Anuel AA Commemorates Jailversary on New Track '3 de Abril'

Less than 24 hours after he dropped “Follow,” a precious new quarantine song with his beau Karol G, Puerto Rican rapper Anuel AA asserts his gangster cred once more in a new song, “3 de Abril,” or “April 3rd.”

Produced by Yampi and Ovy on the Drums, “3 de Abril” is a sobering commemoration of the fateful day in 2016 that Anuel was arrested and held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, on charges of gun possession. Local news confirmed that police confiscated three pistols, including one stolen, nine magazines and 152 bullets. Anuel signed a plea deal for 30 months in federal prison, and, after being transferred to a state prison in Miami, he was finally released on July 17th, 2018. That same day he released Real Hasta La Muerte, an album he recorded while incarcerated, which was later named one of Rolling Stone‘s Best Latin Albums of 2018.

Anuel’s latest track opens with a dramatic orchestral melody. Echoes of gunfire ricochet between samples of news anchors reporting on his arrest, as well as his penchant for controversy. Yet in a procession of steely verses, Anuel recounts his side of the story, citing his own troubled youth and his dogged fight for survival in prison. “That day they caught me I was thinking/that my friend wanted to kill me and he was hunting me,” he professes in Spanish. “Plus the old problems that I kept dragging/I understood that the street did not want to see me triumph.” (Rolling Stone even gets a shoutout at 2:56.)

“3 de Abril” follows the release of Anuel’s more light-hearted reggaeton track, “Keii,” as well as his feature on Bad Bunny’s sophomore album YHLQMDLG, titled “Esta Cabrón Soy Yo.” Anuel plans to drop his own sophomore album in 2020.