Mala Rodríguez

Born María Rodríguez on 13 February 1979 in Jerez de la Frontera, her vocation, and her life, saw her become Mala Rodríguez. Icon of rap, flamenco, and gypsy feminism, in her teens she worked as a waitress, aerobics teacher and cleaner. There, in Seville, she started rapping in a duo with DJ El Cuervo (of the QMJ collective). By 19 she had moved to Madrid, where she formed a relationship with the Zona Bruta label, recording her first songs outside the demo circuit. Her first LP, Lujo Ibérico, made her a phenomenon of the genre back in 2000, with a gold disc and 50,000 copies sold. That was followed by albums, TV censorship and more gold records. One of her strong points is her choice of collaborators, from rapper Focus (also the producer of Eminem) to worldwide Latin stars such as Juan Magán and Romeo Santos. A habitual voice on soundtracks and winner of several Latin Grammys, her discourse remains fierce, as shown by recent singles such as Gitanas. At Primera Persona she’ll be explaining how this discourse is forged by social class, ethnic group, rebellion, gender and passion.

The biographies of participants in Primera Persona are written by Kiko Amat and Miqui Otero, the festival’s directors.