rap; that's a valid comparison, although outlaw country (as in Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried" or Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues") is an equally valid comparison on this norteño-oriented disc (which offers banda arrangements of three of the songs as bonus tracks). Propiedad Privada doesn't break any new ground for los Tucanes de Tijuana, but it is still an excellent album and reaffirms their status as narcocorrido royalty.