In September, Peso Pluma became the first Mexican artist to perform at the MTV Video Music Awards. (Josefina Santos/The New York Times)
Backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center in Newark last month, Mexican superstar Featherweight gathered his band for a motivational talk. That night, the out-of-nowhere artist would become the first Mexican to perform at the VMAs show. But before the dress rehearsal of his song “Lady Gaga,” he took about 10 minutes to remember the musicians who have accompanied him for years. He told them that his success would not have been possible without them. In the end, almost all members left the place crying.
The featherweight was in a reflective mood about the upcoming milestone. But there was also some sadness in the air. That morning, word had spread from Mexico about some messages in Tijuana, some blankets signed with the initials of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel’s powerful rival. They told Featherweight to cancel a concert in town and threatened his safety if he showed up.
A handful of personal security guards were circulating, but there wasn’t much to do at this point except carry on. Before Featherweight hit the red carpet, he and his manager George Prajin met briefly to talk about how to handle questions that had nothing to do with music. Then he stepped in front of a phalanx of paparazzi playfully wagging their tongues, Mick Jagger-style, and snuck forward to give light-hearted interviews to “Entertainment Tonight” and “The Fat Boy” and “The Skinny Boy.” .
The next day at the Hard Rock Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, Featherweight woke up late after a long night at his VMAs afterparty. But he was alert and succinct as he highlighted the significance of last night’s performance.
“I took it as an opportunity to show the world what I have,” he said. “I just wanted all these artists to know me. “That they know what I do and that they know the genre that I do better.”
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The 24-year-old singer is the king of corridos tumbados, modern takes on traditional Mexican music that have achieved great success in the last two years. Peso Pluma sings and raps with clear influences from contemporary hip-hop and reggaeton and a production that is based on traditional forms. (Peso Pluma is both his stage name and the way he refers to the music project and the band as a whole).
More than a dozen weeks after the release of Peso Pluma’s third album, Génesis, it remains in the top 10 of Billboard’s all-genre album charts. (Josefina Santos/The New York Times)
In July, Genesis – his third studio album but first since refining his sound and increasing his ambitions – debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard All-Genre Albums chart, the highest position ever achieved by an album of regional Mexican music. And it has staying power: more than a dozen weeks later, it is still in the top 10. Its songs have been played billions of times on Spotify alone.
There have already been isolated moments of Mexican-American music fusion in the American music scene: the gangster rap of Kid Frost, the emotional ballads of Selena, the light R&B and hip-hop of Frankie J and Baby Bash. But Mexican artists have remained true to the traditions of so-called regional Mexican music, a term that combines various styles from different parts of the country and the southwestern United States. Peso Pluma has turned this regional music into a global phenomenon. He has collaborated with artists from across the Spanish-speaking world: Puerto Rican rapper Eladio Carrión, Dominican dembow star El Alfa and Argentinian super-producer Bizarrap. Her song “She Baila Sola” in collaboration with Eslabón Armado was the first Mexican song to reach the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in all genres.
Featherweight, whose real name is Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija, was born in Guadalajara and spent time with his family in Sinaloa as a child. He was inspired by the work of Chalino Sánchez, one of the main representatives of the Mexican narcocorridos, who tell stories about the drug trade. He said he fell in love with “his raspy voice, his very special way of singing corridos, his very special way of singing romantic songs.” Regarding Sánchez’s influence, he said: “When this kind of music was playing in the car, I took off my headphones to listen to what he was saying.”
Peso Pluma was also drawn to the work of Ariel Camacho, who was a young rising star in the 2010s and was known for his impressive guitar playing style (Sánchez was assassinated in 1992; Camacho died in a car accident in 2015).
Although the singer liked this music, he was not very comfortable with its aesthetic, which tended towards traditional cowboy-style clothing, where embroidered suits and boots predominated.
He stated that his favorite genres since childhood were reggaeton and hip-hop. (He spent part of his youth in San Antonio and New York, where he was drawn to the music of great artists like Kanye West and Drake.) “That’s why I don’t wear hats. I don’t wear boots. I am not like that”.
Instead, he dresses more like a rapper, wearing extravagant designer clothes, expensive jewelry and watches that a member of his entourage keeps in the soft blue cases of Icebox, the Atlanta-based celebrity jewelry designer.
At the VMA Awards, he took the stage all in black, like a luxury spider: fluffy, wide and angular vest, very wide and wrinkled pants, short leather gloves and square sunglasses. Backstage, social media personality Christoosmoove asked her some funny questions about her outfit on TikTok, a video that has been viewed more than 10 million times.
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He was also the first Mexican musician to record an episode of Sneaker Shopping, a YouTube series that often features rappers and social media celebrities. In this episode, he spent more than $32,000 to buy, among other things, tennis shoes for all of his bandmates, making him one of the ten musicians who spent the most on the series. The day after the VMAs, the show’s host, Joe La Puma, sent him a gift: a rare pair of 2005 Cinco de Mayo Nike SB Dunks in the colors of the Mexican flag.
The path from Peso Pluma to the MTV stage was not linear and was incredibly fast. He released a few albums at the beginning of the decade, just as the corridos tumbados scene was becoming established. And he began collaborating extensively with other artists: most of his early charting songs were collaborations, including with Natanael Cano and Fuerza Regida, some of the young artists who founded the movement just a few years ago. (In 2019, Cano’s collaboration with Bad Bunny on the remix of “Soy el Diablo” was one of Corridos Tumbados’ first crossovers.)
Some of Peso Pluma’s songs lean towards the romantic, others are boastful, and still others fall into the narcocorrido trend. (These songs are the ones that sparked the alleged threats against him).
At first, the older and more established traditional figures of Mexican music gave the young stars of the Corridos Tumbados a cold reception. “I know it’s not envy, it’s nothing like that,” Featherweight said kindly. “It’s just that they weren’t sure how to react.”
Although he has become friends with Cano and they continue to participate in joint collaborations, there are rumors that there is tension with Jesús Ortiz Paz of Fuerza Regida, one of the scene’s most prominent groups. (Featherweight largely declined to talk about the tensions he faced: “Everything people say gets on my nerves, but I try to focus on the positive things, not the negative. “)
The above has given a narrative line to media outlets documenting the scene, including the podcast Agushto Papa, which has been enthusiastically covering the rise of Mexican music for two years.
“I think it has greatly promoted the way these artists give concerts,” says Ángel López, one of the program’s hosts. “I don’t think they’ll ever realize it. But after seeing how the featherweight division performed, everyone had to step up. They can’t just stand in front of a microphone, play their instrument or sing. You need to add something else.”
On stage, Peso Pluma is relaxed and a little eccentric, always swaying; His band also moves with joy. Jason Núñez, another presenter, added: “The dances are also another thing: no one danced like that. And even though people found it strange and hated him, it only made him bigger. And I also feel like it’s a small thing, but important: hair.” (Hair is important. Featherweight sports a mullet, which has become a trademark of his style and, perhaps unintentionally, with the hairstyles of Morgan Wallen and linked to several K-pop stars.)
The speed of the rise in the featherweight division was dizzying and confusing. “A lot of people don’t know that I have anxiety attacks,” she said. “It is very important that people with mental health problems receive treatment and talk about it.”
The Tijuana show was ultimately canceled due to security concerns, although police had not yet publicly confirmed the authenticity of the handwritten blankets. “There are a lot of things that are wrong and a lot of things that aren’t,” the singer said.
Prajin, his representative, explained that the team must take any threat seriously. “I want to make sure that you are not only financially secure, but that we are also taking care of your mental and physical health,” she said. “And of course your safety. “He can’t go anywhere without plenty of security: I won’t let him.”
A few weeks after the cancellation, Peso Pluma announced concerts in three other Mexican cities. He said he felt safe. “The most important thing is to be close to God. And I think that’s why I feel safe. For me it’s something more spiritual.”
Prajin hinted that the songs Peso Pluma sings about could evolve as he becomes more popular and expands his musical presence. “He’ll never stop singing these songs because it’s what he grew up with, the culture he grew up in,” he said. “But I see him definitely going in a different direction with the music he sings. “There are a lot of love songs, a lot of different fusions.”
Given the popularity of Peso Pluma, requests for collaboration are coming in quickly. “You have no idea how many rappers, country singers and R&B singers contact us,” the artist said.
He plans to release a reggaeton EP soon and then a strategic collaboration with rappers from the USA. Prajin said they have already had discussions with Cardi B, ASAP Rocky and Post Malone.
He hopes that these new paths apply not only to him, but also to the artists in Mexico who follow in his footsteps. And thanks to their success, new doors are opening for Mexican artists beyond the VMAs.
“I saw Taylor Swift shaking her head and dancing to my song yesterday,” he said, marveling at the implausibility of it all. “I couldn’t even imagine that.”
Jon Caramanica is a pop music critic for The Times and host of the Popcast podcast. He also writes the men’s column Critical Shopper in the Lifestyle section. He previously worked at Vibe magazine and has written for Village Voice, Spin, XXL and other publications. More from Jon Caramanica
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