Singer says outlaw image is no big deal
By RAMIRO BURR Houston Chronicle

Narcocorrido singer Lupillo Rivera says his genre gets a bad rap because of its outlaw elements -- guns, drugs and violence.

But he argues that what he creates is no different from violent movies or video games. He's not the bad guy, he's just an entertainer.

"In America lately, you blame someone else for your own responsibilities," Rivera says at his Los Angeles home during a break from touring. "If my kids decide to do drugs, or whatever the case may be, it's not because of the music they hear, it's because of the society we live in.

"Here in the U.S., you can't yell at your kids anymore because they'll turn around and sue you. When I was growing up, my dad, if we would snap back at him, it was a pretty brutal punishment (laughs). Nowadays, so many people are out of control that they try to find a (thing to) blame instead of taking responsibility."

Whether one agrees with his views or not — Rivera has many followers as well as detractors — he's managed to maintain a steady presence on the Billboard charts. His latest CD, Pa' Corridos, recently peaked at No. 5 on the trade publication's regional Mexican chart.

The CD contains 10 corridos, all backed by the big-horn accompaniment of Banda Aires del Pacífico. The banda is tight and crisp. As a singer Rivera is passable, but he has a knack for getting into his characters.

The tunes are mostly classics like José Alfredo Jiménez's Perro Negro, but Rivera penned two: Grande Entre Grandes and Judicial Federal.

Discounting the drug references, there's little difference musically or lyrically between Rivera's new songs and the old "classics." For example, Jimenez's Perro Negro details the bitter and violent rivalry between two men in the pursuit of a woman.

"The other guy kills the hero in his sleep, but his big, black loyal dog kills his murderer," he says. "I chose that one because people have enjoyed it since it first came out in the market."

Borracho y Perdido (Drunk and Lost) details the live-for-the-moment bravado of a man who doesn't worry about pleasing the parents of the girlfriend he's trying to win.

"I sing about a guy who has a good time when he's drinking and admits that when he drinks he kind of gets lost in the mood," he says.

In his live performances, Rivera is known for brief skits in which he enacts the adventures of corrido protagonists, alternating between the macho stance of a fighter and the stumbling of a boorish drunk.

The latter has drawn the ire of purists, who say Rivera is disrespecting the original tunes by such corrido and ranchera heroes as Jiménez, Pedro Infante and Javier Solís. But Rivera says he is only providing entertainment, and his onstage persona is simply playing to the crowd.

"A lot of times when I'm singing I drink, because when I'm onstage, I feel like I'm just having a huge party," he says. "If I invite you to my house, I'd have something for you to eat or drink. But I don't think eating a burger onstage would look too good. Here at home I never drink, and a lot of people don't believe it."

Rivera acknowledges he has critics, but he adds, "Usually, critics never buy an album."

A lot of people that are out there criticize me, but they really don't know who I am," he says. "The truth is that they really don't know the type of person I am. It throws them off when they meet me."

Rivera is not the only artist drawing heat for controversial corridos. Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Los Tigres del Norte and Los Razos have all been criticized for what some consider negative stereotypes and the glorification of violence. Ultimately, Rivera says, narcocorridos, like gangsta rap, continue to sell because they give listeners what they want.

"One of the easiest ways of understanding this is that all of us in the world like bad stuff. Even when we eat," Rivera says. "For example, we know that eating menudo for a hangover might not be good, but we still go to the restaurant and order extra sausages and bacon and all that when we know that it gives us heart problems in the long run. The corridos, for me, it's kind of the same way."