Luis R Conriquez has been itching to make a rap and reggaeton album for a very long time. Positive, he’s a corridos artist at coronary heart, however he’d all the time questioned if different genres may work, too. “With all the things occurring with corridos,” he tells Rolling Stone over Zoom, “it made eve extra sense to do that. We had been already altering issues up.”
In latest months, a number of corridos stars, together with Conriquez, have stepped again from the style because the highlight on narco-themed music has grown. A number of months in the past, Conriquez even needed to reduce a present brief after followers expressed frustration over his determination to not play corridos on the present in Mexico. However now, he’s able to pivot and roll with the punches within the altering panorama.
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On Friday, the Mexican star dropped Meneo, a nine-track document experimenting with reggaeton, EDM-cumbia, and raps sounds. He faucets reggaeton heavy hitters like El Alfa and Anuel AA, and likewise Mexican artists Gabito Ballesteros and Fuerza Regida, to discover new musical territory.
The shift isn’t that far-fetched for Conriquez. He beforehand joined Tito Double P and Joel De La P on “Dembow Bélico,” a monitor that pushed all three Mexican singers outdoors their corrido consolation zones, again in 2023. And it turned an instantaneous hit. On Meneo, he contains “De Fresa y Coco,” a reggaeton mexa monitor he launched in 2023 with Los Dareyes de la Sierra and Edgardo Nuñez, which has no conventional Mexican instrumentation. Since its launch, the track has turn into a nightclub staple, racking up greater than 155 million streams on Spotify.
“I’ve folks’s acceptance regardless of being somebody who sings corridos,” Conriquez says. “I mentioned, ‘I’m going to attempt to change my music just a little. I’m going to attempt an album with totally different kinds — whether or not reggaeton, rap.’”
He’s particularly proud to develop into new genres whereas collaborating with reggaeton heavyweights like Ryan Castro, who will seem on the second a part of Meneo, which is ready to drop subsequent month. The album cowl itself nods to reggaeton’s roots, displaying Conriquez trying over a metropolis with the flags of Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Colombia flying excessive.
“Just like the Colombians wish to sing corridos, we wish to sing reggaeton too. It’s fucking cool to see extra Mexicans singing reggaeton. All of us gotta unite,” he says. “The album is a two-part puzzle, and I like it.”
Whilst he explores reggaeton and different sounds, Conriquez guarantees his corrido identification stays intact. On Meneo, even features a rap monitor, “Mexicano Soy,” mixing trumpet and 808 beats, the place he raps about his Mexican roots and displays on his upbringing.
“Luis R will all the time be Luis R,” he says. “I hope folks will assist this new model of me.”
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