Listen closely to Miguel Kultura’s music and you hear a pride for his heritage, accompanied by bluntness and a playful attitude.
Miguel Kultura wraps his first tour, “Resilencia Tour,” on Aug. 28 in Salinas. The 30-year-old Chicano rapper originally from East San Jose performs songs from his most recent album, Mal Entendido (translated to Misunderstood) and his latest tracks “Intoxicado” and “Negociante.”
The album describes him wrestling with being misunderstood, but also with the decision to stop over-explaining himself. Mal Entendido includes songs about his Indigenous roots with the Tepehuanes – “the people of the mountain” – from Durango and Chihuahua, Mexico, where both his parents were born. It focuses on being resilient through rough moments in life.
“Resiliencia is a strong word, especially in Spanish, versus just saying it in English,” Kultura says. “It has a different effect of feeling for myself and for my people, it reminds you that you’re more than what they paint you to be, and that you are loved and appreciated. That energy is what I want to leave people with.”
In “Prende,” Kultura elaborates on those thoughts. The song encourages listeners to keep their light bright through the darkness with a grounding in cultural traditions.
The final track, “Huitzillan” – which translates as “Hummingbird” – also finds Kultura in that space. “In Indigenous culture, the colibri, it’s the energy of willpower and needing to move forward even in the unknown, so it’s my healing song,” he explains.
The album reflects influences of blues, bolero, funk and norteño elements. Instrumentation includes flute, drums and saxophone.
“Growing up, my father played lots of music from Los Tigres Del Norte, Pedro Infante, Juan Gabriel, Joan Sebastian,” Kultura says. “In terms of hip-hop my influences are Tupac, DJ Quik and now, Kendrick Lamar.”
He describes the tour as a “giant prayer through action.” The Watsonville show was dedicated to the Standing Rock water protectors in North Dakota, tying music directly to ongoing struggles. In the song “Estilo Chicano,” Kultura welcomes positive energy. “It is a warm invite for people, ‘We’re stronger together, look at our cultura,’” he says.
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