Maluma: “People thought we were drug traffickers in my family”

The Colombian Maluma, 27, has come across rumors about him alleged links to drug trafficking in the interview he gave for the program with his friend and colleague Nicky Jam, explaining that during his childhood his father worked as a manager of several “important companies” in his native country.

Maluma’s Instagram account is full of luxury. The interpreter could do that two years ago buy a private jet – “out of necessity”, he said – and during the quarantine he recorded a video for the prestigious publication Architectural summary the inside of the impressive mansion which Medellín has had for three years.

However, Maluma said that grew up with all kinds of comforts and that his situation didn’t really change much after his fame.

“People thought we were drug smugglers in my family and that drug trafficking had supported my music career. That was clearly a lie but there is a lot of speculation and talk about and there is one to make things clearSaid Juan Luis Londoño Arias, the real name of the singer, on “The Rock Star Show.” “

It is not difficult for the singer to show his whims or the money he earns on social networks. But this is not only due to his musical successes, but also due to a family affair. He affirmed that thanks to his father’s work as a child, he never lacked anything.

But everything changed when he was 14 years old with the divorce of his parents, Marlli Arias and Luis Londoño. “Everything fell to the floor, my father went bankrupt and it was a very difficult time. I went from a comfortable life to losing almost everything “, the reggae player expressed, explaining that it was his grandparents who helped him move forward at the time.

Besides, he remembered his mother’s heartbroken cries, not knowing where to find money to buy food. “It puts your feet on the ground”he said.

“I am what I am thanks to that”, referring to what he has been through “because it was from there, as we say in Colombia, I ate dirty, I ate shit. That was when I began to appreciate life much more, when I began to see that food was the same at breakfast, lunch and dinner, where my grandparents were the ones who provided us with food ”.

Hours after this interview with Nicky Jam launched to be the Latin singer of the moment new album # 7DJ (7 Days in Jamaica), accompanied by a short film filmed on the Caribbean island. The cover is a work of art by Colombian artist Federico Uribe, recognized for using recycled materials to create sculptures and works of art.

The album has two collaborations with great reggae: Ziggy Marley and Charly Black.

With titles such as ‘Tónika’, ‘Love’, ‘Chocolate’, ‘Agua de Jamaica’, ‘Desayun-Arte’, ‘The bubble’ and ‘Peligrosa’, the themes are also the soundtrack of the short film, which consists of the story of a man (Maluma) who arrives on the island, falls in love, has a short relationship and suffers from love.

The innovative audiovisual proposal, What’s on Maluma’s YouTube channel, was in charge of the 36-degree manufacturing company, located in the Colombian city of Medellín. The short film, mostly shot in Jamaica, can be separated as music videos accompanying each song.

“It’s a project I’ve been working on for a long time. This is an album that was due out before ‘Papi Juancho’ (his previous album), but the covid arrived and I couldn’t make the videos; that’s why we decided to postpone it, ”he explained to EFE.

The idea for “# 7DJ” came from a weeklong trip to Jamaica that Maluma made with a group of friends over a year ago, although the artist had been using the networks for several days to stir up a commotion among his followers by posting photos featuring him name the disk in a woman’s womb. Many began to think it was a pregnancy.

“Those seven days in Jamaica happened at a time when I had to escape and decompress as I had been working on my career for seven years non-stop and wondered if I should keep making music”, the artist revealed at a party in which he combined the launch of his project and his 27th birthday.

“I thought a lot and came back transformed, fully inspired and convinced that music is not only what I do, but it is part of me, how I live and how I interpret my experiences,” he added.

The trip inspired him to compose during the pandemic and the result were seven songs with a reggae base, with accents of reggaeton.

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