Artist Radar - Ana Tijoux (Breaking Bad)

Breaking Bad is widely known for being a badass TV show, and part of that claim is its soundtrack. Everything from Fever Ray to Nancy Sinatra to TV on the Radio have made an audio appearance. Okay, so they may have had some corny picks when it came to Jesse's cringe-worthy "setup" at his house, but we'll ignore that for now.

Ana Tijoux made an appearance last Sunday with her track "1977", during a superlab meth-cooking montage:


I could listen to her rap all day.


The song is actually refreshing, as based on my loose translation via Google, it seems to be autobiographical without (gasp) trying to sound super gangsta and talking about shooting people or dealing drugs. And to top it off, she never once says the word "swag", in English or Spanish, in any of her songs.

I know, I'm still getting over the shock, myself.

Her real name is Anamaria Merino, and she's French-Chilean, which makes her unique to hip-hop in many regards. She's not new to the game at all, and has been active since the 1990's in the group Makiza.


I have no idea what they're saying, but I like it.


Spanish rap really hits a sweet spot for me, and it's not because I hear it all the time here in LA. Their flow based on natural Spanish dialect really is impressive, so when I hear a 30-something franco-hispanic lady who could put Twista to the test in terms of speed, you can color me impressed.

The flow plus the mature, political and thought-provoking themes (even loosely translated) really drive home an artist that's not new to any aspect of music, or life.

Here's a neat little interview (in English, thankfully for most of my readers) that details her background in music, talking about influences from Morocco to NWA: