Anthony Ramos' New Music Reflects Recent Changes in His Life: 'A Lot Has Happened in the Last 2 Years' (Exclusive)

The 'In the Heights' star released two singles this summer, 'Villano' and 'Se Fue,' and confirms his third album is coming

Anthony Ramos has a lot he wants to say.

After the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes began earlier this summer, the In the Heights star, 31, had some free time on his hands. He decided to focus on his music.

“Everything got shut down, and I was like, 'Alright great, now I can shift gears,'” he says of deciding to release new music during a conversation with PEOPLE about his partnership with Dog Chow for this year's Visible Impact Awards.

In June, he dropped “Villano,” his first release since November 2022, and he quickly followed it up with “Se Fue” in July.

“It feels good, man,” he says of dropping new music. “It's just good to kind of get it going again.”

Ramos had been sitting on the two singles for a while — about “a year and a half,” he says — but had been debating when to release them as he juggled work commitments and worked on some other songs.

“I wanted to also think about what narrative I wanted to tell [with] this next part of my life and music career,” he explains.

Between major career milestones — he led the film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights and made his action movie debut in June’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts — and his 2021 split from fiancée Jasmine Cephas Jones after more than six years together, Ramos has seen a lot of life changes in recent years. He says he wants his new music to reflect that.

“A lot has happened in the last two years,” Ramos shares. “And I was like, how do I wanna… How do I see the full scope of what I want to talk about? And then once I see that, then how do I want to start it?”

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He says that “Villano” and “Se Fue” “felt like the best way to start this new chapter,” adding that both songs are “about heavy things but they both got this banging beat.”

In “Villano,” an up-tempo dance beat, Ramos seems to address the end of his engagement to Cephas Jones as he sings, “So I left you with a rock on your hand and I ran with my demons.”

He also alludes to infidelity in the song as he sings, “They caught me wildin' at the club / Yeah I did that ... We were single, we were drunk / So I hit that / Next day tabloids with the spin back.”

As for “Se Fue,” on which he sings, “I’m glad you left / The love already left,” Ramos says it’s the more emotional track of the two — despite it sounding like an instant dance club hit.

“That’s the crying in the club song,” he admits.

Related: Anthony Ramos Talks New NFL Video Celebrating Latino Culture: It's 'Remembering and Paying Respect'

As for what’s still to come, Ramos, who scored his big break in the original cast of Hamilton in 2015, confirms his third album is on its way.

“We’re definitely culminating towards an album,” he says, adding that “the third single comes in a couple months” and he’s “got the momentum going” now.

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Part of the process has also involved “getting dope collabs with artists that I love,” Ramos reveals, though he’s coy about divulging any of those secrets quite yet.

“I’m pumped,” he says. “It's a lot of good stuff coming up.”

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