I’ve never delved too deep into Mexican or Latin music before, and I guess the closest I’ve come to listening to some native Mexican music is Mariachi El Bronx. But those are some white dudes from Los Angeles, and even though it is awesome as hell, it can’t really be seen as the real thing, can it? So through Luis R. Conriquez, I’ve gotten to listen to an album of corridos from the 21st century, and at first listen I gotta say that I am mesmerized. 

First of all, it’s the music. Cause let’s face it, I have no idea what these dudes are singing about. That’s a problem of course, cause a corrido is a story, and I’m not capable of following any of it. That’s too bad, but it doesn’t ruin anything…for me at least. Cause as I said, the music. The band that plays this music sounds amazing. Everything from the horns to the guitar, to the accordion. And the singers, cause all of these songs a collaborations between Luis and other artists, are nothing short of awesome. A lot of the artists have voices that at first listen can sound a bit poor, or unsuited for music, but as soon as I started listening closely I realized that’s just a stupid thing to say. Cause these guys know exactly what they are doing, and I’m pretty sure this is the only way a corrido artist should sound.

But yeah, the fact that I don’t know what these songs are about made me do some research about Luis R. Conriquez, and of course the art of corridos. A corrido is basically a story, a famous narrative that forms a ballad. They are often about themes like oppression, history, romance, the vaquero lifestyle. And then you’ve got narcocorridos, which are basically the gangster rap version of corridos. Narcocorridos are typically about drug smuggling, violence, murder, poverty, corruption, crime, and a lot of them have accurate dates describing events that have happened. Narcocorridos became popular when drug lords started having influence, and people started idolizing them to the point where they wanted to pay tribute. Drug lords even pay artists to write a narcocorrido as a message to rivals, and are very popular on Youtube. These videos often have a banner saying ‘Approved by the Cartel’. And as far as i know, the Mexican government has tried to ban narcocorridos, which is why most of the songs are only available through US radio stations, Youtube, and the likes of those.

Conriquez is meddling in a style called corridos bélcios (as the album title suggests), which are corridos influenced by hip-hop and Latin trap music, with lyrics like the narcocorridos. He is considered a pioneer of the genre, and is nicknamed ‘’El Rey de Corridos Bélcios’’. He mostly sings about romance and everyday life, but has released tracks like JGL, a hit single with references to the drug lord Joaquin ‘’El Chapo’’ Guzmán, and the Sinaloa Cartel. So I guess that about sums it up.

But I do like this album. The album cover should have told me a lot, as it looks like a 1990s gangster rap cover, but I had no idea if it was supposed to be funny or not, cause to be honest, it could go both ways. But this is a great introduction to Mexican music, and it absolutely makes me wanna check out more artists, and more of Luis R. Conriquez. He has been releasing music since 2019, so there is more out there. If you just wanna check out a couple of songs, and don’t wanna spend an hour and five minutes right away, I would start you off with A Punta de Balazos (another song that references ‘’El Chapo’’, found out after I googled translated the text, and yeah, it’s pretty gangster), just to get a feel for it, and Sin Tanto Royo, which was the single he released to promote this album. I’m smitten, and if I had to choose between this and American gangster rap, the choice would be simple.