J.J. Krupert Top 13 Countdown – December ’10 #1: “Lucero Negro” by Chalino Sanchez

Let me tell you about Chalino Sanchez. Born to a poor Mexican family which was of course big, his sister was raped by a local mafioso type. Chalino killed the man, and fled to America to escape the Mexican authorities. Once in America, illegally of course, he got odd jobs in the fields, and wrote songs about the fucked up people he met in bars and swap meets and the like, including former drug dealers or runaway criminals hiding from their past, much like himself. His voice is all sorts of fucked up, and not what you’d expect from a famous musical type dude. Some dude who had a recording studio hooked Chalino up with a band, and the homemade cassettes that came from that sold by the thousands around L.A. Chalino became a music star, singing what would become known as narcocorridos, or norteno music celebrating the criminal underworld. But holmes really made his name during a concert in Coachella, California, at some rundown club. A would-be assassin rolled up on stage and shot Chalino in the side, only for Chalino to return fire with his own gun (perhaps his infamous gold-plated pistol he loved to show off), and a shootout erupted where five people got killed, including the would-be assassin, who was actually murdered with his own weapon, like a punk. Who knows if that’s true or not, the own weapon thing, but that’s how the story goes, and it only adds to the aura. So next time Chalino had a concert at another club, they had to stop admitting people five hours before the concert was gonna begin. He was an underground legend. This was all in the early ‘90s around the same time Death Row Records was firing up, and it’s interesting to think how Chalino was kind of the Mexican Tupac, except Tupac was a major entity in corporate America, regardless of his thug outlaw schtick. Chalino was the real deal, and the bright lights of the world hadn’t been shone upon him.
Of course, Chalino disappeared in Mexico while in a Cadillac at one point, and was found a few days later, dead as fuck. One of his sons took up the family tradition, but was also killed in 2004. This is because pretty much everybody in Mexico has either been killed or will be killed by narcoterrorists.
This song is “Lucero Negro” or Black Star, and I enjoy it, playing it loudly in my back yard as I tend to pigs and chickens and stand around like I’m up to things. I am sure it is annoying at times and perplexing at other times to my redneck neighbors, who all keep their grass cut and put out Republican voting signs every other year. Meanwhile I spray paint a giant piece of plywood that says FELONS CAN’T VOTE IN VA. WHY FOR? in drippy orange letters painted over yellow letters just like it just a little to the right and underneath, and I lean that against the cedar tree by the road. I am not a felon, strictly a misdemeanon historically, but sometimes it’s the information you offer that misleads those that think they know to believe the wrong thing. I mean fuck, that’s the whole point of the internet.
STEAL “Lucero Negro”
NEXT MONTH: Meaning later today, I will actually write about J.J. Krupert things in the month that is on the calendar!