Miguel Cantos Gómez – who I’ll be referring to as SAIKO for the remainder of this review – has been trappin’ it up in Spain since 2020, at least professionally. SAIKO has actually been rapping for nearly a decade: when he was just 13, Miguel started honing his skills throughout his hometown, Armilla (which sits in the province of Granda). In 2019, he started a rap duo with his brother, who went by the name “Wido.” In case you’re wondering where “SAIKO” comes from, Wido was actually the

inspiration for SAIKO’s nickname. He originally went by the name “Psycho” before Miguel picked the name up later. He rewrote it, as you can see. This all only lasted about a year, though. By the turn of the decade, SAIKO had moved on to the big leagues, and he would get his break in 2023. “Polaris,” a dembow cut with Came Beats, got a remix featuring Feid, Quevedo and Mora, and it’s racked up nearly 270 million Spotify streams since its release. SAIKO’s got some other heavy hitters, though: one of his old cuts, “COSAS QUE NO TE DIJE,” blew up at around the same time; several features he’s done with Myke Towers, Gonzy, Quevedo and Omar Montes have crossed triple digits; and some of the songs from his most recent project are getting tons of streams, too. That album, SAKURA, is what we’ll be talking about today.

SAKURA is SAIKO’s debut album (or maybe his second album, if you’re willing to call his 2023 Saliendo del Planeta EP an album), and it was released on April 26th, 2024. It’

s got a pretty impressive length for a modern reggaeton album; at sixteen tracks and 54 minutes long, it isn’t exactly a sprawling opus, but it’s still a breath of fresh air compared to the countless albums that seem like they go by in a flash. It’s also helped along by the sheer amount of features, as we’ll discuss later. There’s projects out there where the main artist feels like an afterthought on their own album, but that doesn’t happen in SAIKO’s case (check out that Post Malone album if you actually want to hear someone being buried alive by a small colony of features). It also helps that SAKURA is something of a concept album. In a Rolling Stone interview he did earlier this year, SAIKO explained how each of the sixteen songs represent a different planet in his own little world. That Saliendo EP I just mentioned sort of acted as the test drive for SAKURA, even though, according to Miguel, he’s been working on this album since 2021. And there is quite a bit of celestial imagery throughout SAKURA: the song titles, the lyrics, the album cover, and so on. It’s pretty easy to correlate this kind of idea with SAIKO’s meteoric (yes, that’s a pun) rise to stardom (yes, that’s another pun). He’s been enamored with what lies beyond our tiny little rock for quite a while, and SAKURA was the perfect way for him to venture into the cosmos. What did he return with? Let’s see.

SAIKO has been very public about how much support he’s received from his fellow Spaniard and Latin American rappers – I mean, the entire third verse of the opener, “3 CAÍDAS,” is just him giving props to some of his peers: Ñengo Flow, JC Reyes and LOS GREEN LANTERS, Quevedo, DELLAFUENTE, and the rap collective PXXR GVNG. Myke Towers and Hakim also show up on the outro to give SAIKO some extra cred. It’s a cool thing to see. The song itself is one of SAKURA‘s strongest, and it prominently features an extremely bright bugle motif throughout. These horns were actually performed by the Tres Caídas de Triana band in Seville, a very well-known church band from Spain. It doesn’t actually originate from this song, though. These horns were originally on a song SAIKO released last year, “HAPPY 21ST B-DAY SAIKO,” which he never put on streaming services (as far as I’m aware, at least). On that song, the horns are still there, but they’re pitched down and a lot quieter than they are on “3 CAÍDAS.” It’s not just the horns I like, even if they are a bit abrasive. SAIKO puts on a pretty good performance, too; this is one of the straight-rap songs on the album, and once the song really gets going, he’s got a nice flow. I also like his voice quite a lot, even though he very frequently overdoes it with his vocals. I’m fine with it (at least here), but I can absolutely understand how his higher registers might not sit well with some people. SAIKO has a lower, grittier voice that he sometimes settles into, but you’re gonna be hearing him belt his guts out quite a lot. So get used to that. There’s even a bar on here where he does a, dare I say, Duki-ish kind of impression. Whether it’s any good or not I will leave up to you. SAIKO does follow the big man on Twitter, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if this was on purpose.

After the opener, we get the track “LUNA,” which I also think is one of the better cuts on SAKURA. It’s got a lot of these stuttery synths, which go together quite nicely with SAIKO’s singing. He isn’t overdoing it quite as much this time around, so this song might go down a bit easier if you’re more interested in some melodic rap. ULI produced this (and most of the album), and I think the little touches of piano and guitar at certain points add a lot to “LUNA.” DELLAFUENTE also shows up for a solid feature. I still think SAIKO is the star (I’m gonna keep doing these puns, so get used to it) here, but DELLA bridges together the beginning and end of the song nicely, and you’d be missing quite a lot if you took him out.

“BOREAL” is one of the spacier-sounding songs on the album, courtesy of Sky Rompiendo’s production. In one of the stranger creative decisions on this album, “BOREAL” turns into a straight-up drum and bass track after the intro. It’s the only song on SAKURA that even does this, so hey, points for originality, at least. It’s not poorly made, but it’s one of several songs here that I don’t have particularly strong feelings about. I’d probably be a little more negative towards it if the whole album was like this, but the two-ish minutes where SAIKO evolves into his D&B form are fine for what they are. I couldn’t possibly tell you why it’s here in the first place, but there’s far worse on this album.

“HEY BB” is probably the first song where I can start to identify the issues that SAKURA has as a whole. It’s just a run-of-the-mill reggaeton song. It doesn’t sound bad, SAIKO does what he needs to do, and there isn’t anything out of place. It doesn’t iterate on that very much, though, which is an issue we’ll talk more about later. “HEY BB” sort of acts as a glimpse of the just-kind-of-alright reggaeton songs that this album has – and there’s several of them. One thing I can say about this song is that it’s possibly a sequel to “BB ;(” from 2022. I mean, take away the first word and you’ve got the same title, for starters. They’re both about the same kind of relationship troubles that every single reggaeton singer in existence has sung about, too. I don’t know if SAIKO himself has named this the spiritual successor, but I’m willing to bet that these two songs are at least tangentially related.

We’ll get to more of the painfully-average songs later, but for now, here’s one of the better ones: “YO LO SOÑÉ.” If you’ve played the new FIFA- er, sorry, the new FC game, you’ve probably heard this song on the soundtrack. SAIKO actually netted two appearances; his other was the feature he had on J Balvin’s “Gaga.” As for this song, SAIKO gets a feature from Spanish singer Omar Montes, who’s been popping in and out of the reggaeton scene for quite a while now. I haven’t been terribly impressed with the few times I’ve actually heard him, but I’d say he slots into this kind of sound a lot better. It’s also one of the most unique-sounding songs on the album: “YO LO SOÑÉ” starts with some mariachi-esque guitars before transitioning into a more aggressive rap beat. This kind of organic sound hearkens back to the album opener, although these guitars aren’t as loud or as prominent as those horns. It’s one of the best-produced tracks on SAKURA, and it’s one of SAIKO’s best performances, too. The lack of autotune also helps drive home how viciously fluid his rapping is. SAIKO even pokes fun at that concept in the following lines:

Y cuando intentan reírse de mí por el pajarito, ello’ saben que soy millonario

¿Cómo que yo no soy nadie? Pedazo de m*erda, ¿no me ve’ llenando estadio’?

En serio, ¿no te siente’ ridículo diciendo en pleno 2024 que no sería nadie sin el Auto-Tune, bro?

I guess we’ll never know

SAIKO’s very braggy on this song. And rightfully so, in my opinion. The music video for “YO LO SOÑÉ” is a love letter to the UFC, which is another organization that is full of braggadocio and punch (literally, I guess). The title of the song also comes from that world. Fighter Ilia Topuria, in addition to entering the February 2024 UFC Featherweight Championship with an Antonio Banderas mariachi song, repeatedly said the phrase “yo lo soñé” during his walk-up. “I dreamt it,” he said. And dream it he did. Just like how SAIKO announces how successful his album will be before its release at the end of the song, Topuria edited his Instagram bio and preemptively declared himself the winner of UFC 298. Fortunately, he didn’t need to change it. Topuria’s currently 15-0 (as of me writing this), and SAIKO did see a lot of success with this album, so you can safely say that they were both accurate in their bragging.

The remix of “POLARIS” is that song with Feid, Quevedo and Mora I mentioned earlier. As is the case with most other Latin remixes of things, the remix far overshadowed the original song due to the sheer amount of starpower. This doesn’t necessarily translate to a slam dunk of a song, though, because I think this remix is just kind of alright. There are a few interesting elements that it adds on top of the original, but this is one of those remixes that I don’t really think improves on its predecessor. SAIKO could have easily put the original “POLARIS” on this album (again) and I don’t think you’d be missing much. Still, it remains his most popular song in terms of streams, so it clearly resonated with a lot of people.

Now here’s where we start to get a little off track. As we start to move into the middle portion of SAKURA, its biggest flaws start to become more obvious. “COMO SUENAN LAS ESTRELLAS” and “COMETA HALLEY” are where SAIKO’s reggaeton skills start to come into question, and both songs have their own set of problems. “COMO SUENAN” mainly suffers because of SAIKO’s performance – I sure hope you enjoy high-pitched SAIKO, because you’re gonna hear it a lot on this song. I can put up with them in short bursts, but the entire verse in the middle is done in this kind of voice, and it gets pretty grating after a while. It also doesn’t help that this is one of the weaker beats on the album. The next song isn’t much better. “COMETA HALLEY” has a more tolerable SAIKO on it, but it’s let down by a lackluster J Balvin verse and another run-of-the-mill beat. At the very least, it does begin with a pretty sweet violin solo – even if it goes away once the song starts up.

In the largely-unremarkable middle third of SAKURA, the song “NÚMERO TELEFÓNICO” is something of an exception. It’s got one of my favorite beats on the album, and those back-and-forth mallets that come in during the intro make up one of my favorite moments on the entire album. It also helps that I just love Mora’s voice, but, you know, that’s a different thing. The build-up into the first chorus is amazing, and both him and SAIKO compliment the beat very well. It doesn’t do anything all that differently, but this is one of the few moments of SAKURA where the norm works really, really well. It’s elegantly simple.

“SUPERNOVA” is another one of the smash hit pre-release singles, and it’s probably the closest we get to a second D&B-type song on the album. It’s still a reggaeton song at heart, but for the first half of the track, SAIKO almost convinced me that he had done the “BOREAL” thing again. Almost. The song itself is okay. The next track, “LA RIJANA,” is also just okay. It’s got one of the more unique soundscapes thanks to Caleb Calloway, but it’s too short to really go anywhere meaningful. Most of the songs on SAKURA avoid the dreaded “too-short-itis” disease, but this is not one of them. Both of these tracks are part of the “painfully-average” league I mentioned earlier; the latter more so. They’re okay, but they’re not what keeps me coming back.

“ESKELETO” would be one of SAKURA’s best if it wasn’t for Bryant Myers. Actually, no, “ESKELETO” would be one of the best if it wasn’t for the entire second half of the song. It’s very neatly split up into two different halves: SAIKO takes the first half (or what I’ll call the “good half”) of the song, and then Bryant comes in with a key change and not a whole lot of energy. He just doesn’t do a whole lot for me. And that’s kind of a bummer, because if you were to take Bryant out of the song, you just get a great beat and a great showing from SAIKO. Whenever I listen to this song now, I just listen to the first half and then skip the rest due to how little Bryant’s feature adds. I only have “ESKELETO” as high as it is because of how strong SAIKO’s part is. It could have been a highlight on SAKURA, but a misplaced feature means that it isn’t. I still like this song, if that means anything.

Fortunately, the next song is one of SAKURA‘s highlights. “BADGYAL,” in addition to being this album’s most successful hit (ignoring the singles), is also one of its most engaging and entertaining. It’s probably the hardest song here, as well. If you like SAIKO’s bangers, then this is probably the best thing he’s made yet. He also gets a big assist from JC Reyes and Dei V, who both offer some great verses. But it’s the beat that does most of the heavy lifting here. SAIKO, ULI and Came Beats do a phenomenal job at making a hard-hitting reggaeton beat that plays to the strengths of the dudes rapping on it. One thing I would like to briefly mention: if you check the lyrics, you’ll probably notice that “BADGYAL” has absolutely nothing to do with the actual concept of the album. I imagine the title probably gave it away, but in case you really need to know, “BADGYAL” is not about planets. There’s some other songs on this album that aren’t even remotely related to the central idea. I don’t really mind, but I just thought it was worth mentioning. Regardless, it’s a shot of adrenaline that SAKURA desperately needs by this point in the album.

“FINALES DE AGOSTO” and “NANA DEL HILO ROJO” would probably be my least favorite songs if that one from earlier didn’t exist. They have all of the problems that this album’s weakest tracks have – the big one being that there just isn’t really anything interesting about either of them. I do feel kind of bad singling out “FINALES,” since SAIKO seems to regard that one as a personal favorite, but he isn’t very engaging in his more introspective moments. It takes the momentum that “BADGYAL” had and grinds it into dust. These two songs would make for an extremely underwhelming send-off if it wasn’t for the track that actually finishes off the album.

The sixteenth and final song on SAKURA is nothing short of ethereal. “ÁNGEL DE LA GUARDA” contrasts greatly from almost every other song on SAKURA. It isn’t reggaeton, nor is it really a rap song. It’s performed and executed like a ballad: SAIKO slowly sings every line with nothing but a piano and some background fuzz. I wouldn’t exactly call his singing voice “great,” but some autotune makes his verses absolutely gorgeous. I’ve always been a firm believer that autotune is (usually) not a hindrance to singers, and I think that gentle applications of it can produce vocals that rival the greatest vocalists on the planet. I wouldn’t change a thing about SAIKO’s performance. Reading the title (and the (PÓSTUMO) stuck on to the end of it), you can get an idea of what the lyrics are about. I won’t spoil them here, but it’s a touching finale to the album that also ties together the entire concept of SAKURA somewhat. And… I can’t believe I’m about to admit this, but this song made me cry. Not the first time I listened to it, surprisingly enough, but it was when I was just idly sitting and listening to Spotify. It was just at the perfect place and the perfect time for me to get all misty-eyed about it. Things happen, what can I say?

Simply put: “ÁNGEL DE LA GUARDA” is a perfect song. I would not alter a millisecond of it. It’s a soft rose gently placed on top of a decent package of reggaeton and rap. SAKURA won’t go down as one of my favorites from this year, but it has so many little moments of excellence that give me reasons to come back. On its best tracks, the issues that this album has simply melt away, and it becomes effortless to forget that SAKURA is even flawed to begin with. Like anything else, it’s got some cracks in it, but you can fill up those cracks with your mind. I have no idea when SAIKO plans on making another record, but until that happens, I’ll be looking forward to seeing him another day. Maybe he’ll keep going down this direction, or maybe he’ll go more rap, or maybe he’ll do something that no one possibly expects. But I’ll be here for it no matter what.

See you in the cosmos, SAIKO. Safe travels.

ALBUM RATING: 7/10

TRACK RANKING:

1: ÁNGEL DE LA GUARDA (PÓSTUMO)

2: BADGYAL (ft. JC Reyes, Dei V)

3: 3 CAÍDAS

4: NÚMERO TELEFÓNICO (ft. Mora)

5: LUNA (ft. DELLAFUENTE)

6: YO LO SOÑÉ (ft. Omar Montes)

7: ESKELETO (ft. Bryant Myers)

8: POLARIS – Remix (ft. Feid, Quevedo, Mora)

9: BOREAL

10: SUPERNOVA

11: HEY BB

12: LA RIJANA

13: COMETA HALLEY (ft. J Balvin)

14: FINALES DE AGOSTO

15: NANA DEL HIJO ROJO

16: COMO SUENAN LAS ESTRELLAS

The post Miguel Cantos Gómez (SAIKO): Sakura first appeared on LCWR.

The post Miguel Cantos Gómez (SAIKO): Sakura appeared first on LCWR.

 Young Miko has spent the last couple of years as one of Puerto Rico’s trap darlings, even before she released her debut album, TRAP KITTY. Calling it an “album” is a little dicey, considering that it’s just nine tracks (and two of them are just thirty-second interludes) and runs less than twenty minutes in length. Still, the masses declared it an album, so call it an album I will. Miko had been bubbling under the PR rap scene for a while, but it was TRAP KITTY‘s “Riri” (and a big boost/concert invitation from Bad Bunny, of all people) that gave her all that momentum. Released on July 8th, 2022 – two weeks before the full album – “Riri” has since racked up nearly 40 million YouTube views and more than 170 million streams on Spotify. It remains one of her most popular songs… although I do feel it’s important to mention that Miko didn’t really start blowing up until 2023. “Lisa,” released in March, outperformed her previous hit by a pretty wide margin, and her feature on Feid’s “CLASSY 101” from the same month is still tearing up streams all across the Web.

Almost everything that Miko’s been a part of since has been met with a meteoric amount of attention. Her feature with Cazzu? 75 million streams. Her feature with Nicki? 150 million streams. Her collab with Jowell & Randy? 130 million. She hasn’t done a whole lot this year (other than the album, of course), but considering that she got a BZRP Music Session in January, I’d say she probably deserves a break. With the exception of one feature in June, it was a very Miko-less summer, and while I’m sure she’s enjoying the peace and quiet, it’s kind of a bummer to see her not follow up with the same kind of momentum she did with her first album. Miko can do whatever she wants, though, so who am I to judge? In the meantime, I’ve been formulating my thoughts on that second album she released back in April. I probably would have gotten this review out much sooner if, uh, well, you know what happened. Probably for the best. Not for any normal reason; just that it happened to give me an extra six months to get this done. Rylan does not work fast, that’s all I’m sayin’. Anyway, the actual album y’all came here for:

att. is Miko’s second studio album, and it did far better than TRAP KITTY in just about every possible measure. It hit Billboard’s top 10 Latin Albums chart, the top 10 Spain Albums chart, and it even managed to wriggle its way into Billboard’s 200 chart. I know that #129 doesn’t sound like very high praise, but keep in mind that a Spanish-speaking artist getting into the extremely-American Billboard charts AT ALL is still a fairly new phenomenon. Unless you’re already mega-famous, the only chance you have of scraping the charts as a non-American artist is by sheer luck and/or skill. What I’m saying is: a Latin album getting onto U.S. charts is a very, very big success, and the glow-up from Miko’s first album is astonishing. Unfortunately – and you were expecting this – att.‘s success doesn’t fully translate into enjoyment for me. Is it a bad album? No, of course not! But is it a great album? I have to say “no” to that.

I wanna stress something first. I’m going to spend an indeterminate amount of time talking about what doesn’t work about this album, but I just want it to be known that I don’t think anything is a total failure. I can be kind of disappointed by something and still think it’s solid music. Just keep that in mind whenever I’m roasting some kind of musical decision. Even if it’s not good, it’s still probably decent. So… what does this album get wrong, then? Well, a lot of the same things that plague other rap/reggaeton albums: a lack of variety. Miko is to blame for that just as much as any other part of the music; while I’ll forever love her Spanglish, her flows, and that unstoppable swagger she carries, Miko seems to lack direction and energy on this album’s weaker tracks. At times, att. becomes a run-of-the-mill project that doesn’t play to Miko’s strengths, whether that’s down to her performances or the production. There’s some amazing-sounding songs on here (and I’ll gush about them later), but for every song that slays, there’s another one that doesn’t do much more than paint by the numbers. Plenty of people worked on this album – including longtime producers Mauro and Caleb Calloway – and there often isn’t a whole lot to show for it. I could say the same for Miko: she isn’t always at full capacity, and unlike the leagues of hands this album passed through, that does show. She doesn’t give off the best first impression. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but… this is the Baby Miko we’re talking about here! She’s always excelled in the “trap banger” style that lots of rappers have done over the last several years. But hey, maybe I’m just getting ahead of myself. And maybe I’m being unfair. It’s pretty clear that Miko’s going for a different kind of album here, so I guess I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.

The more mellow and introspective tracks on att. are done reasonably well, even if I don’t get as much enjoyment out of them as I do the livelier tracks – but we’ll get to that later. The first half of the album, and maybe even the first two-thirds, suffer from the issues I already talked about: a lack of direction, a lack of energy, just not being that engaging, or any combination of the three. A lot of this album seems like Miko’s playing it too safe; a little too basic. And again, nothing wrong with that, but it amounts to an experience that doesn’t engage nearly as much as it could have. There’s a few bright spots in there; notably, “ID,” a single from the previous year, is an upbeat reggaeton cut with legendary duo Jowell & Randy. It’s easy to deduce this in retrospect, but I think it sort of acts as the precursor to their features on Tainy’s “COLMILLO,” which would come out a few months later. I like the latter more (in fact, it’s probably one of the best reggaeton songs from last year), but “ID” is a perfectly fine and dandy test run. “princess peach” is another first-half cut that I enjoy quite a lot; controversial, I suppose, considering that from what I’ve seen, this is generally regarded as one of the album’s weakest songs. And… I can’t say I get it. I like it. I don’t think it’s quite as strong as att.‘s truly great moments, but I’d never put this song towards the bottom. Then again, I’m not from Latin America, so who knows if I’m missing something? Oh, and for the record, “princess peach” has nothing to do with Nintendo’s legendary heroine. Just trust me on that one.

But you wanna know the strangest thing? After the underwhelming first and second acts, att. gets, like, really, really good? As soon as you hit the twelfth track, “wiggy,” it’s like Miko flips a switch or something, because all of a sudden, this album turns into a fun, loose Masterclass of Latin reggae-trap. This third act is (mostly) the highlight of the album, and it absolutely makes the entire project a more worthwhile listen. If you’re listening to the earlier sections and have the same kinds of problems I do, I can guarantee you that it gets better. If you’re willing to stick through the first thirty minutes, you’ll definitely be rewarded for it. I don’t know why Miko decided to stick her best songs at the very end, but I’m not exactly complaining. That song I just mentioned, “wiggy,” has all the charm and bounce that I felt was missing from before, and a lot of that charm comes from Miko’s interpolation of the 2002 song “Aserejé.” Las Ketchup – great name, by the way – got their fifteen minutes of fame with that song, as well as the ridiculous dance that went along with it. What everyone actually remembers about this song is that the chorus is complete nonsense. Take a look:

“Y aserejé ja de jé

De jebe tu de jebere sebiunouva

Majabi an de bugui an de buididipí

Aserejé ja de jé

De jebe tu de jebere sebiunouva

Majabi an de bugui an de buididipí

Aserejé ja de jé

De jebe tu de jebere sebiunouva

Majabi an de bugui an de buididipí”

Absolutely incomprehensible. There’s actually a reason why this Latin artifact has a bunch of moon man talk on it: this chorus is a transliteration of Sugar Hill Gang’s legendary chorus on “Rapper’s Delight.” That song, released in 1979, is frequently cited as one of the first rap songs ever made, and much like the rest of the song, the chorus has gone down in history. If you wanna compare it to what Las Ketchup did to it, here ya go:

“I said a hip, hop, the hippie – the hippie

To the hip hip-hop, and you don’t stop

The rock it to the bang-bang, boogie say ‘up jump’

The boogie to the rhythm of the boogie: the beat”

Listening to both of the songs, you can probably hear the similarities. Transliteration, in case you’re interested, is the act of transferring a word from one alphabetical script to another. It’s not about directly translating languages – although, in our case, the Ketchup ladies did have to translate Sugar Hill Gang’s chorus from English to Spanish, so that is an extra step. Ignoring that: let’s pretend we’re looking at, I don’t know, an adorable cat or something. With the Latin alphabet, we know that “cat” is spelled “cat.” But in the English Phonetic alphabet, “cat” is actually spelled “kæt.” It means the same thing, it’s just spelled differently. If you need some visualization, this picture should help.

And yes, this is still a music show. Miko interpolates these “lyrics” in the intro and on the chorus of “wiggy.” And it rules. The rest of the song is still a blast, even if it doesn’t have the novelty the chorus does. “MADRE,” the following song, rules in a completely different way. In addition to being Miko and Villano Antillano’s second team up, “MADRE” is an honest-to-God techno rap song. I am not joking. I was laughing out loud the very first time I heard it. There is absolutely no reason why this kind of song should work in the year 2024, but it does. The beat is laced with some real slick synthwork, the drums are going absolutely crazy in the background, Miko and Villano both sound great, and it’s got some real club-anthem energy to it. My favorite part is probably the build-up that happens before the refrain (and the chorus later); I just love the way Miko holds those notes at the end of each line.

Next up, we’ve got what I consider to be the crown jewel of att., and it’s a little ditty called “oye ma’.” It samples another old Latin song: 2005’s “El Tiburon” by Alexis Y Fido. At the very beginning of that song, our wonderful Alexis says the words “oye, ma…” and the rest is history. The only difference in the sample is that it’s slower than it was originally; the “ma” part really gets dragged out, which provides a completely different feeling. It’s most prominent on the chorus, wherein Miko actually lets the snippet play uninterrupted at the start of every measure. It kills, along with the rest of the song. “oye ma'” is pretty barebones, at least sonically: other than the plink-plonking synths and drums, the only thing that really keeps it tethered is that vicious bassline. It’s one of Miko’s best songs performance-wise. She slays. What else can I say?

“Curita” is a pretty average song as far as this album goes, so I’ll instead cap off my praise with the closing track, “pinot grigio.” If “oye ma'” didn’t exist, then this would probably be my favorite track on the entire album. Honestly, I’m still not sure which one I love more. I don’t have quite as much to say about this song – it just has a great beat and I love Miko’s voice. That’s pretty much it. It’s a neat little bow on an inconsistent present.

I’m still kind of in awe that all of these songs are at the end of att., because normally, you wanna put your best foot forward so people get hooked. Instead, Miko puts her… uh, least good foot forward and hopes that you’ll stick around until the end. I’m glad I stuck with it, because like I said earlier, the final third more than makes up for the rest of the album. It doesn’t erase what this album gets wrong; those issues I mentioned are still very much a hindrance. But those issues are softened by how well the backend carries itself. It’s got problems, clearly, and I don’t think it’s a super cohesive project in its entirety, but there’s enough great stuff here to where I’m comfortable saying that I like this album. Make it, I don’t know, twenty minutes shorter, and you’d be nearing perfection. But as it stands right now: Young Miko’s att. could be a lot better, but I’m quite happy that it’s not a lot worse. Miko’s still the queen.

ALBUM RATING: 7/10

TRACK RANKING:

1: oye ma’

2: pinot grigio

3: MADRE (ft. Villano Antillano)

4: ID (ft. Jowell & Randy)

5: wiggy

6: princess peach

7: tres tristes tragos

8: tamagotchi

9: curita

10: arcoíris

11: ay mami (ft. Dei V)

12: offline (ft. Feid)

13: f**k TMZ

14: no quiero pelear (ft. Elena Rose)

15: rookie of the year

16: en la pichi interlude

The post Miko: Trap Kitty first appeared on LCWR.

The post Miko: Trap Kitty appeared first on LCWR.

Mother’s Day isn’t until May 12th, but I guess Eladio Carrión just couldn’t wait to release his newest project Sol María. Who knows why?

Sol María is the sixth studio album from Puerto Rican rapper Eladio Carrión. Released on January 19th, 2024, Sol María blends elements of R&B and pop into Eladio’s typical trap style. This does, at the very least, make it stand out somewhat from the rest of his discography: most of Eladio’s prior music has been straight trap/reggaeton. The reason for this switchup? Well, Sol María is a seventeen-track album dedicated to Eladio’s mother, a lady whose name I cannot find anywhere on the Internet for some reason. I probably just didn’t look hard enough.

Anyway, Mom’s name isn’t terribly important to the rest of this story, because, unfortunately, Eladio doesn’t do a whole lot to honor the idea. Outside of a couple songs like “Mama’s Boy,” most of Sol María is about the exact same things everyone and their cats rap about: living a lavish life, ladies, expensive things, fame, and all that. That’s not me being critical or anything, but my point is: did you want to hear a heartfelt tribute to Eladio’s wonderful mother? Then go somewhere else, ‘cuz you sure aren’t gonna get it here. Sol María is a bog-standard album that happens to be masked by an excellent central ethos.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s boring or uninteresting. Eladio takes quite a lot of stylistic swings on Sol María, and even if the batting average is below par (I’ll stop mixing my metaphors now), I can at least respect the attempts at making something unique. And I will admit: some of them really do work, especially on the production side of things. Even if I don’t love all of them, there’s songs like “Sigo Enamorau'” and “La Canción Feliz Del Disco” that really work with the R&B and pop-infused production, respectively. I’d even argue that the latter is the best song on the entire album, although a lot of that comes down to Milo J’s excellent feature.

Speaking of features… Sol María‘s a pretty mixed bag in the artist feature department. If you mosey on down to my track ranking at the bottom, you’ll see just how lopsided the songs with features are. Milo J, Rauw Alejandro, Arcangel, De La Ghetto, and Nach all have good-to-great features that I enjoy.

Yandel has a decent verse that probably elevates Sigo Enamorau’ higher than it would be normally, even if I think that song is one of the better-produced ones on the record.

Oh boy… I hate to have to do this once again (see my EL AFTER DEL AFTER review for more pain), but Duki? What are you doing, man? This isn’t a very great verse! Why do you keep disappointing me? I would have loved it if Duki went absolutely ham on this solid beat, but he kinda phones it in with the same Temporada de Reggaeton style that I’m not a big fan of. Duki comes in many flavors; this is among his least delectable.

And finally, Sech has a completely forgettable verse on this album’s most forgettable song. ‘Nuff said. “El Malo” indeed.

I do think Sol María starts off promising: “Bendecido” is an alright opener, and we already discussed the song with Milo J. There’s some rocky bits, yes, but I find the first half of this album to be more consistently good than the second half. After the middling “El Malo,” the back half of Sol María is kind of a slog to get through. “Todo Lit” disappointed me for reasons I already whined about, “RKO” is at least a minute too short, “Fe, Cojones y Paciencia” is a waste of a perfectly good beat, and the list goes on. “Mencionar” is the only track in that seven-song stretch that I get some form of enjoyment out of, up until Eladio just about drags himself over the finish line with “Mama’s Boy,” an emotional and heartfelt ballad that wraps up the project on a high note.

So yeah. That’s Sol María. Sol María is okay. Sol María is just about what I expected from Eladio. Sol María simultaneously confounds me and dulls me. Sol María frequently tries to swing for the fences, but it usually ends up getting… I don’t know, a double instead of a home run? Maybe a triple if it’s lucky enough. I may not love it, but at the end of the day, I have to respect it. Still, there’s one thing I know for certain: Eladio Carrión and Sol María aren’t gonna get you to the World Series.

OVERALL RATING: 6.5/10

TRACKS RANKED

not rated: That mother****** Eladio (Skit) [I famously do not rate skits]

1: La Canción Feliz Del Disco (ft. Milo J)

2: Hey Lil Mama (ft. Rauw Alejandro)

3: Tanta Droga (ft. Arcangel, De La Ghetto)

4: Mama’s Boy (ft. Nach)

5: Mencionar

6: Tranquila Baby

7: Bendecido

8: Sigo Enamorau’ (ft. Yandel)

9: TQMQA

10: Todo Lit (ft. Duki)

11: Tu Ritmo

12: Sonrisa

13: Fe, Cojones y Paciencia

14: Luchas Mentales

15: RKO

The post Rap Moderno Review: Sol María first appeared on LCWR.

The post Rap Moderno Review: Sol María appeared first on LCWR.

Here’s a quick story about Rei’s 4X4. When I looked it up on Google, a piece of HDMI Matrix Switch software came up before the actual album. Turns out the company is named OREI, and the full name of the product is “Ultra HD 4×4 HDMI Matrix Switch 4K @60Hz With IR Remote.” An omen, perhaps.

4X4 is the second studio album from Argentine rapper Rei. Released on October 26th, 2023, 4X4 serves as a follow-up to 2021’s Reicing (yeah, great pun there, Rei). Rei isn’t quite as much of a veteran as a lot of his peers, but he still has a good four years of experience. And despite that two-year gap between albums, however, Rei was pretty busy during that time. He released and/or featured on nine singles during 2022, and he’s netted six more so far this year.

Only two of those songs ended up on 4X4, though: Turritta and Sin Berretín. The other six songs here were crafted specifically for the album. So at least it isn’t filled with songs I’ve heard already. And at least it’s short. Eight songs, twenty-one minutes. I can absolutely handle that. Especially considering that Rei’s 4X4 isn’t all that great. We’ll get to that. For now, just know that this album is a middling attempt at the tried and true Spanish trap formula.

Rei is easily the least interesting part of his own music, at least here. I don’t really mind his voice, and I think he usually has a decent flow, but the problem is that Rei is so one-note it ends up hurting the whole album. Do you want him to change up his cadence, or maybe experiment with some more interesting flows? Well, you aren’t gonna get it! Most of 4X4 shows Rei content with plastering a droning delivery and static flow on almost every song. I know I just said that I don’t mind Rei’s voice, but I do mind when he does very little to change it.

So on those grounds, it’s not so shocking that Rei is almost completely outclassed by the features. 4X4 has four features (on purpose, surely): Mesita on Una Tuca, YSY A on Sin Berretín, BM on Turrita, and LIT killah on Frío. And, yeah. It’s no contest. For the most part.

Mesita, oddly, doesn’t start the feature list on a strong note. He sounds just as bored as Rei does, even though he does make more of an attempt to switch up his style a little bit. Easily the weakest feature on the whole project, but hey, it’s only up from here.

YSY A completely washes Rei on Sin Berretín. Not surprising. I can kind of forgive how repetitive this track in particular is, because the beat slaps and YSY actually sounds like he wants to be there. Rei’s performance is actually pretty decent for once, but YSY’s just leagues above him. Again, not shocking.

BM has a pretty solid feature on Turrita. He has energy and shares quite a bit of it with Rei. I’d say that Turrita is one of the better songs in terms of performance anyway, so it kind of works.

And last but certainly not least, we have a feature from LIT killah. Lit and Rei have actually collaborated before, and I now think the score is one all. While I’m not all that impressed with Lit here (I’ve heard far better features from him), he still does way better than Rei. Not a terribly high bar to clear, though.

So the features are largely the best part of 4X4. Now I’ll move on to something else I think shines: the production. Most of the beats have a surprising amount of heart and energy behind them, which does, admittedly, make some of the more boring parts of this album a little more enjoyable to sit through. They aren’t varied enough to truly stand out most of the time, yes, but at least they still sound good. In a perfect world, I’d like it if the beats were on-par with the performer, but most of the time, they completely trample over Rei here. But it’s still a good thing that the beats are alright, because 4X4 would be a total dumpster fire if they weren’t. But there’s only so many ways I can explain how uninteresting Rei is.

Still, I have to give 4X4 some credit. It’s not a bad album. And I can at least see the foundations for a good time: solid production, solid features, and some concrete themes and topics to stick to. In the hands of a more talented and more varied rapper, 4X4 could be a great bite-sized record. But while Rei has a powerful engine, he doesn’t have quite enough gas to make it to the finish line. By all means, if you’re a fan of Rei and his past work, then you’ll probably like this too.

So if 4X4 isn’t a bad album, then what is it? All signs point to “boring” in this case. Nothing about these songs are offensively bad or lackluster, but a lot of them lack an identity. To tell you the truth, it’d be more interesting if this completely sucked instead. At least that would give me an excuse to talk about all the negatives. But no. 4X4 doesn’t completely suck. It’s a mostly serviceable trap album – just one with a few bursts of speed and plenty of speed bumps. I probably would have gotten more entertainment out of that Matrix Switch thing, to be honest.

OVERALL RATING: 6/10

TRACKS RANKED

1: Sin Berretín

2: Frío

3: Fuletón

4: Turrita

5: Gitano y Sincero

6: Una Tuca

7: amor.com

8: Wantantan

The post Rap Moderno Review: 4X4 first appeared on LCWR.

The post Rap Moderno Review: 4X4 appeared first on LCWR.

EL AFTER DEL AFTER is the fifth studio album from Argentine rapper YSY A. Released on (as usual) November 11th, 2023, EL AFTER explores an all-new territory for the 25-year-old rapper: techno. And if alarms are going off in your head, don’t worry. This album still has all the stylings of a modern rap album that you’d come to expect from someone like YSY. But to be completely honest with you, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this; when he announced that EL AFTER would be following a completely new direction, the chance of me guessing that “techno” and “trance” would be the primary inspirations was next to nonexistent. And in perhaps the biggest surprise, YSY actually pulled it off. Kind of. We’ll get to that.

First, though, I’d like to talk about the production – because how could I not? A trap/techno album? How could you possibly do that while maintaining a huge roster of Latin America’s best producers? Well, in YSY’s case, you don’t! For the first time since 2018, executive production returned to long-time collaborator ONIRIA, who has production credits on all eleven tracks. I find it helps to think of YSY as the bread and ONIRIA as the butter. Their careers have been intertwined for years.

And despite ONIRIA being an old pro at this, I found myself surprised at how middle-of-the-road most of EL AFTER’s production is. But I find it hard to fault him for such middling production choices: ONIRIA is, notably, not a techno producer. Not shockingly, having a rap producer make a bunch of rap beats infused with trance and techno is pretty untrodden ground. So I won’t be too harsh on it. It works. It doesn’t work all the time, but it works. It has the necessary energy, and not much else. That’s all I’ll say about the production for now.

I suppose it’s important for me to mention that I can only say so much about the lyrics. In case I haven’t made it obvious enough yet, I am not even remotely fluent in Spanish. And of course, trying to machine translate anything into English tends to be a very unhelpful process most of the time. There’s only so much I can do by myself, and as much as I’d love to have some kind of reference for doing this show, that just isn’t possible at the moment. So any sayings, slang, regional dialect, etc. go over my head nine times out of ten. What does this have to do with anything? I dunno. I just feel like I have to mention this, since I can’t really review the lyrical content outside of the broadest sense. I apologize for my highly-limiting perspective, but that’s kind of what ends up happening when a gringo like myself takes an interest to a different culture.

Anyway. Back to the album. I’ve always known that YSY combines his impeccable flow with a competent pen game, so I’ll just go ahead and assume that his lyrics on EL AFTER are as sharp as ever. The general lyrical content, of course, hasn’t changed; YSY’s still content to talk about women, alcohol, drugs, fame, expensive things, and most of the things you’d expect a rapper to sing about. Pretty par for the course. But his actual performance? I’m not so sure. To put it simply, this isn’t the best I’ve heard him at.

One of YSY’s most entertaining aspects is his flow and cadence. He’s truly one of a kind, at least in the sense that he can pull off a delivery and flow that basically no one else can. And it pains me to say this, but I think this tonal shift ended up hurting YSY’s performance. There just isn’t enough variety or energy for me to completely buy into this new style. Additionally, I know I said that the instrumentals were largely middling and uninteresting, but they’re easily more entertaining than the actual guy performing over them. And that sucks! YSY’s always been the most interesting part of his own music, but that simply isn’t the case on EL AFTER. It’s more of a phone-in than anything else.

But I will give YSY a bit of credit: there are a few tracks on EL AFTER where he sounds more at home. The best example I can use comes from the ninth track, LOCO X TU CUERPO. In terms of energy, it’s probably the least-energetic on the whole album, but YSY’s more laidback and melodic tone makes it work. I suppose the feature from Lara91k also helps, but I’ll go over the features later. But yeah, LOCO X TU CUERPO is one of the better tracks, in my opinion. Mostly since YSY’s performance seems to match the beat in terms of intensity and energy.

So at this point, I think I have to ask myself a question. Is it really YSY that lets this whole album down, or is it the fact that his performance is outmatched by the music around him? I really don’t know. As one-note and uninteresting as the instrumentals are, they still have that bounce you’d want in an album like this. If that’s what ONIRIA’s sole goal was for EL AFTER, then I think he did a pretty good job. But as I hope I’ve made it very clear by now: these beats are usually at odds with YSY’s performances. And combining the plain beats with YSY’s underwhelming performance means that, at times, EL AFTER ends up being a surprisingly uninteresting listen.

And I want to stress this real quick: I do not think EL AFTER DEL AFTER is a bad album. In fact, I like it. It’s a good album, and there’s some genuinely great songs on it. However, when you compare EL AFTER to the rest of YSY’s catalog (maybe excluding 2021’s TRAP DE VERDAD), it’s an abject disappointment. For all its faults, TRAP DE VERDAD still had a soul and sounded like an YSY album – and I could probably say the same for his recent collaboration album with Bhavi. TU DUO FAVORITO wasn’t perfect, obviously, but only YSY and Bhavi could have made it. But EL AFTER lacks that kind of soul and personality. The music may still be good, but it’s not as filling as I’d hoped for. It leaves the listener wanting more.

My first listen of EL AFTER DEL AFTER began seconds after it was released on the morning of November 11th. It started off pretty well. I was waiting for my breakfast to cook, so I didn’t actually have anything to do except listen. And I liked it at first. TODA LA VIDA is a solid album opener, LUGARES QUE LLEGO is probably my favorite song of the whole album, and + QUE LA DROGA is actually pretty good. But by the fourth track, the magic starts to wear off. After a great opening, the next five tracks almost feel like driving through mud. YSY lackes energy, the beats are bland, and all that other stuff I already mentioned. But tracks nine, ten, and eleven? Much better. Similarly to the very beginning, EL AFTER ends on a high note. LOCO X TU CUERPO, ASESINO and GANAS do a fairly good job of closing the album, and I feel like they’re some of the only songs on the whole album where YSY’s innovation and polish really starts to come back in. So my verdict on the tracklist? EL AFTER DEL AFTER’s tracks are like a turkey sandwich: the bread is the greatest artisan bread you’ve ever tasted, but the turkey is bland, dry, and flavorless. It’s still a good sandwich, yes, but you know you can do better.

I suppose now’s a good time to get to the features. After last year’s YSYSMO had not a single feature, it feels good to have some different voices in an YSY A album for once. At least that’s what I told myself when I saw the tracklist. EL AFTER has five features: Quevedo on LUGARES QUE LLEGO, Duki on NO DA MÁS, Jere Klein on 24/7 6.5, Lara91k on LOCO X TU CUERPO, and Xina Mora on ASESINO. Sounded fine at first. But now that I’ve had the time to swirl this album around in my brain, I have to admit that EL AFTER’s features are a mixed bag.

Even though I like his feature here, Quevedo adds absolutely nothing to LUGARES QUE LLEGO. It doesn’t need to exist, but I’m fine with it existing. I absolutely hate saying this, but I’m not a fan of Duki’s feature on NO DA MAS. And it pains me to say that. I love Duki. He’s one of my favorites. But I don’t like this feature. Higher-pitched, melodic Duki is not my favorite flavor of Duki, but that’s what you get here.

Jere Klein is on 24/7 6.5. That’s all I have to say.

Lara91k has probably my favorite feature on the album. I like her vocal passages, and I think she works really well on a more stripped-back track like this. LOCO X TU CUERPO didn’t really stand out to me all that much on my first listen, but I really do think it’s one of EL AFTER’s better songs. Lara is largely responsible for that.

Xina Mora’s fine? I guess? Not really interesting or noteworthy. But she’s there. ASESINO’s actually one of YSY’s better songs performance-wise, which is probably why Xina doesn’t really stand out that much.

So do you still believe me when I say that I don’t dislike EL AFTER DEL AFTER? Because I don’t. It’s a good album, even if it’s not my cup of tea. Might not seem like that at first, but at the end of the day, it’s an YSY A album, and I’m probably going to like an YSY A album no matter what it is. It just so happened that I talked mostly about the negatives because of how much more interesting they are to talk about. The good things about this album (and there are plenty of them) are just that: good. Not great. Very few moments of EL AFTER strike me as genuinely amazing, but that doesn’t make it a bad album. Because it’s not. It’s just easier for me to talk about its weaker aspects in this case. What we’re left with, then, is a somewhat muddled and confusing reinvention from one of Argentina’s most volatile rappers. And even though I probably won’t return to it outside of the songs I like the most, I still have to respect YSY and this weird little album he pushed out. And if I had to sum it all up in one sentence, it’d probably go something like this:

While never dipping into mediocrity, YSY A’s EL AFTER DEL AFTER stumbles just as often as it runs.

OVERALL RATING: 7

TRACKS RANKED:

 1: LUGARES QUE LLEGO

2: GANAS

3: + QUE LA DROGA

4: LOCO X TU CUERPO

5: ASESINO

6: TODA LA VIDA

7: NO NEGOCIO CON MI ALMA

8: COPENHAGUE

9: NO DA MÁS

10: 24/7 6.5

11: NUNCA ENTENDEMO

The post Rap Moderno Review: EL AFTER DEL AFTER first appeared on LCWR.

The post Rap Moderno Review: EL AFTER DEL AFTER appeared first on LCWR.