I think I saw this on Breaking Bad once…
[Video][Website]
[6.50]
Patrick St. Michel: I can’t find a translation of “33” in English anywhere, but it doesn’t really matter. Rodríguez sounds intense here, practically growling right up in your face, conveying a do-not-fuck-with-me attitude in any language. The lurching beat only drives home the point more.
[8]
John Seroff: I saw Mala live last year and was utterly floored. She was every inch a showstopper: so magnetic, versatile and raw-nerve vibrant in presentation, flow and timing that no language barrier could obscure her star-power. “33” is an excellent distillation of the darker reaches of Rodríguez’s more aggro skills; it is two and a half minutes of bilious, incandescent rapping that demands attention. I love that she fights past the end of the track, unwilling to be bound even by the limits of her own song. The raging-against-machines video and Google Translate (“You make no mistake/You are not ready to fuck with the queen“) give hardly necessary proof to Mala’s intent; even a gringo could tell you the girl is bad.
[8]
Alfred Soto: I’m ready to cut a song some slack, I admit, when it begins with “You’re such a shit,” whose Spanish version is one of my go-to insults. The torrent of invective, however, is the track’s novelty.
[4]
Mallory O’Donnell: Genuinely unlikable bit of swagger-hop that overstays its welcome even though it’s like a minute long and half of that is fade out. P.S. It’s called breath control.
[2]
Brad Shoup: I’ve gone through Rodríguez’s back catalog for hints of the emetic flow she displays here. No luck. The plastic-minimal production tendencies are there, though, giving La Mala’s vocals the feeling of fighting against. Can’t say she’s been on my radar, but if Bruja contains more of the black-metal bark, I have to fix that.
[8]
Anthony Easton: The growling, the spitting, the pushing words forward at an almost punishing pace, the refusal to rest — and to have the musical background add to the mania is almost animalistic. I’m enough of a masochist to get some pleasure from it.
[6]
Iain Mew: The way that she sounds like she’s laughing at the start, along with the brass parps, gives no warning as to the force that Rodríguez is about to bring to the track. As she roars and scowls in a barely ceasing torrent, the backing winds up sounding too tame to give her the edge she deserves, but it’s still an electric performance.
[7]
Katherine St Asaph: Music gets bigger and more ripping and more cinematic by the year. I couldn’t be happier.
[9]