“When you believe in something and allow life to flow, then you can understand that everything happening in your path—including the bad stuff—brought you to where you are now,” JHAYCO tells Apple Music. “Lately I go to bed and feel excited about waking up. There’s so much to do that I look forward to the next day.” Ultimately, Jesús Manuel Nieves Cortes was patient and believed in the process. Much has changed since his beginnings as a producer and songwriter for other artists. After concocting Famouz Reloaded and searching for eternity in music with Timelezz, now he’s found fulfilment with Le Clique: Vida Rockstar (X). Three interconnected chapters make up this 2024 album. The Puerto Rican artist’s avant-garde tendencies find inspiration in punk rock and deep house to depict the specific moment in time when the luxuries of a cosmopolitan rock star finally made sense to him. “This was the perfect moment for this project,” he explains. “An album is a fragment of your soul, and your life is reflected in the finished songs. They stem from your experiences, and this is me having fun with music.” We talked with the artist known as La Presión about some of the key tracks on the album. “Vida Rockstar” “This is so important to me, because the album cannot justify its title without a punk rock tune that sums up its energy. I worked on this one with Tainy and Hype. It reminds me of going to stores like Hot Topic or Vans—the punk energy of the 2000s. It mirrors this particular moment in my life, because this is what I dress like today, using that era as inspiration. It has sentimental value, and it’s the perfect track to kick things off.” “Porsche Carrera” (feat. Yandel and Haze) “This one’s very special to me. In Puerto Rico we have something called residenciales—government-sponsored buildings for people of low income, and yet there’s a lot of culture in them. You take a shower, get dressed and go outside at 6 or 7 to ride motorbikes and get together with your friends. There was always a lot of music in those apartments, from morning to night, and obviously we listened to a lot of Wisin & Yandel. They led an entire era. I remember listening to their music through the window and feeling inspired by the moods and colours of what they did. Creating a fusion based on that sound, marked by the nostalgia of my youth, but blending it with today’s style—that feels like a huge achievement to me.” “En La Bentley” “I like this one because it’s different—it has that deep-house essence. I love deep house, and it’s always present in my music, like on ‘En Mi Cuarto’ or ‘DÁKITI’. It sounds a bit techno, but I’m not a hardcore electronica fan. Here I wanted to feel like I was a DJ at a club, showing off what I can do with my set. Starting in a deep-house mood and suddenly morphing into reggaetón.” “Passoa” (feat. Kapo) “When I recorded ‘DÁKITI’, I wanted to make a song that everybody could like. I tried to repeat this with ‘Passoa’—a song that is not linked to any culture, language, age or ethnicity. It doesn’t matter if you’re a boy or a girl, a surfer, rapper or doctor. You will like it either way. I think it’s a transcendental song, because it’s ageless and multicultural. Every track on this album reflects a different hobby of mine. I love sailing. Whenever I return home, I rent a boat and sail away into the sea as a way of disconnecting myself from everything. The sea rejuvenates my mind, energy and ideas. Here I explain what I feel like when I’m at the beach, my favourite pastime.” “XX” “There was a time, before I started singing, when I wrote for an artist who will remain unnamed. That’s when I learned about storytelling through song. In this day and age, sometimes it’s all about focusing on a catchy chorus and the punchlines, without thinking of a narrative. That’s what this song is about—a proper story—and it lacks the structure of a bubblegum chorus. I tend to be passionate and sentimental, and this song allows me to showcase that side—the same thing I did before, when I was writing songs for the stars.” “Viene BASQUIAT…” “This talks about a different time in my life, one that was absent from this album. If you pay attention, you will notice that the sound is different. It’s a clue, a part of me that is not rosy. It’s more about Jesús Manuel, another perspective that focuses on the person who loves art and paintings, going to museums, drinking coffee in the morning, listening to jazz when I wake up. I love film, the art of cinematography and scoring, the work of Hans Zimmer. My other pastime, when I’m not at the beach, is watching movies and paying attention to who was the director, who wrote the music. Those details are very important to me.” “Murci” “My Miami alter ego makes an appearance here. This song talks about things that many people may not understand, starting with the title, which stems from the word murciélago. It’s a high-end trap, far away from the streets and the gunfire. It talks about hotels, restaurants and luxury items, with lines like ‘Llamaron del lobby que tengo que atender una noche’ [‘They rang from the lobby, I have to attend a gala’] or ‘ando en Zuma’ [‘I’m at Zuma’], which happens to be my favourite Miami restaurant. It’s about some of my experiences, so you will understand what’s going on if you have lived well. It’s not only about the money, but also about having travelled, been to restaurants, gone out with many women. Only then can you write a trap song like this one.”