Billboard Espanol

Myke Towers was just a child when he saw the future. On his way to school in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, he had his first real-life glimpse of Tego Calderón, the Black rapper who at the time was one of the island’s — and Latin music’s — biggest stars. 
“I was a little kid with a backpack, and he was in a huge Cadillac,” Towers recalls. “When you see that in real life, you don’t forget. Tego saw just another kid. But for me — on my way to school — that was a Kodak moment. You get it? It was, ‘Wow, if Tego did it, how can I do it my way?’ ” 

That chance encounter set in motion the way Towers saw himself: as a Puerto Rican act whose core is rap but who also sings reggaetón; who collaborates prolifically but releases mostly solo albums; who is notoriously private but identifies strongly as a Black artist. And now, following the huge success of his 2023 hit “Lala,” and with the backing of Warner Music, as a Latin urban artist who is willing to experiment to gain global success. 

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On April 25, Towers released “Adivino,” the focus track from his upcoming album, La Pantera Negra, due out likely at the end of May. Featuring Bad Bunny, “Adivino” is dance banger with a subtle reggaetón beat built over padded synths; it’s ear candy with pop leanings, as “Lala” was, but it’s also romantic and wistful and unexpected in its downtempo breaks. 

It’s an auspicious kickoff for La Pantera Negra (The Black Panther) — an album Towers says goes back “to what I like to do musically, and to what people liked about my essence from the beginning, when they got to know me and said, ‘This kid has the goods.’ ” 

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Its single notwithstanding, La Pantera Negra is mostly a solo effort, and “a priority for the entire company,” says Warner Music Latin America president Alejandro Duque, who has plans to support the album beyond traditional Latin music markets and into places like Europe, where Towers is touring this summer. 

“Latin music’s influence and global impact are undeniable. But Myke’s versatile flow and magnetic presence go beyond the confines of any single language or culture,” adds Max Lousada, CEO of recorded music for Warner Music Group, who was heavily involved in signing Towers to a global distribution deal with Warner Music Latina and Warner Records in 2021. “He effortlessly experiments with new sounds and pushes the boundaries of artistic expression. We’re proud to support Myke’s journey as he continues to make his mark with original music that is exciting fans around the world.” 

La Pantera Negra is the follow-up to 2023’s La Vida Es Una, which in turn spawned global hit “Lala,” a chill, downtempo dance track with a reggaetón beat that was a departure from Towers’ more urban fare. Given the extraordinary success of “Lala” — it hit No. 1 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart — Towers’ 1.8 billion on demand streams in the United States alone, according to Luminate, and his more than 44 million Spotify listeners (making him No. 61 on the platform), expectations are high for the set. 

But Towers is looking straight ahead. 

“Obviously, I know there’s [a lot going on], but I try to make it just another day at the office,” he says. “Because that’s how I did these songs. Another day at the office. I’m not looking for the hit, nor losing my focus. I always try to stay on the same wavelength.” 

Myke Towers photographed April 11, 2024 at House Of Hits Recording Studio in Miami.

Natalia Aguilera

Towers is chatting and playing new music inside a black SUV that’s driving slowly through Miami’s Design District on a Thursday night. It’s 10 p.m., shops are shuttered, and there are few people out. But Towers, notoriously private, wanted a private space, and this is it. Still, there’s a cluster of people inside: his driver and trainer in the front seat, his publicist and security in the back, and Towers and myself in the middle. 

Like so many Puerto Rican urban artists, Towers — who tonight is dressed in a light blue track suit — likes traveling in packs. But unlike many, he can truly compartmentalize and command those around him. Later, he will tell me that when he’s working in the studio, “Everyone has to behave like we’re on a spaceship; focused on the project at hand, no distractions.” 

Which explains why tonight it’s quiet inside the SUV as he pulls out a good bottle of Caymus Cabernet (“I heard you like wine,” he says) from his backpack, pours it into small plastic wine glasses he shares with his publicist and I before playing a few tracks from La Pantera Negra. 

Aside from Towers’ collaboration with Bunny, their first since “Puesto Pa’ Guerrial” in 2020, there’s a collab with Peso Pluma, “who I really like how he understands reggaetón,” Towers says. “Obviously it’s a Mexican representation, but reggaetón style, which he does well.” 

Other new names in the mix include Benny Blanco, who produced one of the strongest tracks on the set, a remix of a classic 1990s American pop/folk track that speaks to Towers’ respect for the past; every one of his albums includes a look back. 

But overwhelmingly, La Pantera Negra is a return to Towers’ origins, literally, musically and figuratively. 

“There was a legendary person in my neighborhood [Quintana, in Río Piedras] who had several panthers as pets. One escaped and it was a mess. So I said, ‘I’m from here. I’m the black panther of Quintana,’ ” Towers recalls. 

But it’s also impossible to ignore the symbolism of the “Black Panther” moniker and all it conveys, which is why Towers waited to use the name at a time when he truly embodied it. 

“It’s something I’ve been called before, but I had to believe it. When you’re the protagonist of something, you don’t really see what’s going on until others do. That happened to me.” 

La Pantera Negra, the album, kicks off with the eponymous track that describes where Towers is now and how he feels: powerful. “I feel we’re in a good moment, we have staying power. I can give people something they’re not used to, but it also helps me because when I go back to my essence, you feel the contrast.” 

And after “Lala,” which was a musical departure for Towers, “La Pantera Negra goes back to my essence.”

Myke Towers photographed April 11, 2024 at House Of Hits Recording Studio in Miami.

Natalia Aguilera

But what exactly is Towers’ essence? Musically, it’s clear. He navigates between reggaetón and rap — although he clearly prefers the latter — with clear influences from Puerto Rican hip-hop pioneers like Daddy Yankee and Calderón as well as commercially successful rappers like Jay-Z and Drake, with his albums alternately focusing more on one style than the other. 

From a personal standpoint, Towers is more enigmatic. Tall and lanky — his muscles defined thanks to a yearlong new workout regime — he comes across as reserved and polite, using a self-effacing brilliant smile as a shield, but still conveying the assuredness of someone who has done a lot of self-reflection. 

Unlike many of his counterparts — who post constantly on Instagram and TikTok about their personal lives, prowess and riches (the plane, the watch, the car) — Towers is famously private. His Instagram account, where he has 12.1 million followers, is devoid of personal content, save for the occasional workout photo, and he rarely and reluctantly speaks about childhood sweetheart Ashley Gonzalez, the mother of his son, Shawn Lucas. Now 4 years old, Shawn (named after Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter), who Towers holds as a baby on the cover of his 2020 album, Easy Money Baby, made a rare appearance onstage at his father’s show at Miami’s Kaseya Center last fall. Beyond that, questions in that area are politely deflected. 

“Just say he’s growing quickly,” Towers finally musters, looking away with that smile. “That’s separate from what I do,” he adds. “That’s my life. I have my social media because it’s a tool. But otherwise, I want people to listen to my music and just imagine what I’m like.” 

Michael Anthony Torres Monge is now 30 years old, no longer the baby-faced rapper who dazzled in 2018 and 2019 with a seemingly never-ending string of hits featuring a rotating cast of collaborators that was a who’s who of reggaetón. 

It was all a prelude to his second album, Easy Money Baby — which included only solo tracks save for a single collaboration with Farruko. Released on Puerto Rican indie Whiteworld Music, it debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart in February 2020 and established a blueprint for Towers’ future output: His singles would be collabs from all sides of the music spectrum — they’ve ranged from Becky G and Sebastián Yatra to Jay Wheeler and Quevedo — but his albums would largely be solo efforts. 

Exactly a year later, Towers and Whiteworld signed their global distribution deal with Warner Records and Warner Latina that was brokered between Warner’s Latin department along with Lousada and Warner Records co-chairmen Aaron Bay-Schuck and Tom Corson, with the latter calling it at the time “one of our most important signings of the past year.” 

Today, the Warner pact, a distribution deal with full services, has been extended, but Towers’ masters still belong to him and his original co-managers, Orlando “Jova” Cepeda and José “Tito” Reyes, co-owners of Whiteworld. The two signed Towers in 2018, buying his contract from another independent label. 

“He was like an ugly duckling, vastly underestimated; quiet, humble, the opposite of the genre. But we saw the originality in him. His voice was different from anybody else’s,” Cepeda told Billboard at the time. He adds today: “I told him he was a star.” 

Myke Towers photographed April 11, 2024 at Soho Beach House in Miami.

Natalia Aguilera

Towers, born in Río Piedras, the cradle of reggaetón, fell in love with making music thanks to his grandmother, who owned a karaoke machine and was constantly practicing in her little home studio. 

“I think that’s where I learned to write songs,” says Towers, who to this day writes most of his songs in notebooks that he never tosses out. 

“The notebook is always with me, in my backpack. I also write on my phone, but anytime I want to develop something, I pick up my notebook. I have 10 years’ worth of notebooks in bags around the house. One of these days, I want people to study them and see what I did in real time and say, ‘Damn, that’s how he wrote this song.’” 

The weight of history has always mattered to Towers, and although he doesn’t constantly reference his Black experience in his songs, he speaks of it often and is aware of the responsibility. 

“People know I’m Black. Everyone says, “‘El negro llegó y rompió’ [“The Black kid came and hit it”],” he says. “We represent both the culture and the world at the same time. It’s not a division, but I have to represent my own.” 

Disciplined in the recording studio and in public, Towers is prolific, consistent and a meticulous songwriter, all traits that have allowed him to stand out and remain relevant in the very crowded field of Puerto Rican urban acts that rose to prominence in the mid-2010s. 

“The way this guy puts a song together is so next level,” says Blanco, who first met and worked with Towers this year. “You blink an eye, and he already has the full song written and recorded. It’s truly spectacular to watch.” 

The connection with Blanco was made by Brandon Silverstein (who previously managed Anitta), who came in to co-manage Towers with Cepeda last year, specifically to help in the Anglo space. 

Soon after Silverstein came in, “Lala” exploded. 

By then, Towers had numerous hits on the Billboard charts; he has 51 career entries on Hot Latin Songs, with 10 top 10s, and 11 No. 1s on Latin Airplay, for example. With La Vida Es Una, he captured his third straight top 10 on the Top Latin Albums chart when the set debuted at No. 9 in April 2023. Then, unexpectedly, “Lala,” track No. 22 out of 23 on the album, began to rise. 

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“‘Lala’ is that stroke of luck you don’t expect. I knew many artists have that moment in their careers, but it hadn’t come for me,” Towers says. In fact, “Lala” wasn’t even going to appear on the album. The track, which Towers originally began working on two years prior, had been made in bits and pieces, and at one point, wasn’t even slotted to be on the album. 

“Finally, they convinced me to include it. I can’t say I realized how big it was. Many times, you get carried by your instinct, but in this case, my instinct didn’t speak to me.” 

But everything else did. 

While “Lala” was not the album’s focus track, almost immediately, “It began to trend,” Duque says, particularly on TikTok. “With a hit, reaction can vary, but with ‘Lala,’ every little thing we did got huge jumps. So, we went full throttle,” he says. 

“Lala” climbed steadily, and by July, it hit No. 1 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart and No. 3 on the Billboard Global 200, both milestones for Towers. 

Cepeda firmly believes that releasing “lots of music” is essential to Towers’ success: “Artists lose steam because they don’t release new music [for their fans],” he says, then quips, “If you don’t take care of your wife at home, someone else will.” 

And so, before the year was out, Towers released a second studio album, LVEU: Vive la tuya…No La Mía, a sort of part two to La Vida Es Una that included another mega-hit, “La Falda,” which topped the Latin Airplay chart. 

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Then, Towers reset. After playing his last concert of the year, he disconnected completely from his music and spent over a month between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic with his family and his “friends who are like family to me, who are next to me even if I’m not doing music, who don’t even want to take photos with me because I’m one of them,” he says. “That’s what keeps me grounded. And I’ve also learned to be alone, too, to connect with oneself and with your essence, and then come back. I have my breaks where I plant, and my breaks where I harvest.” 

These are the periods Towers describes as “out of the music scene. When I take off my superhero cape.” 

Now, he’s coming back as a superhero, almost literally. 

“I even studied how panthers attack,” Towers says. “I had been toying with the panther concept for a while, but now we started the year like this and everything we do will be under that roof.” 

Towers will be playing the festival circuit this summer in Europe but will start with his first sold-out date at Madrid’s Wiznik Center on May 21. By then, La Pantera Negra will be in full swing after the release of “Adivino.” 

“We’ll be working every single separately, of course, but with the storyline of the album and black panther,” Duque says, noting that Towers is enormously popular in Spain, Italy and Portugal. “It’s a very broad album. Myke is not only an urban artist, and our goal is to grow his audience to the max.” 

In February, Nicki Nicole was scheduled to perform in Miami for the first time as part of the Vibra Urbana Festival. But as torrential rain pummeled the 86-acre open-air festival grounds, one artist’s performance was canceled, and others had their sets cut short. Nicki waited anxiously in the wings for nearly three hours, until it came down to her to open the festival when the rain abated for a few minutes. 
Wearing a black cutout bodysuit, blue and white motocross pants and her new, light chocolate hair (which she first rocked at the 2024 Grammy Awards) draping over a black headband, the 23-year-old Argentine artist, joined by eight background dancers, performed a 35-minute set that included hits such as “Colocao,” “DISPARA***” and “Una Foto (Remix)” — the collaboration with Mesita, Emilia and Tiago PZK that hit No. 1 on the Billboard Argentina Hot 100 chart in January and spent six consecutive weeks at the top. 

Then it started to rain again — but the response from the soaking-wet crowd was still overwhelming. 

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“It was very surprising,” an ebullient Nicki says after, still wearing her damp clothes. “With this day, the rain, to see all these people there, and they know all my songs, they’re having a blast — it’s just like I imagined it could be.” Despite the rain, it’s a moment of sunshine for Nicki, who is coming off a roller-coaster week during which she publicly hinted on social media that she and boyfriend Peso Pluma called it quits just five days before her Miami debut. 

But Peso is not the topic of conversation as we chat backstage outside Nicki’s trailer, where former Argentine soccer star Maxi Rodriguez has also come to support her show. Her Miami premiere is a big deal for Nicki, and her mother, sister and two brothers are also in town from Argentina for the concert. She says they’re planning to go to Disney World the next day to celebrate.

While this may be Nicki’s first time in Miami, the rapper-singer has been making inroads in the market since April 2019, when she released her debut single, “Wapo Traketero.” That August, she made history on the Billboard Argentina Hot 100 by becoming the first Argentine female rapper to debut on the chart as a solo act. (Cazzu charted first, in July, but as a collaborator on J. Mena’s “Quien Empezó.”) The following year, she made history again, becoming the first Argentine woman to earn a No. 1 with her collaboration on Trueno’s “Mamichula,” which also features Taiu, Bizarrap and Tatool. 

Performing a fusion of rap and R&B — but expanding her versatility to other genres like reggaetón and cumbia — Nicki Nicole takes a feminine but edgy approach that paved the way for a new generation of Argentine urban acts — such as Emilia and Maria Becerra — who now also dominate the country’s charts and are playing arenas. 

Nicki is tied with Emilia for the second-most No. 1s (both with four), trailing only Becerra, with six. “Entre Nosotros (Remix),” a collaboration with Tiago PZK, Lit Killah and Becerra, topped the chart for 16 weeks, the second-most behind Karol G and Nicki Minaj’s “Tusa,” which ruled for 25. 

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While Nicki’s dominance in Argentina is established — she played the last of nine sold-out shows at Buenos Aires’ Movistar Arena on March 10 — her goal now is to go global. She’ll play Madrid’s WiZink Center for the first time on March 21, after headlining Billboard’s inaugural Encuentro de Música en Español on March 19, and will wrap her ALMA tour at the Estéreo Picnic Festival in Bogota, Colombia, on March 24. 

The trek — which began in August in Buenos Aires and stopped in Costa Rica, Guatemala and Bolivia, among other countries — is in support of her ultra-personal album, ALMA, that thrives on emotions, spirituality, reason and an awakening to self-love. It was nominated for best rap/hip-hop album at the 2023 Latin Grammys, and the track “DISPARA***,” with Milo J, was up for best rap/hip-hop song. 

In the middle of it all, Nicki also publicly addressed her relationship with Peso Pluma after a video of him appearing to hold hands with another woman in Las Vegas over Super Bowl weekend surfaced on social media. “Respect is a necessary part of love,” she posted Feb. 13 on Instagram, where Nicki has over 21 million followers. “What is loved, is respected. What is respected, is cared for. When you are not cared for and there is no respect, I don’t stay there. I leave. It is with great sorrow that I found out the same way you did, thank you for the love you are sending me.” 

Nicki Nicole photographed on February 18, 2024 at Vibra Urbana in Miami.

Devin Christopher

The flurry of fan comments, mostly in support of her, highlighted her other side: the singer as social media personality who must focus on her art amid intense public scrutiny. For someone as young as Nicki, she has managed to do so with surprising grace. 

“The truth is that I felt that everything was so public that I couldn’t have done it any other way. People already knew it and it was uncontrollable,” Nicki says, explaining why she posted a reaction. “What has healed me the most these days are the people, my fans. I received many messages from women congratulating me on the message I sent,” she says, sounding laid-back and self-assured. 

While someone else might have canceled a performance or, in this case, an interview, Nicki did not. 

“It’s unprofessional of me to stop every time something personal happens,” she says. “I’m not the center of the world, and there are many people who work for me and with me. I can’t stop everything. My team doesn’t deserve it. My fans don’t deserve it.”

Nicole Denise Cucco hails from Rosario, Argentina, the birthplace of soccer star Lionel Messi. Her interest in music sparked from a childhood admiration for Amy Winehouse, who she looked up to for her soulful, R&B-tinged vocals, as well as her character, resilience and how she treated fans. 

“Not only did I empathize with how difficult it is to be an artist but also the internal battles of each person,” Nicki says. “I realized that even though she could be in shambles, she went out to perform, she did interviews, she was with her fans. From her I learned that every person I meet I will always treat them as they deserve and will always give my fans the attention they need.” 

Devin Christopher

The youngest of four children (she has two brothers and one sister), Nicki was always the performer at home. “When I was little, I would put on shows in my kitchen and force everyone to look at me singing with the broomstick,” she told Billboard in 2022 during an episode of Growing Up. 

Nicki’s mother expected her youngest daughter to finish school and go to college, but she had other plans. 

“I explained to her, ‘Mom, look, I really want to make music. I know what I’m proposing is crazy because I’m one in a million who wants to make music, but I really feel that I can make it work, and if I have your support, I can do it,’ ” she recalls. Her mother agreed, and Nicki switched to night school to record music during the day. 

She had fallen in love with the more melodic style of Spanish rapper Delaossa, whose music “encouraged me to make bars and freestyles,” and as a teenager, she practiced her freestyling skills at the many impromptu contests held in her hometown. 

However, she found the male-dominated scene challenging. 

“I would go in, but it was hard,” she remembers. She found that men would edit or change their raps when she was around. “When a man freestyled against a woman, a lot of things were lost — like being able to play with words, being able to say incredible things — and it fell into the basics. I lost a little interest because I felt my rhymes [couldn’t evolve]. So, I decided to freestyle with my friends, to evolve with people who I can rap about the culture, about what happens to me, about the fact that I am a woman — and it helped me a lot to start doing it alone, too.” 

Devin Christopher

In April 2019, Nicki launched her YouTube channel with her debut single, “Wapo Traketero” — a slow R&B track fronted by her tender vocals. It was the song’s melodic approach that ultimately helped her stand out in a crowd of emerging Argentine rap and trap artists at the time. 

“I always think about my mentality then and now. At that moment I didn’t know if a song was doing well or bad. For me, it just meant that people liked it and shared it,” she says. “I didn’t know about No. 1s, I didn’t know about charts, I didn’t know about trends. My mentality in music was different. When I started, I didn’t think I had to make hits. I just loved releasing the songs.”

“Wapo Traketero” caught the attention of Duki, who was then leading the Argentine trap scene and who boasted about her to his label, Dale Play Records, founded by Federico Lauria in 2018. 

“Duki posted about Nicki on social media, writing, ‘We have a new boss in town,’ ” Lauria told Billboard in 2020 of how he discovered her. “When I listened to her music, I went crazy and wanted to sign her immediately.” Lauria, who launched Dale Play with Duki, added Nicki and producer Bizarrap to his roster. (He also manages all of them.) “All these artists come from the same place — the streets — but they’re all doing something different,” he added. 

Nicki struck a chord. At 4 feet 9 inches, she defied the stereotype of the female Latin rapper and of what women in the local music scene could do. 

Almost immediately after her signing, Nicki scored her first Billboard chart entry in 2020 with “Mamichula” in collaboration with Trueno and Bizarrap. The song hit No. 1 on the Billboard Argentina Hot 100, leading for four weeks, and became her first entry on the Billboard Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts. That same year, she scored her first Latin Grammy nomination, for best new artist. 

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Overall, Nicki has placed 33 entries on the Billboard Argentina Hot 100, tying with Karol G for the second-most among women behind Maria Becerra’s 46. Out of those 33, nine hit the top 10 and four reached No. 1. 

On the U.S. charts, “Pa’ Mis Muchachas,” with Christina Aguilera and Becky G and featuring Nathy Peluso, earned Nicki her first top 10 when it debuted at No. 3 on Latin Digital Song Sales in 2021. “Ella No Es Tuya,” with Rochy RD and Myke Towers, became her first Hot Latin Songs entry, and her second album, Parte de Mí, was her debut on Latin Pop Albums that same year. 

“All you need to do is see her live in concert to fully understand the impact Nicki has on people,” Lauria tells Billboard. “The artistic flight she has and her musical talent make her unique — how she goes through people, her sensitivity, her lyricism. This was all enhanced with her latest album, ALMA, where she was able to open up from a more sensitive place. And it clearly shows with the success that her tour is having.” 

Back inside her trailer at the Vibra Urbana Festival, a cool and collected Nicki is snacking on chips and a banana — as Ivy Queen performs onstage in the background. The Puerto Rican diva’s set followed Nicki’s at the festival, which is fitting, as she has been a major inspiration. 

“When I started music, one of the first women who offered me advice was Ivy,” Nicki recalls. “I loved what she said because it is unforgettable — like, ‘Mami, I want you to know that everything you do and the place you have, you earned it by yourself. And here you have a place as a woman. We fought so that you have this place.’ ”

Devin Christopher

The first woman artist to support an up-and-coming Nicki Nicole, however, was Cazzu. The artist born Julieta Emilia Cazzuchelli (and partner of Christian Nodal) became a household name in Argentina in 2018 after gaining momentum from “Loca (Remix)” with Khea, Bad Bunny and Duki. Nicki’s first time onstage was at a Cazzu concert and her first female collaboration was “Cómo Dímelo,” in 2019, with Cazzu. 

“When a new woman appears, the patriarchal construction of the public makes them first compare us and then make enemies of us,” Cazzu says. “She was going to shine with or without me, but I was the only woman there. I let her know that she could count on me inside and outside of music because I had to go through endless sexist and misogynistic experiences. That hurt my spirits, and I didn’t want her to go through that. That’s what the movement is about. That one of us cleared the weeds from the path so that others could walk better and waste less time fighting and put it into music.” 

That first expression of female support later appeared in other powerful collaborations with female artists from different countries and styles, including “Pa’ Mis Muchachas” with Christina Aguilera, Becky G and Nathy Peluso; “intoxicao” with Emilia; “Formentera” with Aitana; “8 AM” with Young Miko; and “Enamórate” with Bad Gyal. 

“I love the woman who does not envy, who does not compete, who wants the best for everyone,” Nicki says. “One of the messages that really stuck with me is that of Young Miko. She was over the moon. She was having a big, explosive moment, and yet she flew to record the music video for ‘8 AM’ and sent me a message that said, ‘If we succeed, we all succeed together.’ What I like most is working with women, because in the studio we flow a lot, we share similar feelings and life situations that we understand among ourselves, and that’s great when it comes to working together.” 

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Beyond being a loyal girl’s girl, Nicki’s bold attitude and stage presence have organically earned her the respect of the music industry and fans globally. 

In addition to her eight Latin Grammy nominations, she won female new artist at the 2021 Premio Lo Nuestro, performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in April 2021 and made her debut at Coachella in 2022. Most recently, on March 5 during Paris Fashion Week, she appeared as a Lacoste brand ambassador. 

After her sold-out show in Madrid, she’ll play Barcelona and, later, Mexico. Once she’s done with touring, Nicki promises to spend more time in the recording studio rather than on the road. 

“Right now, I feel like there are a lot of things that are happening to me personally and I want to put them into music,” she says without elaborating. “There’s a lot of inspiration,” she adds with a smile. 

By now, inside her trailer, she has progressed from snacks to a shot of whiskey, and Nicki raises her glass. “For my first concert in Miami and for my first Billboard cover. ¡Salud!’”