Octavio Mesa
Los Relajos Del Arriero

I can't stand anymore the weight of knowing that this album, and this artist, are unknown to anyone.
So here I am, writing this "review," which isn't really a review at all. It's more of a text I'm leaving on the web so that by searching the title and artist on Google, at least some shred of information on Octavio Mesa and his work may come to light.
Who the hell is Octavio Mesa?!? Singer and guitarist but above all a typical "campesino" ("countryman") complete with ruana/poncho and machete, the life and art of Octavio Mesa is inextricably linked to his place of origin: Antioquia, Colombia. Antioquia is that region whose capital is the famous Medellin of Pablo Escobar. But we will not talk about this; Colombia is too interesting and colorful a place to reduce it to the homeland of a drug trafficker. Our guy is part of a musical tradition that has its roots and reason for being right in Antioquia, where like him, others play parranda, but few at his level. Because here, in this country where I live, Octavio Mesa is a small star who owes his celebrity as a meme to his originality, not in sounds but in his attitude towards life. An attitude of a bad boy and pure indifference. If on the compositional side, I can guarantee you that more or less all the parranda sounds similar, I can bet that the words he puts over the music are not as banal in his genre, not at all.
Let's do an exercise of imagination before continuing. Think Raul Casadei (to identify an equivalent of Italian popular music rooted in a specific territory) where, however, on the ternary rhythm base, we now find a song full of vulgarities about the working class condition and a proto-gangsta rap. Have I finally captured your attention? Good.
Now imagine a vulgar folk song and sing it as if you're complaining about being alive but with an underlying anger that is terrifying. We're getting closer and closer.
But let's move on to the album. Los Relajos del Arriero contains all the artist's best pieces, a range of brutality and vulgarity that almost embarrasses with its lyrical power but at the same time leaves one baffled because those words are sung over a guitar played on traditional motifs. The album is virtually unfindable, printed sparingly, and those who have it won't give it to anyone. Never reissued, an anonymous cover and no information online except on Discogs.
I can't honestly find a more effective method of explaining the content of this record than translating some lyrics for you, starting from the most "normal" to the total climax; so I will limit myself to this for the sake of the "review" itself:

Let's start with "Diccionario Verde" (dictionary of vulgarities): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MSPW612JTc

The meaning of words
In these verses, I will give you
Listen calmly and don't get drunk
Because you're about to burst out laughing
The "Mr. son of a bitch" is the millionaire
Mr. bastard, that's your boss
The lady who gives blowjobs is the secretary
And the day laborer is a big idiot
You can already imagine that the ass is not what you think
It's that people misunderstand it
It's a very basic thing
It's just the anus of the politician
Another word with a bad sound
When a boy says bastard
Well, today it's already a bourgeois word
Because out of a hundred, ninety are
Suddenly someone says faggot
While others congratulate themselves
It's just the name of the third sex
See that everything is a misunderstanding
To explain to you about the faggot (passive)
That word is very hot
You must accept it because it's the name
For the husband of the faggot
The meaning of words
In these verses, I will give you;
Listen calmly and don't get drunk
Because you're about to burst out laughing
The Mr. son of a bitch is the millionaire
Mr. bastard, that's your boss
The lady who gives blowjobs is the secretary
And the day laborer is a big idiot

And up to here... almost normal.
Then comes El Jornalero (the day laborer belonging to the humblest class) which is a succession of insults towards the employer and injustice, but with a vocabulary repertoire worthy of attention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SzBUZ97P8k

Man, this life is so shitty
I have to work as a day laborer, hoping it will end
I can't stand that faggot boss anymore
The boss, shove it up your ass, I'm not staying anymore
So that someone else can get that ignoble salary in my place
And the faggot (passive) in the office who chugs whiskey
while I can't even buy myself something to eat
At 5 in the morning I'm already awake
I drink saltwater because even aguapanela (water with sugarcane, a very cheap traditional drink) is no longer
This is the only one that day laborers can afford
At 11 in the morning, the son of a bitch arrives without greeting
He tells me: "Work hard because that job must be delivered"
At 11 in the morning the son of a bitch arrives without greeting
He tells me: "Work hard because that job must be delivered
Work, buddy, just like how I work, man!" Opa!
It bothers me to respond, I work for work, for such absurd pay
even if I don't have anyone to support, it's not enough at the end of the month,
how is it possible, gentlemen, that a hungry man can work?
Let's make the pay increase
So that this bastard has to work
At 11 in the morning the son of a bitch arrives without greeting
He tells me: "Work hard because that job must be delivered"
At 11 in the morning the son of a bitch arrives without greeting
He tells me: "Work hard because that job must be delivered Work, buddy, just like me, man!" Opa!

It seems to me that some of you are still not entirely convinced. And what if I told you that from my field research it has emerged that one of his songs was the first song with gangsta-like themes in the history of Colombian music? Yes indeed, in this country, gangsta rap was first proposed by a drunk and foul-mouthed countryman before that subgenre was popular even with us in Italy.
Enjoy "Con Verraquera" (with nastiness): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N80TEWdWblA

I'm from a small village near Santa María
There, my daddy raised me with pure putería (meanness/roughness)
I am a born delinquent who is not afraid of anything in the world
I never get sad because of some stupid thing
There is no shot I miss or bullet I lose
(My life is worth nothing)
There is no shot I miss or bullet I lose
(My life is worth nothing)
I'm no longer afraid of anything with my new machete
Whoever bothers me, I cut their balls off
Know that it pisses me off that some idiot
Without knowing my name, thinks I'm an asshole
Since I was very young, I knew how to be a wild boar
(The day I lose a fight, I'm sure I'll shut myself up)
Since I was very young, I knew how to be a wild boar
(The day I lose a fight, I'm sure I'll shut myself up)
I'm no longer afraid of anything with my new machete
Whoever bothers me, I cut their balls off
Know that it pisses me off that some idiot
Without knowing my name, thinks I'm an asshole
Since I was very young, I knew how to be a wild boar
(The day I lose a fight, I'm sure I'll shut myself up)
Since I was very young, I knew how to be a wild boar
(The day I lose a fight, I'm sure I'll shut myself up)

All that's left for you is to listen to it, maybe using these translations as a guide. Over and out. Now you know too, and I feel more relieved.