Review of The Warriors Presenta Golpe De Estado w/ RKM & Ken-Y, Andy Boy, Amaro & more...

 

Warriors La Corporacion presenta Golpe De Estado (2004)

This is sort of a hidden gem.  Even though the executive producer is Q Mac Daddy, the creator of "The Warriors" series of Reggaeton albums; he also exec produced Playero 42 and 'Ground Zero El Nuevo Comienzo', the mind behind this album appears to be DJ Gumby.  DJ Gumby was also known as DJ Lucky and was the longtime resident dj of the former popular strip bar 'Lucky's' in San Juan.  DJ Gumby also went on to be known as DJ Gun-B in later years.  In 2007 he released the then iTunes exclusive 'Los Gladiadores' with DJ Blass which featured exclusive songs from big names like Arcangel, Plan B and Speedy.  You can't find that anywhere now and there were only severely limited physical copies pressed (probably less than a thousand).  Luckily DJ Gun B has it up on his official YOUTUBE for now...

I gotta be honest, I thought "Golpe De Estado" sucked when it first came out.  And I heard it several times when I got my copy.  The RKM & Ken-Y track was a very popular song in the underground included in several mixtapes and shared across the blogsphere.  But it wasn't the style of Reggaeton I liked at the time.  Even to this day, I am 50-50 on Romantiqueo Pop Reggaeton.  Because of the type of girls I crushed on back in the day I am keen in noticing a good Romantiqueo song.  That doesn't mean I enjoy listening to it in my personal time.  But occasionally I like a good Aspirante song and am always in the mood for a solid Roockie ballad, because Roockie's the best.

But the album starts out strongly with the RKM y Ken-Y song, but teenage me, even back then I knew the song was good, yet in my youth I wanted none of that Pop mess.  Even now, that's one of the last songs I will repeat.  It's one of the more generic underground hits from RKM y Ken-Y.  It's not a standout like "Amiga" or "Nena".  But it still contributed to the great anticipation for "The Masterpiece Nuestra Obra Maestra" a couple of years down the line.

Q Mac produced this album with obscure Reggaeton brand "Dimelo!" which also worked together with the equally obscure "Ragga Force" brand which I heard is headed up by none other than Reggaeton's Godfather, Renato.  I don't know if it's him that runs it.  Info is so scarce on these companies.  But "Ragga Force" owns the rights to legendary records like "El Marciano", "Camion Lleno De Gun", Gaby's "El Meneito" and Hector & Tito's "Donde Estan".  And they worked on a couple of exclusive projects with Nico Canada in the mid 2000's.

But "Dimelo!" is even a more rare brand.  They appear to have been based out of Miami, FL.  I used to see their website was also available in Italian back in the day.  There's something there in that Italy-Spain-France connection where Lucenzo came from.  It has a notable underground following since these days.  Speedy used to famously brag he was the only guy from Puerto Rico making Euros as he apparently had long stays in Europe.

I think "Dimelo" was one of those brands associated with European Reggaeton shows back in the day.  It's an educated guess.  For awhile Diamond Music was owned by some Europeans that had Lucenzo and Scott Storch signed.  I accidentally found that out back in the day by researching Ivan Joy's MYSPACE.  This was a short time before he started the now defunct Artist System with DJ Negro and shortly after he lost his deal with Machete Music supposedly because Eddie Dee did not finish "El Diario De Eddie Avila" in time.  He was supposed to hand in a finished version way back in mid 2007.

It appears that Gumby did two more albums but with less star power than this one.  I knew about 'Reggaeton Xtra Large' but there was another one "Pure Rican Players" that I never heard of.  Expect reviews of both of them coming soon as long as they don't get taken down from streaming services like these albums tend to do.  They just took down Q Mac's "Reggaeton Fury" and that was one of the first Reggaeton compilations from this era ever to be made available on streaming services.  Along with this one.  You didn't have Mas Flow 1 for many years and forget about part 2 but "Golpe De Estado" has been available since Spotify's wide launch in the USA back circa 2012.

There's some hidden star power here.  Calvo had some noteworthy buzz as he and Baby Banton, now going by Banton Bolivian made the classic underground mixtape "Los Escurridizos" with DJ Sonic (who was then known as DJ Chico) in 2002.  That mixtape got Sonic signed by DJ Nelson and he even made some contributions to Mas Flow 1 along with Eliel, DJ Joe and an uncredited Cheka.

Andy Boy when he was making buzz signed to DJ Nelson's "Flow Music" also appears here with a solid contribution.  Amaro from Plan B's crew has the best song imo with "Te Llame".  Doble Impacto who were separated around this time but temporarily reunited for this album and Rolexx (from Genio Records).  You may remember them as original members of DJ Joe's "Escuadron Del Panico".  

3 Kings were acclaimed underground MC's Fen-X, Nieto & Johnny Stone (RIP) known for their acclaimed mixtape "The Gathering" which even had production by the great Echo.  Fen-X went on to start an acclaimed duo with Casper (not the Nio one) but who never broke out of the underground despite having acclaimed participations on noteworthy albums.  Nieto & Johnny Stone went on to become Los Tres Nuevos Mosqueteros de DJ Eric Industry along with Jetson El Sniper.  

When Los 3 Nuevos Mosqueteros separated, Nieto already had an underground legend type of career through his associations with Baby Rasta & Gringo and The Noise, he was one half of famous duo 'Nieto y Faze'.  But he's mostly remained unactive in later years.  Johnny Stone, who passed away around 2019 had a very active career appearing on several underground songs and mixtapes.  He had noteworthy collaborations with the likes of Alexio, Polaco and Baby Johnny among others.  Jetson who's a producer and rapper is now mostly a successful beat maker.  He had standout collaborations with artists like Ñejo and Ñengo Flow.  But now he mostly produces for artists of that caliber.

And there's more.  Charlie & Kingston were backed up by Mix 107 and Mikey Perfecto.  Los Sabios were Mr. Notty Boy's artist.  Odyssey was Yaga y Mackie's artist who famously appears on Sangre Nueva 1.  And there's remixes of Don Omar, Jackie, Daddy Yankee and Nicky Jam's songs from The Warriors 3, even though The Warriors 4 came out at the end of 2003.  

Warriors La Corporacion's "Golpe De Estado" is a "Sangre Nueva" style of album where they present a future crop of hopeful superstars minus the big cosigns.  There's actually more star power on the beats.  Even though Gumby is the visionary and produces some beats we have legends like DJ Blass, DJ Goldy, Noriega, DJ Dynamite and Harry Digital contributing beats.  At first glance it may seem like an album full of nobodies, but if you're a Reggaeton nerd like me, you know that's not the case.  Los Vegaton also produce here back when they were complete uknowns.

Overall this album isn't a waste of your time.  There's some songs that are worth your time from first listen and some that will grow on you.  But in my inexperienced youth with a much less full palette of tastes, I probably would have given this album a 3 or 4 out of 10.  But many years later there's some songs I did not like back then like Puerto Rican freestyle champion Cyborg's attempt at Perreo.  Yes, he's the same Cyborg that did really well against Link One in the PR finals for Batalla De Los Gallos back in the day before they banned Puerto Rico for a few years.  I don't know why Puerto Rico was banned over a decade from the world famous Rap battle tournament.

One tends to be skeptical of lesser known or "new" talent and they often have to do exceptionally well to impress many listeners.  While if it were Don Omar or an artist of that caliber we're more likely to be forgiving of a less than impressive work.  If you approach this album with an open mind and not expecting anything near perfection or classic level, you will at least find a few tracks worth your time.  It's a halfway decent Reggaeton album, but certainly not terrible.

One last thing I want to note is that DJ Gumby is also behind "Mas Alla Del Perreo" from 2002 distributed by Universal Latino.  That album got Yamil & Delfin signed to DJ Eric as "Fin De Semana" was a big hit.  That album is worse than "Warriors presenta Golpe De Estado".  I might review it too.  I read back in the day that "Mas Alla De Perreo" sold 50 thousand worldwide but it had major international distribution.  I also know the numbers to "Warriors La Corporacion presenta Golpe De Estado".  I read it sold 20,000 in its first year which are good numbers for an independent album with mostly unknown names at the time.

Editor's Note:  Don't confuse this album with "Golpe De Estado" (2008) which is an album from exec producer Revol with big names like Hector El Father, Jadiel, Ivy Queen, Arcangel, Cosculluela and more...  I could see someone doing that because it was a long time ago and both albums are from the same era.

Top 10 Songs:  1.  Amaro - Te Llame (prod by DJ Goldy)   2.  RKM & Ken-Y (prod by Harry Digital)  3.  Warriors 3 Re-Mix (should be higher but its kind of a cheat all it does is mix both songs together with a cheap 20 second intro beat, but these songs are awesome and if you never heard them before you're in for a treat.)  [prod by DJ Blass & Playero DJ, Re-Mixed by DJ Gumby]  4.  Doble Impacto - Esta Noche (prod by DJ Blass & Noriega)  5.  Calvo El Filarican - Dame Fuego (prod by DJ Gumby)  6.  Young Wizard (I know this song's weird but I like the energy on it) [prod DJ Lucky]  7.  Doble Impact - Vandolera (prod by Los Vegaton & DJ Goldy]  8.  Cyborg - Pa La Disco [prod by DJ Lucky]  9.  Andy Boy - Hay Voy (prod by DJ Dynamite)  10.  3 Kings - No Hay Vuelta Atras [Prod by Jetson El Sniper]  

Editor's Note 2:  Looking at the credits, apparently Gumby and Lucky are not the same guy or he's doing some sort of alter ego thing.  I was always under the impression they are the same guy.  My bad.  But it's too late to make changes now.  I'll make corrections on future entries.  I'm 98% sure DJ Gun-B is DJ Gumby though.  He used to manage Don Chezina and others back in the day.  Also my Top 10 doesn't necessarily meant there are 10 good songs.  I just list them from what I consider the best to worst.  You have been forewarned.  Is DJ Lucky possibly a pseudonym for DJ Chiclin?  I say that because that would explain his sudden disappearance and he is famous for djing at strip clubs.  That's pretty much DJ Chiclin's thing.

Rating:  5.75/10

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