We expect the unexpected from reggaeton leader Tego Calderón. But salsa?

On his latest CD, The Underdog/El Subestimado, the reggaeton master and pioneer has put down . . . a salsa track? What's up is that this isn't some rapper's ironic version of salsa but a bona fide, real-deal homage to the genre's golden era of the 1970s and to the musicians who produced for the storied Fania Records, the label credited with bringing together legends like Celia Cruz, Willie Colón and Tego's personal idol, Ismael Rivera, for the first time ever. Tego, in creating the song "Changó blanco," teamed up with veteran salsa musicians, including singer Cano Estremera, who was also part of the Fania team. Being in the company of such greats made the reggaeton master himself a little nervous, so much so that he shelved the song for a couple of months until he mustered the courage to finish it. "It was a lot of pressure," he says. "Young people respect old-school salsa, but nothing is happening right now with that. I do this with a purpose: to bring salsa de verdad back, with good arrangements and musicians and with a sense of humor." But while Tego sees himself as connected to salsa's musical movement, he closely guards his reggaeton independence: After vowing he'd never team up with a major record label, in June he did just that, inking a deal with Atlantic Records-not as an artist but as a partner, with his own label, Jiggiri Records. Like other rappers, Tego can sing about booties, but he's relentless in taking on the racial problems of his native Puerto Rico. His friend Tony Touch, a hip-hop veteran, calls the man whose 2002 début album, El Abayarde, took reggaeton from underground movement to worldwide mania "a leader, not a follower." On the new album, he also collaborates with his friend Don Omar on "Chillin'," a roots-and-reggae song recorded after both came back from vacationing in Jamaica. "It was something that came out of me, de corazón," Tego says. "It's going to be felt." So just when a reggaeton formula threatens to pin him down, Tego reinvents his music, slips into a rich musical legacy and pulls, well, a Tego.

Fuente: Latina Magazine