Composition and lyrics
"Santeria" recycles the bassline and guitar riff from Sublime's earlier song "Lincoln Highway Dub" off their second studio album, Robbin' the Hood (1994). [6]
The song begins with the narrator stating that he does not practice Santeria, an Afro-Cuban religion. He tells the story of a jealous ex-boyfriend who is planning to take revenge on the man who stole his girlfriend and hit her too. The man then decides to find a new girlfriend, but expresses his desire to use violence as he describes his plans to "pop a cap in Sancho" and "stick that barrel straight down Sancho's throat" if he ever sees him again, and that "he best go run and hide". The lead singer of Sublime, Bradley Nowell, refers to the man as "Sancho" and his ex-girlfriend as "Heina". In Chicano culture, a man who steals another man's girlfriend is often referred to as "Sancho" [7] while a man's woman or girlfriend is referred to as "Heina", which is adapted from the word reina, meaning "queen" in Spanish. [8]
"Santeria" was described by The A.V. Club as "a blue-beat reggae song on its surface and a classic country song in essence." [2] In this context, "blue-beat" refers to the early Jamaican pop and ska style produced by Blue Beat Records. Consequence magazine wrote that the song was "the band's reggae-tinged ska hit," [1] while Forbes called it a "throwback reggae rock hit." [3]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
