Peso Pluma

While “Ella Baila Sola”, Peso Pluma’s 2023 collaboration with the band Eslabon Armado, became the first música mexicana song to climb to the top of the charts, the Mexican singer refuses to take all the credit. “I’m so happy that I’m not the only one, you know?” Pluma told Apple Music in celebration of his breakthrough album, GÉNESIS. “I’m just too happy for all these Latin music/urban artists who are planting their flags and putting Hispanic music on top of the world.” Born Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija in Jalisco in 1999, Peso Pluma (a nickname meaning “featherweight”) started recording music as a teenager, quickly becoming one of the foremost young voices in música mexicana. Traditional as his sound can lean, part of what makes the Apple Music Up Next artist appealing is his ability to braid those traditions with contemporary sounds and attitudes, whether it’s the trap-like heaviness of “PRC” and “AMG” or the rough lilt of “EL HECHIZO”. “It’s crazy, huh?” he said after performing with Becky G at Coachella. “That was my first festival in the world.” Turns out it wouldn't be his last, commanding the festival's main stage the following year with a sprawling set that schooled his global audience on música mexicana gods Ariel Camacho and Valentín Elizalde, and spotlighting his corridos bélicos cohort, Luis R Conriquez. Peso Pluma's ascent has unlocked riveting pop culture hallmarks including a crossover with the ever-viral Bizarrap on “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 55”, and a lot of media attention. Versatile and in hot demand, he dropped silky bars on Kali Uchis’ disco-tinged “Igual Que Un Ángel” and linked up with Brazilian powerhouse Anitta for the reggaetón wiles of “BELLAKEO”. But corridos are his first and dearest love, and his 2024 LP ÉXODO all but seals this marriage, showing love for his tumbado brothers Junior H and Eslabon Armado on “LA DURANGO” and winking to his genre nimbleness alongside Rich The Kid with “Gimme a Second”.