Bad Gyal is not, as her name might suggest, a Jamaican MC, but a singer and rapper from Spain whose output incorporates Puerto Rican reggaeton and Jamaican dancehall. Alba “Bad Gyal” Farelo first hit in 2016 when she covered Rihanna’s song Work in Catalan (Pai). Since then she has networked extensively with artists from the Caribbean and Latin America. Her recent threeway with female rappers Young Miko and Tokischa, Chulo Pt 2, is one permutation of her supersexualised party music, which at its best boasts either reckless brio or a bittersweet edge.
Bad Gyal’s rise has been powered by two conjoined forces: the popularity of reggaeton outside Puerto Rico, and the wider mainstreaming of non-anglophone pop. So even though half the tracks on this debut studio album are already available, La Joia (The Jewel) remains a notable release. Of the newer tracks, Bad Gyal’s Auto-Tune-heavy collaboration with gruff dancehall MC Tommy Lee Sparta, La Que No Se Mueve, stands out for its directness, while Así Soy finds her closer to home with Spanish-Moroccan rapper Morad. The jury is out, though, as to whether considerations of cultural appropriation apply to artists from Spain, a former imperial power, mainstreaming the sound of the barrios of the global south, or if a frisky Latin banger remains a frisky banger no matter who fronts it.
