(CNN Spanish) – This Sunday, in the middle of his musical career, death surprised 31-year-old Juan Carlos Sauceda, known as “Lefty SM”.
According to Jalisco authorities, he died in a hospital after being attacked at his home in Zapopan – in the Guadalajara metropolitan area.
Only on August 25th did he successfully release the single “Por mi México” on YouTube, where he invited Santa Fe Klan, Dharius, C-Kan, MC Davo and Neto Peña to collaborate; some of the country’s best-known rap and hip-hop musicians.
This Monday, the single had more than nine million views on YouTube. Just two days after its release, the artist highlighted on his Instagram account that it had already had a million views and was number one trending on this social network.
In the lyrics of “Por mi México,” as in several of his compositions, Lefty SM reflects concern for young people growing up in disadvantaged environments and for Mexicans emigrating to the United States in search of better opportunities. His record company Alzada describes these lyrics as “representative anthems of Mexican culture.”
On August 3, he also released his remix of “Ingrata” on YouTube, with which he ventured into cumbia thanks to his collaboration with Cañaveral, a long-standing and successful tropical rhythm group.
From mechanic and welder to star
According to the biography published on his social networks, Sauceda was born on April 22, 1992 in San Luis Río Colorado, in the Mexican state of Sonora, on the border with the United States.
In various interviews, he said that as a child he learned to be a mechanic in his father’s workshop while listening to regional Mexican music, mainly corridos, a genre in which he also ventured in the company of already established figures such as El Komander and Enigma Among others, Norteño, La Trakalosa, Carin León and Virlán García.
“Before listening to rap, I listened to corridos and I really like them, and I like them so much that I wanted to collaborate with the regional,” he recently told the digital media Soy Grupero.
In the same interview, he said that he started music as a hobby and that his path in rap was shaped by his childhood and adolescence in a humble neighborhood in San Luis Río Colorado.
“I’m proud because I come from a neighborhood and I feel like the song is for my neighborhood band because I feel like there’s talent in the neighborhood too, there’s people with dreams that are recognized should be,” he added.
Previously, in an interview with the digital channel HitBoy Music, dedicated to rap, he said that he had to work as a welder and do ironwork in a house construction company to finance his travels and the move to Alzada, an independent record label based in Guadalajara , to dare, Jalisco – Western from Mexico―, which is also a studio specializing in urban rhythms, where the rapper recorded some of his hits.
Although he was born in Sonora, his career began to solidify in Guadalajara, where he lived with his wife and two daughters.
It was at his home in this metropolitan area where authorities said he was murdered Sunday after being shot. State authorities are investigating the murder.
Condolences for the rapper’s death came from various areas of the music scene, while his followers on social networks left messages of disbelief and pain.