cousin.world is a regular newsletter on global music.

Each week, I’ll update one of the following playlists with 10 ascendant tracks from global markets and provide analysis to explain how they’re breaking:

• run ⇡ — club tracks from euro & UK dancefloors

• cherry soda ⚭ — breaking k/c/p-pop, city pop and indie

• the grid ✚ — sounds of urbano, reggaeton, funk

• magnitude △ — afrobeat, dancehall and amapiano rising

Today on the grid ✚, I am talking about HYBE’s new purchase in LatAm, this week’s Latin Grammys frontrunner, Fuerza Regida, a new and acclaimed flamenco pop album and a funk DJ who has banned viral TikTok tracks from his party.

This playlist serves to highlight tracks coming from Latin markets with a particular focus on funk and reggaeton. Next week, magnitude △ looks into the latest blockbuster releases from markets across Africa and the Caribbean, with a focus on dancehall, afrobeat and amapiano.

I’m making this resource to hopefully demystify how songs are getting big internationally and inspire any artists, labels or teams looking overseas for their next collaboration or new connection.

If you’re into it pls forward, like, reply, subscribe 💌

the grid ✚

1. Fuerza Regida, Marshmello — ‘HARLEY QUINN’ (Mexico)

Earlier this month, Music Ally published an update on its Country Profile for Mexico. Within, they highlight the closing gap between Brazil — historically LatAm’s largest music market — and Mexico, thanks to the explosion of interest around the country’s biggest export genre of recent years: Regional Mexican music. At the time of writing this, the four most-streamed tracks on Spotify in Mexico fall under the umbrella genre, with artists like Peso Pluma and groups like Eslabon Armado building agenda-setting power in the region.

Naturally, this spike in interest has attracted a number of international collaborators. The latest big one is between Marshmello, the prolific American EDM producer who dresses up as a marshmallow, and the Mexican-American band Fuerza Regida. Together, their new track ‘HARLEY QUINN’ has been responsible for one of the biggest TikTok dance trends in the region this year, currently standing at almost 600k creates, and is currently #1 in the Daily and Weekly Spotify charts in Mexico and Guatemala.

Among many great articles about Regional Mexican music I’ve already linked to in previous mailers, this newish piece on Forbes, which focuses on Peso Pluma’s impact on the genre’s ascent, is pretty informative.

2. Mariah Angeliq — ‘No Te Veo’ (Mexico)

The big story in the Latin American music industry this week was HYBE’s acquisition of the Mexican label Exile Music.

According to a statement from HYBE written up here by The Korea Times, the k-pop giant’s Mexico-based unit has been launched to "discover and incubate new talent by bringing in top-tier music producers, who can construct locally optimised systems for our training and development (T&D) and artist and repertoire (A&R). We are also considering grafting K-pop's proven business methodology to the Latin genre."

Exile is the latest purchase in an ongoing acquisitions blitz from HYBE and its first move into the LatAm region. Since the company, originally Big Hit Entertainment, rose to popularity with their prize artists BTS, HYBE have acquired a ton of companies including Ithaca Holdings ($1bn+), Quality Control ($300m) and even made a play to swallow rival k-pop management company SM Entertainment, raising concerns about its “monopolistic” business practices.

Exile Music currently operates as the music division of a larger company called Exile Content, a media company producing film, TV and audio which is in turn owned by a larger entity, Candle Media, ultimately backed by asset managers Blackstone. Among a handful of artists signed to Exile Music is Mariah Angeliq, distributed by Universal Music Latino, whose track ‘No Te Veo’ came out on September 29th.

3. Camilo, Alejandro Sanz — ‘NASA' (Colombia/Spain)

Last night was the 24th edition of the Latin Grammys. The nominations are being led by American songwriter and record producer Edgar Barrera. NB: I scheduled this overnight so I’m actually not sure how many he’s won yet!

Barrera is nominated in 13 categories including album of the year, recording of the year and in song of the year, where he will compete against himself with two nominations: one for Grupo Frontera and Bad Bunny’s track ‘un x100to’ and another for this track ‘NASA’ by Camilo and Alejandro Sanz.

He’s also nominated three times in a category called best tropical song. In a recent profile in The New York Times, writer Jon Pareles notes that “Barrera’s three tropical-song nominations are grounded in three different styles: salsa (“La Fórmula” by Maluma and Marc Anthony), bachata (“El Ambulancia” by Camilo and Camila Cabello) and merengue (“El Merengue” by Marshmello & Manuel Turizo). But they’re also international collaborations, pairing Americans and Colombians. “Every day I try to think about how to make stuff more global,” Barrera says. “But I think that the more authentic that it stays, the more global it can get.”

He also notes at the top of the profile that he “tries not to pay attention to awards and stuff like that”.

4. Rennan da Penha, Almir Delas — ‘Aqui na Penha Não Tem TikTok’ (Brazil)

This week, Brazilian ethnomusicologist Felipe Maia wrote a piece for The Guardian on the renewed global interest in baile funk and its more recent internet based spin-offs.

In the piece, Maia explains how the genre, born 40+ years ago in the favelas of Rio, is experiencing another renaissance outside of Brazil thanks to interest from international DJs, artists like Travis Scott and Cardi B, and via platforms like TikTok. This latest spike follows earlier waves of baile funk sampling by British and American artists like MIA and Beyoncé-via-Major Lazer in the early 00s.

Also cited in Maia’s piece is a campaign by Carioca DJ Rennan da Penha against what he calls “TikTok Baile Funk”, a maximalist and derivative version of the genre designed more for use in 15 second viral clips than soundtracking nightlife. Per this piece on Brazilian newspaper Metropoles, he has also banned the playing of viral tracks at his Rio-based party Baile da Selva, as evidenced by this track entitled ‘Aqui na Penha Não Tem TikTok’ or “Here in Penha, there is no TikTok".

5. María José Llergo — ‘ULTRABELLEZA’ (Spain)

María José Llergo is a Spanish artist whose new album ‘ULTRABELLEZA’ came out a few days ago via Sony Music España. In this glowing Pitchfork review that feels about 0.1 points away from Best New Music, Stefanie Fernández says: “The Andalusian singer’s debut brushes electronic beats and R&B melodies over a flamenco canvas. It is a masterful meditation on ancestral struggle that looks back to find a way forward”

The Spanish music industry as a whole is up 11.53% in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period last year. This is ahead of France (9.4%) and Germany (6.6%). Despite major Latin American artists like Bad Bunny, Rauw Alejandro and Quevedo occupying much of the upper tier of consumption in Spain, the market is also developing its own domestic superstars in the wake of Rosalía’s breakout success, like Iñigo Quintero, C. Tangana and Bad Gyal.

In this interview with the Catalan newspaper El Periódico, María José Llergo shares some insights on how her Catholic faith shapes her practice, ahead of a performance at the end of this month at the Barcelona Jazz Festival.

+ Five More…

6. MARINA NA VOZ — ‘Até o Amanhecer (Speed)’ (Brazil)

I always wonder if artists get annoyed when these speed edits become more popular than the original? MARINA NA VOZ’s great track ‘Até o Amanhecer’ was sped up, re-released and is now climbing the Brazil Viral 50 at #4.

7. Maldy, Ryan Castro — ‘Chichi Pana’ (Puerto Rico/Colombia)

This collaboration between Maldy and Ryan Castro was just released two weeks ago via Warner Music Latina and Maldy’s own label Sin Maldy No Hay Perreo. It currently tops the massive Baila Reggaeton playlist with a cool 11m followers.

8. Nicki Nicole, Bad Gyal — ‘Enamórate’ (Spain/Argentina)

The latest in a massive list of international collabs for Bad Gyal is with Argentine star Nicki Nicole, who was also nominated for two awards in the Latin Grammys last night. Read more on Rolling Stone.

9. Gabito Ballesteros, Natanael Cano — ‘LOU LOU’ (Mexico)

Yet another massive track riding the wave of Regional Mexican music is this new one from Gabito Ballesteros, who you might remember from edition 001 of the grid ✚ for his collaboration with Peso Pluma ‘LADY GAGA’. Here he is alongside Natanael Cano with ‘LOU LOU’.

10. Don Omar, Wisin, Yandel — ‘SANDUNGA’ (Puerto Rico)

This link up between three of the biggest names in reggaeton came out two weeks ago and is already doing predictably well. Check out Don Omar, AKA The King of Reggaeton, interviewed for Rolling Stone to learn more about one of the genre’s mainstay artists.

The Playlists