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When the producers of VGLY first came up with the idea in 2018 for a series that would capture the ever-evolving landscape of Mexican music, they may have been ahead of their time.

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Produced by Candle Media’s Exile Content Studio and directed by Sebastián Sariñana, the 13-episode series made its debut over the summer on HBO Max, with renowned Mexican artist Camilo Lara (Mexican Institute of Sound) as its music producer.

Season one follows a crew of young visionaries (from rappers to producers and creative directors) on their quest to stand out in a crowded field of emerging urbano artists in Mexico City’s neighborhood “La Guerrero.” The journey to the top is anything but smooth sailing. Along the way, the aspiring rapper- singer VGLY (Benny Emmanuel) and his friends learn how to navigate the industry the hard way. He even starts beef with nemesis Lil Vato, played by corridos tumbados pioneer Natanael Cano, which only leads to back-and-forth diss tracks.

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The series — renewed this month for a season two — is soundtracked by original music overseen by Lara and songs licensed by Exile Music (which also marketed and distributed the soundtrack), which perfectly capture the zeitgeist of música mexciana today. Featuring trap, cumbia, reggaetón and corridos tumbados, “this series came at the right moment,” says Lara, who’s produced music for award-winning films such as Coco and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. “We all knew there were huge things happening in Mexico with new producers and artists — trap was bubbling and so were corridos tumbados — so this series is polaroid of what’s been happening and that’s really beautiful.”

For the series’ original music soundtrack, Lara worked with a handful of emerging producers and artists in Mexico to create a wide-ranging album powered by hip-hop, trap and corridos featuring Cano, VGLY and other emerging acts from the series including Triana and Trippy B. “The idea for the music was to have these songs that were produced by young producers that are actually working in the hip-hop world and are part of the landscape,” explains Lara. “Mexico City also serves as a canvas because if you think about it, everything is a key player in that city so we wanted to deconstruct the sounds to create our own universe.”

VGLY‘s universe is a reflection of not only the versatile new generation of Mexican artists but the spotlight that the country has today with Mexican music reaching global masses. “I would say it’s about time,” Lara says categorically. “It’s something I would fight in the early days. Back then I was trying to convince the world that cumbia was cool, then it happened. The same with regional Mexican music. This new generation of artists, they live in both worlds: the digital and the traditional. They understood that music is popular art so you have to reshape it, remodel it, change it. That’s the beauty of it. I couldn’t be more proud of what is happening.”

In May, local authorities of a famous resort in Cancún, Mexico, banned live concerts of corridos tumbados, and other musical genres that authorities believe encourage violence. 
At the same time, in the United States and in Mexico, the most important artist of the moment in Latin music is Peso Pluma, the newest Mexican star who this week has 11 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated July 15).

And while Peso Pluma is known for many styles of music, from romantic sierreño (like the hit “Ella Baila Sola” with Eslabon Armado) to party songs like “La Bebe Remix” with Yng Lvcas, he also sings corridos tumbados, a subgenre of traditional Mexican corridos that fuses rap, hip-hop and even reggaetón, and that often openly address the issue of weapons and drugs.  

He’s not the only one. Artists such as Natanael Cano, Junior H, Luis R. Conriquez and Fuerza Regida, among many others, also sing corridos tumbados as part of their repertoire, managing to enter the global Billboard charts with those songs. 

The music can be successful, but in Mexico, it has been a source of controversy. Along with their popularity, corridos tumbados raise controversy precisely because of their lyrical themes, in a country with thousands of violent deaths and more than 111,000 missing people, according to official data. 

Performances of narcocorridos — corridos that narrate the lives and exploits of real or fictional drug traffickers — have been banned in several Mexican states for decades, and now, those bans have been extended against corridos tumbados in some places. 

Specifically, on May 18, local authorities did not allow a second concert by Alfredo Ríos, better known as El Komander, to take place.

El Komander had a second show scheduled for May 19 at the Plaza de Toros along with Chuy Lizárraga, Ángel Preciado and Francisco “El Gallo” Elizalde. But the general secretary of the Cancún City Council, Jorge Aguilar Osorio, announced on social media that the city council had approved a new measure that would not allow the concert to take place. 

“Not allowing the concert to take place has to do with the fact that the city council has decided not to continue authorizing public performances that encourage violence,” said Aguilar Osorio. “We do not limit freedom of expression. Artists can sing whatever music they want. But the authorities cannot have this ambiguity of looking for a better, more peaceful society and, on the other hand, raise alerts every time we have these concerts due to the probabilities of violence that these type of public spectacles can generate”. 

Controversial Rhythms 

The controversy that corridos tumbados generate today is the same that was generated in the past by the so-called narcocorridos, which glorify drug traffickers. 

Because it is considered a justification for the crime, the dissemination of narcocorridos has been prohibited since the early 2000s in the states of Baja California, Chihuahua and Sinaloa, the latter is the home state of Mexican cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. The prohibition consists of million-dollar fines and even the veto of concerts for those who perform them live. 

Sanctions against corridos have even reached popular groups like Los Tigres del Norte, fined in 2017 by Chihuahua authorities for singing narcocorridos, and Los Tucanes de Tijuana, who were banned by Tijuana authorities in 2008 from playing live for allegedly giving a shout out to a capo during a concert in that city. 

As for corridos tumbados, these are equally popular among the youth on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. The lyrics about drug use and the war between cartels are a fundamental part of the composition — although over time, some performers have integrated lyrics of love and heartbreak. 

“People like the sound of tumbados and when the new genre started, they sang about drugs and other situations, but now they sing about heartbreak,” Danny Felix, singer-songwriter and co-writer of several of Natanael Cano’s first hits, told Billboard Español.

For Oswaldo Zavala, journalist and academic at the City University of New York (CUNY), the justification discourse is based on a political-social position that seeks to regulate this type of cultural expression associated with drug trafficking. 

“There is a way of imagining northern Mexico as a place of violence, in the case of corridos tumbados, or Latin America in general, and also of a lot of sensuality and eroticism. These two pathways are constantly activated in much of the popular music that is currently consumed,” Zavala says.

The issue of corridos is so debated that even the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has spoken about it on several occasions. “Forbidden to prohibit,” he said last week in one of his daily conferences with the press, stressing that he did not believe in censorship. But, he added: “We have the right and obligation to guide young people and give our opinion that nothing that leads to drug use should not be accepted […] There is a wide repertoire of songs that have nothing to do with drugs or with violence.” 

New Music Latin is a compilation of the best new Latin songs and albums recommended by Billboard Latin and Billboard Español editors. Check out this week’s picks below.

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Greeicy & Danny Ocean, “ZHA” (Universal Music Latino)

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Greeicy is in the midst of rolling out her most conceptual project yet: Yeliana, an album that continues with the release of her new single, the Danny Ocean collab “ZHA.” With hard-thumping beats and sultry electro-urban fusions, “ZHA” references a sensual connection between two people whose bodies want “zha, zha, zha.” “I know you have a super power/you can tell that you know how to move/come get close to my body to see,” Danny Ocean kicks off in his raspy tone. “Your body and mine, it’s so good, I don’t want it to stop,” Greeicy sings back. In the music video, directed by Paloma, we see the Colombian pop star take over a dance studio with her impeccable moves, killer body and uttermost confidence. Ocean is not featured in the clip. “ZHA” is the third chapter of Yeliana, a set Greeicy began working on during her pregnancy, and follows chapter one with singles “Que Me Quiera” and “Lokita;” and chapter two with singles “I Try For You” and “Química.” — JESSICA ROIZ

Kevin Kaarl, “mis compas tan aquí” (Kevin Kaarl)

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Mexican singer-songwriter Kevin Kaarl shares a beautiful song about the value of friendship entitled “mis compas tan aquí (My Buddies Are Here).” With his characteristic folk style and his signature deep voice, the artist reflects on the power of friendship to help people out of difficult times. “It is a song in which I portray what it is like to be with them after having a bad time, and in which I am grateful for that good company,” he says about the track. The accompanying music video showcases the artist sharing different activities with a group of friends, in scenes that feel like they were taken from a classic childhood film. “In a patio, in a barbecue, in the desert, in your house, I’m at my best,” goes part of the lyrics. — LUISA CALLE

Ivonne Galáz, “Normal” (Rancho Humilde)

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The Mexican singer-songwriter has released Jupiter, a new seven-track set and the first since her debut album Voy En Camino released in 2021. As ever, Galáz wears her heart on her sleeve delivering ultra emotional songs on love and heartbreak powered by complex requinto lines. “Normal” is a standout track on Jupiter — the album’s name is inspired by her mother, who’d tell Galáz that she loved her from Earth to Jupiter — thanks to its ultra-relatable lyrics about the grief that comes after a loved one’s departure. “It’s normal to feel this way knowing that I won’t ever see you again,” she sings over equally nostalgic acoustic guitar notes. “I’m suffering, although I don’t show it/ But inside I feel more than lost.” — GRISELDA FLORES

Nicole Zignago, “No Quiero Olvidarte” (Warner Music México)

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With its upbeat drums, guitar riffs and utterly contagious chorus, “No Quiero Olvidarte” is a quintessential pop song that reminds us why Nicole Zignago was a 2022 Latin Grammy nominee for best new artist. The heartbreak tune about not wanting to forget a toxic relationship you’re ready to put behind, “speaks of the scar, of the indelible mark that person leaves in your life,” the Peruvian-born singer-songwriter explains in a press release. “It is a song dedicated to forgetting the old love, but not the damage they did. It is a song to shout and remember not to return to make the same mistakes.” Powered by lyrics like “And what do I do if I can’t anymore/ And what do I do with the memories/ They will stay there because I don’t want to forget you,” its catchy chorus will get stuck in your head for days — as will some of the scenes in the music video, which portrays the ups and downs of a doomed love between two women. — SIGAL RATNER-ARIAS

C. Tangana, “Oliveira Dos Cen Años” (Sony Music)

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On C. Tangana’s ceremonial hymn “Oliveira Dos Cen Años,” the Spanish star pays tribute to Galician ancestral folk in an emotional piece that unites different symbols of Vigo culture. The anthem celebrates Celta de Vigo turning 100 years this August, joining the legendary “centenary club” of Spanish soccer. Opening with a powerful chorus, the numerous voices gently crescendo towards trance-inducing effects, courtesy of Coral Casablanca… and then it transitions into a frenzy. With seemingly out-of-body chanting, ritualistic percussion and twinkling strings to end it, the Madrileño manages to invigorate the listener, no matter what soccer team you’ve been rooting for. Heck, there are even headlines in the Spanish press that say, “What C. Tangana has done for Celta is not an anthem, it’s a tear-jerking machine.” Celtic groups Tropas de Breogán, Keltoi!, and As Lagharteiras, also star in the ode. — ISABELA RAYGOZA

Stream the New Music Latin playlist below: