After releasing her third album, Red Moon in Venus, earlier this year, Kali Uchis is already moving on to her next “era” (since that’s the language “the culture” wants to use now whenever a musician releases new music). Set to put out her fourth record, Orquídeas, in January, Uchis has been on a music-releasing blitzkrieg since August, when the album’s first single, “Muñekita,” featuring JT from City Girls and El Alfa, was unleashed. The Rosalía-esque track (with its title that translates to “Little Doll”) signals Uchis’ shift back to cockier, more danceable ditties (à la “Tyrant” and “Dead to Me”). But that doesn’t mean Uchis hasn’t indicated her continued commitment to the sultry slow jam, as evidenced by the second single from Orquídeas, “Te Mata,” which arrived on the scene with a dramatic, seemingly telenovela-inspired video in October.
With the suggestively-titled “Labios Mordidos” (“Bitten Lips”—a phrase also used in another Kali and Karol collaboration from earlier this year, “Me Tengo Que Ir”), however, Uchis is back to her hip-shaking ways with some help from Karol G, whose last single was “Mi Ex Tenía Razón.” Considering both women’s “I’m too much of a bad bitch for inferior men” vibe, their decision to team up again was only natural. And oh how they do “join forces.” Not just in their singing together, but also in how they choose to visually present “Labios Mordidos,” which majorly one-ups the “girlie party” Uchis was having at the outset of the video for “Moonlight.”
But, unlike the premise for that video, the one for “Labios Mordidos” involves going to Uchis’ abode rather than leaving it. What’s more, right from the beginning, there’s no shame about wielding product placement. Indeed, YouTube includes a disclaimer about the “paid promotion” involved at the top left corner. And the first thing Uchis wants to promote is Corona (which miraculously didn’t suffer all that much as a brand after coronavirus) as her tricked-out bus rolls up to the property. Bedecked in blue and pink wigs respectively, Uchis and Karol G then storm the palatial property with their bevy of “bitches.”
In the next scene, Uchis is shown on a staircase at the center of the group of women she’s gathered for this party—a celebration filled with writhing, a pink glittery half-pipe and general drunken, dancing revelry. In point of fact, Uchis seems to be majorly one-upping the far more hetero visual concepts behind Ariana Grande’s “34+35 (Remix)” and Billie Eilish’s “Lost Cause”—both of which promote a, let’s say, “femme positive” lifestyle. In other words, men are superfluous and shouldn’t be involved in any attempts at merrymaking. In fact, they’ll probably just drag the whole mood down with their judgments and their testosterone-driven antics. And yes, this is Uchis embracing the bisexual part of her that favors women as she sings lyrics (translated from Spanish) that go, “Look, I’m soft like honey and coconut/Always rich and sweet like corn arepas/And just with my look, she got all wet up/Your girlfriend goes crazy when I arrive (I arrive)/Maria, Jenny, Catalina and Sonia/I love my Brazilians and my Colombians (prr)/Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, I love my Mexicans/And tonight, I’m a lesbian, you make me feel like it.”
And her intent is clearly to make the women watching the video feel like it too as she showcases a variety of scantily-clad “dames” engaging in everything from boxing to frolicking in the pool that’s in the backyard. Karol G adds to the lesbian lechery with her verse, “Her ass leaves everyone on mute/Strawberry gloss [another product placement opportunity] to bring it down/Quietly so that no one knows/Show me what you have there for me to try it/I’m already feeling hot, come and join me/Strawberry gloss to bring it down/Quietly so that no one knows/She undressed, and I couldn’t stop looking at her/That tattoo on her back leaves me breathless.” Although Karol G isn’t known for her bisexuality like Uchis, perhaps she was enthusiastic about participating in this particular collaboration when taking into account her track record with men (*cough cough* Anuel AA). To boot, she’s known for having an LGBTQIA+ following, so why not cater a bit more to that facet of her fanbase with a number like this?
Produced by Manuel Lara, Albert Hype and Austen Jux-Chandler, there’s also a brief moment when the song samples from Chaka Demus & Pliers’ 1992 hit, “Murder She Wrote,” a sonic nod that reveals Uchis’ love of reggaetón. And as the video segues out of the house party location and onto a studio backlot-looking set where Kali and Karol strut down the pavement in black vinyl ensembles, fiery explosions start to go off behind them (it’s sort of “Bad Blood”-esque in this instant). A visual that emphasizes the connection they want their viewers to make: wherever they go, they can spontaneously ignite “explosions” (read: orgasms) with just their mere presence.
If a man is lucky, he might be privy to it, but Kali and Karol are more concerned with a woman’s pleasure in this particular narrative. And that much was immediately established when Uchis did a sendup of the WB logo at the start of the video with her initials “KU” (featuring vaginal flowers surrounding it, obviously) punctuated by the words below: “A Kuchi Entertainment Company.”
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