Dembow has been growing faster and faster into the mainstream scene in the last couple of years, especially with all the viral songs that El Alfa has made, bringing it forward as what it is: one of the best genres there is for partying. The bounciness and repetitiveness, with the catchy, easy-to-remember lyrics, make Dembow songs so energetic that you can’t resist getting up and dancing.
To this day, the genre has become indispensable in every Latin party across the world and slowly getting into the Spain music scene, which means we can expect Dembow to go mainstream on all continents in a couple of years. But the scene going as big, of course, has consequences, and it’s the big spotlight it puts into Dembow artists that have been making music just for their own countries and without considering what the rest of the world might think.
They still probably don’t care about what the rest have to say since they’re making music for their enjoyment, but that doesn’t stop people from having debates around them, their morals, and their lyrics, especially with the genre being as sexual and carefree as it is.
The one that’s been getting the harshest critics, it’s been Tokischa, simply for existing as a woman in the industry and making her lyrics as unapologetically as she is.
Everything that she does screams sexual liberation. She loves writing about what she does and wants to experience in bed. Her whole persona is as carefree as her lyrics, with the authorities even threatening to imprison her for posing with revealing clothes in front of a mural of the “Virgen de Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia.”
And the backlash is not coming only from the conservative side. Still, many people who love to label themselves as liberals are also attacking her, claiming that she is a bad representation in the media for women of color and that’s she’s “setting the progress back for feminism.” The claims don’t make sense because, at the end of the day, Tokischa is only talking about herself in her lyrics, and isn’t the whole point of female liberation just letting everyone choose to live as they please without oppression; as long as they are not harming anyone?
It seems like people cannot see a confident woman living their best life while making what she loves without immediately looking for a million reasons to pin her down. If you disagree with someone’s morals, you can choose not to consume their content. You don’t have to do the actual most to end them, especially in this case, when she’s not harming anyone.
Instead, we should support female artists trying to make their way to the top in a male-dominated industry like the urban scene, in this case, Dembow. Watch out for Tokischa. I assure you, she will have one of the biggest breakthroughs of 2022.
