Creativity Quote by Compay Segundo

The line lands with the quiet swagger of someone who has outlasted trend cycles. Compay Segundo, a musician who spent decades playing to local rooms before the Buena Vista Social Club wave turned him into a global emblem, frames his appeal not as virtuosity or nostalgia but as language: “my poetry,” “what I say.” It’s a subtle power move. He’s not begging to be heard; he’s stating a fact about attention, and the phrasing suggests he’s slightly amused that the world finally caught up.

Calling his lyrics “poetry” also recasts the typical marketing of “world music.” Western audiences often consume artists like Compay as vibe: warm guitars, vintage suits, a postcard of Cuba. He pushes back, gently, insisting that the content matters, that his songs carry ideas and attitude, not just ambience. The subtext is authorship. He isn’t merely a performer animating tradition; he’s a speaker with a point of view.

There’s also a late-life cultural irony baked in. Interest in “what I say” arrives when his voice is already seasoned by time, politics, and survival, turning him into a kind of elder statesman of romance and street philosophy. The quote works because it’s both modest and defiant: plain words that refuse to play the role assigned to him. In a career shaped by being overlooked, he names the real currency of his fame as meaning, not myth.