One of my favorite tracks is “Cambia!,” featuring two up-and-coming regional Mexican stars: Adriel Favela and Carin León.
I discovered Adriel Favela with his [2018 song] “La Escuela No Me Gustó,” which introduced me to corridos. I have many Mexican friends and they told me about the new trend with young acts doing more urban corrido. And during a trip to Mexico, I heard Carín León on the radio, and his melodies reminded me of ’90s Spanish pop act Andy y Lucas.
Then, one night in Madrid, we began writing a corrido, I sent the demo to Adriel on my phone, and he heard it while he was on the touring bus with his musicians. Half-hour later, he sent me a video of all of them singing and playing the song. When I saw that reaction, I made the move to call Carin and also ask him to be on the song. I just called him and said, “I’m a fan.”
It’s such a diverse album. What binds it together?
More than anything, I wanted it to sound like a Spanish album, independent of the genres. I also wanted it to be an album that didn’t get stuck in nostalgia. Even at its most traditional, it had to have something modern. And I also wanted all the tracks to be linked by the subject of love.
You talk about love, but there’s quite a bit of spite in here — particularly in terms of being professionally successful where others doubted you. What do you have to prove?
First, I always had artistic ambition, and it was hard for urban music to get the professional respect. Now, I’ve sat with all these maestros, and I’ve kind of gotten over it. But as a rapper, my artistic ambition was a bit frustrated.
