The Ironic Perversity of Dembow and Reggaeton

El Alfa’s hit La Mama de la Mama is a hallmark of the dembow genre, which has been rapidly garnering mainstream popularity. The dembow genre (distinct from the “dembow” rhythm which undergirds most reggaeton songs) incorporates dancehall reggae beats (from which reggaeton derives its roots) sped up to a faster bpm. The basslines are repetitive and evoke pulsating hip movement, containing a corporeal, erotic edge. 

The lyrics of “La Mama,” like many other dembow songs, play with words creatively making for edgy double entendres. The content of the sexual fantasies created are larger than life...so outlandish to the point that it's difficult to be scandalized by them. 

As music journalist Roddy Perez wrote, “Dominican dembow is the medium of escaping from our reality, whether we like it or not, it’s a reflection of a fringe of our society and its cultural level is an experimental music, that creates a unique atmosphere of dance...If we take the lyrics of dembow as fiction, the same way we do a Hollywood movie, TV, or adult literature, joined to the same freedom of expression we ascribe to them...they have the right to express themselves.” 

Similarly, Raquel Z. Rivera wrote of earlier reggaeton acts with outrageously sexual, violent, and even misogynistic lyrics that their “lyrics cannot be taken as windows to artists' souls. Some rappers express their deepest feelings in their lyrics; others step up to the microphone as actors playing whatever character they please.” She refers to the popular 90s song “Maldita Puta” by Guanabanas  Podrias, claiming, “there is no denying the violent misogyny in [the song]. However, this does not necessarily mean that the members do (in real life and outside the sphere of artistic representation) engage in such behavior. 

They could, in fact, be gang rapists who go around spitting and urinating on their victims. But they could also be disgruntled young males who would never spit on a woman but seek to assert their masculine power through their lyrics; they could be constructing their superiority at the level of artistic representation, since in real life that power is constantly being questioned. Furthermore, they could also be purposefully writing outlandish lyrics just to laugh at the mainstream outrage and shock. 

Another possibility is that they are expressing a deep-seated violent sexism in hall, joking, hyperbolic terms. Yet another possibility is that the artists are writing their lyrics according to what they think their audience likes; if images of violent sex are popular land they are, then violently sexual lyrics will sell. Finally, all or some of the above statements could simultaneously be true.”

The title of El Alfa’s song derives from the Spanish words for “mother” and for the verb “to suck,” thus translating to both “the mother of the mother” and “the suck of the suck” (in the superlative sense), comically juxtaposing the image of a grandmother with fellatio. The music video also includes young, partially dressed women alongside elderly, more humbly dressed women. The song opens with the line, “babe, I love your whole heritage,” making reference to both the woman’s grandmother as well as to her sex appeal, which he attributes to her cultural descent. 

“Tu eres la mujer que más ha mamado,” he proclaims in the bridge. His fast pronunciation makes the listener wonder if he’s talking about the girl being the one who has given him the most fellatio (mas ha mamado) or if she is the woman who has loved him the most (mas ha amado).

He continues in the next line, returning to the juxtaposition of a grandmother’s dentures with oral sex, saying “nunca me ha pegado los dientes”: “her teeth have never gotten stuck to me.” He later expresses that her capacity to give him pleasure is so powerful that it can take him anywhere, even as far as Dubai.

The repetition and delivery of lyrics also play a role in the production of the song, as Perez writes, “the abrupt and repetitive phrase or word is part of the beat, of the mood and feeling of the song, similar to house, techno, and other electronic rhythms.” The repetition of the phrase “la mama de la mama” in the chorus, accompanied by a thumping bass, evokes a back and forth movement of lips and of the hips...further complementing the theme of the song.