It seemed strangely fitting that the once favourite hangout of Charlie Watts and Dave Gilmore, hosting legendary performances by The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones and even Blondie’s debut UK gig - which went down as one of the wildest nights in the venue’s history – should be taken over by the crazy flag-waving, pogo-jumping energy of a famously demonstrative Argentine audience.
The minute L-Gante touched the stage in the iconic Camden venue, formerly Dingwalls, the energy levels went through the roof. London doesn’t often get to see an Argentine crowd in action (the Rolling Stones famously said that their Buenos Aires stadium gigs were the craziest).
Except, this was not rock nacional, the brand of music Argentines are famous for. The music of L-Gante is a new Argentine genre and the crowd bearing the flags of Argentina, Bolivia, Peru whilst dancing cumbia in a sensational way, teleported you to the streets of Buenos Aires as we know it today - it was these immigrants that brought cumbia to Argentina in the first place. And then there was L-Gante, the tattoo-clad 22-year-old sensation, strangely attractive in a rough-diamond bad-boy kind of way, lapping it all up, charismatic, relaxed.
“Super, super, super, this exceeded all my expectations!” L Gante tells me after the show, clearly in an elevated state. “To be so far away from home and for it to be my firsttime here, being honest I thought no one is going to turn up to my show, I was surprised at the turn out. It felt like I was in a club around the corner from my house.”
“Super, super, super, this exceeded all my expectations!” L-Gante tells me after the show, clearly in an elevated state. “To be so far away from home and for it to be my first time here, being honest I thought no one is going to turn up to my show, I was surprised at the turn out. It felt like I was in a club around the corner from my house.”
So would you say you felt like you were back en el barrio,I ask?
“That's exactly how I felt, like I was back home.”
L-Gante, born Elián Ángel Valenzuela, first started making music at the age of 13 and by the age of 15 was recording with computers provided by the Argentine Government's Connect Equality Plan. He grew up alone with his mum in General Rodriguez, a working-class neighbourhood of Buenos Aires.
“My mum gave me my name because I would wake up and record on my computer and just stay all day in my pyjamas, and she would say sarcastically, tan elegante vós (so elegant) which obviously I wasn't and I found it funny.”
L-Gante didn’t know his dad, didn’t have the best education, and got into trouble. In fact, the day that Bizarrap, Argentina’s kingmaker, was about to release L-Gante’s Bzrp session #38 which catapulted him as a star back in 2021, he got picked up by police for ant-social behaviour. After the delayed YouTube transmission, it garnered over 3 million views in under 24 hours.
But music was all around Elián growing up; hip hop had been massive in Argentina for years but L-Gante had a vision to make urban music in a style that was "more Argentine and less influenced by foreign genres.”
Enter RKT, mixing reggaetón, trap and cumbia villera, originally known as mixed cumbia, music brought to Argentina's slums by Bolivian, Paraguayan and Peruvian immigrants in the 90s, and scorned on for many years by the Argentine music industry. L-Gante grew up with this music and incorporated it into his beats. He called it Cumbia 420 (420 being slang for marijuana) summing up his lifestyle and slurring sound, loaded with Porteño street slang.
“At first I thought Cumbia420 was going to be a genre but, I started to realise that it was more of a movement presenting the barrio. It's a movement with honesty and sympathy, it's a movement where you can find an artist chilling outside their house or walking around the streets. We call it "villa tour" aswell because we make music videos in the barrio or sometimes not even to make music videos, we just chill in the barrio with people and film ourselves having fun.”
In 2016 L-Gante sent his songs to the well-known producer DT. Bilardo and began regularly working with him on songs like Aleteo 420, Pistola and Enrolo y quemar among others. He was the first Argentine reggaetón artist who didn’t try to sound Puerto Rican; and he became the musical ambassador for kids the villa.
When I suggest he is the most influential person on young Argentines, he doesn’t deny it.
“I guess you could say that. In Argentina I think I'm the only artist that everyone knows, from old people, adults, young people, children and even babies. Before, for a kid’s birthday let's say for a 3, 4 or 5 year-old you would have a Spiderman themed party and nowadays the theme of their parties is ‘L-Gante,’”he laughs.
“For sure, it's something crazy, I've seen my face on birthday cakes and stuff like that! One time, I sung the alphabet in my own musical style and rhythm and I think there's now a generation that's learnt the alphabet through me which is funny to think about.”
It’s clear from his interaction with his audience however, that all the above is coming from a statement of fact and enthusiasm rather than arrogance. L-Gante is known for his lengthy sessions with fans taking selfies.
This is the first time I’ve seen an artist in mid-set taking his fans’ phones and filming videos and selfies with them, makes it easier to understand how L-Gante has such a strong fan base. Despite being a huge star, he makes himself strangely accessible and makes time for his fans at concerts. At one point, towards the end of his set L-Gante actually jumps into the crowd, dances and sings with fans, and even lights up a joint and smokesin the middle of the crowd, without a care in the world!
This is certainly not an approach he’s adopted from US, Colombian or Puerto Rican urban artists whose image is based on material aspiration, bling, living the dream and appearing inaccessible. So, it doesn’t surprise me when he doesn’t name any of these big urban stars as his influences,
“In terms of music and lyrical talent I’ve had many influences growing up, but probably my biggest idol as an artist is El Indio Solari,” he says.
A curious choice. Little known outside Argentina, El Indio Solari led a band called Los Redonditos de Ricota, the biggest counter-culture band in Argentina, who would announce the date and venue of its concerts 24 hours before. The next day, hundreds of thousands fans would descend upon a provincial town in the middle of nowhere for the concert. Infact, El Indio currently holds the world record for the highest attended concert in history: 500,000 in Olavarría, in the province of Buenos Aires, twice as many as the second biggest ever concert, proving an appeal the likes of Maluma could only dream of.
“I think what El Indio and L-Gante have in common, is their independence. Both do what they want when they want. Nobody tells them what they have to do,” L-Gante’s manager tells me.
Meanwhile L-Gante is revelling at how London bands were always such a massive influence on Argentina. Bands like Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones can fill stadiums for a weeks. Despite selling out stadiums in Latin America, however, few of the biggest Argentine artists, have had enough audience to play to here. And yet, here L Gante is:
“For me being in London which had so much influence on our music, and coming here and playing my music from el barrio here, that's wild to me.”
I point out the amazing atmosphere behind us at Dingwalls (the party is still going on)
“I know, it's incredible to see! Being completely honest something like today was never in my imagination a couple of years ago, not even 3-4 months ago would I have imagined being in London and seeing a huge crowd enjoying my music but here we are.”
And where will you be next time you come to London?
“Perhaps I’ll have done some big international collabs,” he says. “like Zion y Lennox, Daddy Yankee, Nengo Flow all of those kind of artists that I would listen to growing up. I would like to take a big step, see if we can take a bigger international step, play an even bigger venue.”
At this point, L-Gante lights up another joint and reveals to me that he’s never been so stoned doing an interview, something I can’t quite believe considering how much he talks about marijuana in his songs. So I decide to give him a break…
So here’s the game I like to play, I tell him, throwing away the questions I had planned…"What do you prefer?"
Wine or beer?
Wine
Whiskey or rum?
Whiskey
Daytime or night time?
Night time
Beach or mountains?
Beach
Being a Host or hosted?
I like to invite others
Leave or stay until the morning?
I stay until the morning of course
Blondes or brunettes?
Any
Do you like curly hair or straight hair?
Both
Thank you so much for your time and for putting on such an amazing show, I hope you had a good time here in London and I hope you enjoyed this interview.
“Honestly, it was the best interview I have ever done!” He replies.
L-Gante is definitely on his own planet.
