The trend of mixing classic Latin folk sounds with urban music continues to conquer the world. From Rosalía to Bad Bunny with Un x100to, to the bachatas that have come back into fashion through artists like Manuel Turizo or C Tangana. Undoubtedly, it is a peak moment for traditional music, and the best current exponent of this is Peso Pluma.
Just three weeks ago, the Mexican singer released Ella baila sola, a song he performs with Eslabón Armado in which he mixes corridos tumbados with current urban music. Thanks to this hit, he managed to dethrone Miley Cyrus, pushing her away from the top 1 of Spotify where she was still thanks to her Flowers.
This month, the artist has been trending again thanks to two events: his concert at Coachella, which became one of the most viral of the entire festival, and his appearance on the Jimmy Fallon Show. While the writers’ strike continues, Peso Pluma has given a very interesting interview and performed for the entire United States.
The history of Peso Pluma
Peso Pluma was born in 1999 in Zazopan, a city in Jalisco, Mexico, from a humble family located on the border with the United States. From a young age, the singer was influenced by his family’s music, and began playing the guitar as a teenager. Already at that time, due to his light weight, he was called “Peso Pluma”, so he didn’t have to think much about choosing his stage name, which came directly from boxing.
Peso Pluma began writing music with his cousin Roberto “Tito” Laija, and released his first album entitled Disco en Vivo (Live Album) in 2020 under the label El Cartel de los Angeles. In the same year he released his first studio album titled Ah y Qué? and his second live album and third album overall, Disco en Vivo (En Vivo), Vol. 2.
Already in these albums he stood out for his curious music coming from a genre that he himself popularized: corridos tumbados. It is a style based on mixing Mexican folk music with trap, also taking references from American hip hop. Beyond Peso Pluma, artists such as Nathanael Cano, Carín León or Grupo Frontera itself stand out.
Soon, Peso Pluma began to make a name for himself among the Mexican public, so in 2021 he released his second studio album, Efectos Secundarios, from which he released three singles: Mil Historias, Con Dinero Baila el Perro and Lo Que Me Das. But his biggest hit came with Por las noches, released on June 11 of that year, which gave him his first solo entry in the Billboard Hot 100.
From that moment on, he began to go viral, and to collaborate with artists such as Natanael Cano, Gabito Ballesteros, Alemán, Fuerza Regida, Junior H, Nicki Nicole and Ovy on the Drums. But his music has not only gone viral because of his talent, but also because of his controversy. This is the case of Siempre pendientes, a song published in 2022, which was removed from YouTube for its lyrics mentioning “El Chapo” Guzmán and which, according to the platform, was an apology for crime.
He also has a lot of controversy in his own sector. Some accuse him of wanting to appropriate the term “corridos tumbados” and not thinking of his peers. In fact, when he visited Jimmy Fallon he did it solo, without his singing partner group Eslabón Armado, which has provoked criticism from many.
“How would you guys feel if there’s someone at a higher level… higher than you, and you write a song with effort, with feeling, that it’s your song, it’s your song, and you decide to ride someone else that you like their music, and you don’t deserve credit for your song? What do you mean, what the f…? Basically that’s what it is, I didn’t get credit for my song”.
This is how Pedro Tovar, member of Eslabón Armado, explained the controversy. Nevertheless, Peso Pluma continues to move forward with an enviable career and making it clear that Mexican music is in fashion.
Some of the links added in the article are part of affiliate campaigns and may represent benefits for Softonic.
