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“Dominis in the Heights,” is the newest video spoof from artists Bago & O and the Heights Entertainment crew.
In El Alto, we know him as Juan Bago. He’s the neighborhood clown, a comedian, businessman, a dedicated people-connector, visionary, actor and producer.
A renaissance man of sorts, of the Heights renaissance of course.
I know him as Michael, a 34-year-old quirky and passionate man dedicated to his craft, which extends beyond YouTube videos, skits, and comedic outbursts. He’s an idea man that knows how to execute.
In El Alto, a neighborhood that’s teeming with ideas, something is to be learned from Michael, or from “Bago,” as most people call him, whose love for El Alto comes loud and clear through his work. If you get to know him you’ll meet the more introspective Michael, one that allows “Bago” to take a break from comedy and entertainment and allows Michael to come through.
Last year, at the height of the winter season, and amid terrible snow storms, “Bago” hit viral fame when his comedic spoof on rapper Wiz Khalifa’s tune “Black and Yellow,” retitled “Pan con Queso,” garnered hundreds of thousands of YouTube hits in a matter of days, becoming a neighborhood anthem, and for me, the tune I sang to in the morning when getting my cafecito, my pan and my queso.
This winter, Juan Bago and his team have dropped another gem for the neighborhood. Viral video success is in the air. They’ve done it again, but better.
Back in August when the collaborative studio album “Watch the Throne” by Jay-Z and Kanye West dropped, Bago’s creative wheels and those of his team started to spin, and ‘Dominis in the Heights’ was born.
It starts out to the tune of the hit single ‘Otis’ with Bago and O, the reunited stars of “Pan con Queso,” spoofing the beginning of the original video. The remastered song then mixes into ‘N****s in Paris,’ as Bago and O take their ladies through a series of dates. Don’t be fooled, Bago and O are no rappers, and their pockets are hurting, they’re just neighborhood guys from El Alto, or as they put it: “You know me, Domini tamarindo con chimi.”
“Don’t forget this isn’t free; $32 bucks you pay $16,” goes the rhyme, as the pair act out scenes at local restaurant Pick & Eat, in front of Applebee’s in the Bronx, the food court in a mall, in front of a chimi truck in El Alto, and even take a ride in a Mr. Softee Ice Cream truck, driven by none other than neighborhood’s own and ‘In the Heights’ creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who makes a cameo as the ice cream man.
“Dominis in the Heights” brings up another question: “What’s up with going dutch? You know, 50/50; you pay yours, I pay mine?”
“I wanted the video to make people laugh, but also start a conversation,” said Bago, who considers the topic is still taboo in El Alto. “Most times if you ask a girl out, I think they’re expecting you to pay, and if that’s not the case, it might be your first and last date.”
Bago, who considers himself an “old-fashioned guy,” said he wouldn’t expect a girl to split the bill on the first date, but acknowledges that “times are rough” and sometimes it’s just a thought.
The video has already garnered a few thousand hits on YouTube and it’s surely bound for more. El Alto, chimi trucks, and Dominis are live, and “It’s more than ok.”
For a look at the “Dominis in the Heights” video, please visit http://t.co/bvYuDF5r.
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