Desacatado literally means 'disobedient' or 'contemptuous'. In the high-energy context of "Pepas", it's slang for being completely wild, uninhibited, and letting loose on the dance floor.
Farruko uses this powerful adjective to paint a picture of the entire club losing control and giving in to the music's energy. It perfectly captures the song's core theme of a carefree, explosive party where all rules are off.
Farruko's "Pepas" is a massive party anthem with a very simple and direct message: live your life and don't worry about what anyone else thinks. He kicks it off by saying, "No me importa lo que de mí se diga / Viva usted su vida, que yo vivo la mía" (I don't care what they say about me / You live your life, and I'll live mine). This isn't a song with hidden meanings. It's about seizing the moment because, as he puts it, "el tiempo se acaba y pa'trás no vira" (time is running out and it doesn't turn back).
This song describes an all-night party that gets completely wild. The chorus is a blunt description of the scene: "Pepa y agua pa' la seca / To' el mundo en pastilla en la discoteca" (A pill and water for the dry mouth / Everyone's on pills at the nightclub). The party doesn't even stop when the sun comes up. Instead, Farruko says the sun is out, so it's time to "prende la hookah y el alcohol" (light the hookah and the alcohol) because "esto se salió de control" (this got out of control). It's a pure celebration of hedonism and losing yourself to the music until morning.
Carlos Efrén Reyes Rosado was writing songs at eleven, then left school to fix cars alongside his father in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, and built his first audience on MySpace. As Farruko he put out El Talento del Bloque in 2010, at nineteen.
The big records came through other people's at first: "6 AM" with J Balvin, "Passion Whine" with Sean Paul, "Krippy Kush" with Bad Bunny and Rvssian, and the "Calma" remix with Pedro Capó, which took a Latin Grammy in 2019. Then "Pepas" in 2021, guaracha electrónica built on Colombian club music rather than reggaeton, hit number one on Hot Latin Songs and has passed 1.7 billion Spotify streams. In February 2022 he stopped a Miami arena show to preach for about fifteen minutes, refused to sing "Pepas" and apologised for its lyrics, and told the crowd that Farru was retired and Carlos was there now. He returned to touring in May 2023 and released the 26-track CVRBON VRMOR in October 2024.