Malverde: Mi Palabra (Special Edition CD/DVD) Review

Latin rap has boomed in recent years and one of the most promising of the new Latin rappers is Malverde. He gets help from veteran producer Brett Bouldin who has worked on a number of acts in the past including Cypress Hill. Together the two make a great team and Mi Palabra (My Word) is definitely an album worth listening to.

Malverde takes his name from the legendary folk saint Jesus Malverde, a Robin Hood like figure who reputedly operated in the Mexian state of Sinaloa around the turn of the century. While Malverde has gained modern notoriety as being picked up as the patron saint of drug smugglers, Malverde picks up on his positive influences and sees himself as a carrier of the honorable Malverde tradition to assist the poor and the lowly.

Despite the fact that Latin rapper Malverde raps in Spanish even someone who doesn't speak the language can tell that he is a talented lyricist. No matter if you speak the language Malverde is excellent and you can hear the power of his words even through the language barrier. Those of us not fluent in Spanish are also helped by the English lyrics provided in the CD booklet.

It is hard to pick out the standout tracks on this album. They are most all of them good. If I had to choose my favorites I would most like pick the title track, Mi Palabra, and the final cut Marcha. However as I said before every track on the album is excellent, and this is one of those albums that bears listening the entire way through, beginning to end.

Mi Palabra is Malverde's debut album and it was originally released in 2004. In April of 2006, however, Malverde re-released a special edition of the album. While the album itself bears no new tracks the cover artwork has been updated and there is also a bonus DVD.

For the most part the DVD is largely superfluous, but it is a nice treat. It features the music video for one of the album's singles, La Bala (The Gun). It also has a short documentary about Malverde (a bilingual documentary given in both English and Spanish). There are also two live concert videos of Malverde, one featuring the aforementioned La Bala and another featuring a new song that does not appear on the album proper, Quien Soy Yo (Who I Am), which I would definitely like to hear the studio version of.

Best of all when it comes to this album is definitely the price. Despite the special edition packaging and the DVD Malverde's Mi Palabra comes in at a retail price of only $11.99. Most likely you will be able to find it for cheaper than that (I paid $9.99 for it at Target). All in all this is an excellent album, well worth the listen if you are a fan of Latin rap or any rap music for that matter.