After ‘La Bebé,’ Yng Lvcas Wants to Lead Mexico’s Reggaeton Movement: ‘I Can’t Think Small’
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Seemingly overnight, Guadalajara-born singer Yng Lvcas went from being a virtually unknown reggaetón artist to reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Global 200 thanks to his earworm “La Bebé” and its remix featuring Peso Pluma. Today, as his song spends its 11th week on the chart, Lvcas is still on cloud nine. “When you see me with three or four more songs playing as much as ‘La Bebe,’ I’m not sure I’ll have much time to be interviewed,” Yng Lvcas jokes on a Zoom call from his home in Querétaro.
That song, he explains, was an experiment. He tells me this sitting in front of a plaque in his living room celebrating the song’s 100 million streams on Spotify. (Now, it already has close to 400 million listens.) “It wasn’t the one I imagined was going to go big but anything can happen in life.” And so can collaborating with an EDM heavyweight that helped him “fall in love with music.”
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On Thursday, Lvcas debuts a new remix of the song — this time featuring David Guetta — with Rolling Stone. The release arrives a few weeks after Lvcas was scrolling on his phone and saw that the French DJ was already including the song as part of his sets at festivals.
“Who doesn’t know David Guetta? It’s otro rollo [another level],” he says. “I want people to play this really loud and I hope it helps bring the song to every other place outside of Latin America as well.”
Lvcas was born and raised in Guadalajara, Jalisco listening to mostly música Mexicana and rock en español. At 15, he began experimenting with making his own music first with corridos, before moving on to reggaetón, a left-field genre for a Mexican artist to pursue since there aren’t many successful, Mexican reggaetón performers. (Becky G, who is Mexican-American, stands as one of the few mainstream examples.)
For Lvcas, putting his country on the map is an enticing challenge. “I feel a responsibility, like a baton, to represent Mexico,” he says. “I want to be the leader of Mexico’s reggaetón movement and propel Mexicans to look at their own people for the genre.”
Plus, it helps that his compatriot and collaborator Peso Pluma — whom he describes as a “persona fina,” or great person, is dominating the charts with both “La Bebé” and “Ella Baila Sola” with Eslabón Armado. “It’s incredible what he’s doing. People are looking at Mexicans and our music more,” he says. “The world is watching now.”
His new Guetta collaboration comes a few weeks after dropping a new EP, Six Jewels 23, featuring “La Bebé,” and five other songs, including his favorite song “Perdonémonos,” and “Wazap,” featuring Justin Quiles.
“I call him tío, I’m his sobrino,” says Lvcas of Quiles. The two met in Miami while they were both working with a celebrated reggaetón producer he admires, but won’t name. “I really admire his songwriting,” he adds. “We exchanged ideas for a song, but he liked ‘Wazap’ and recorded a verse.”
With Quiles on board, Lvcas says he’s now “thinking big leagues” with who he hopes to work with. (Chencho Corleone, Árcangel, and Morat are on the list of dream collaborators.)
For now, he’s thrilled about the world getting to see what he did with Guetta. “I can’t think small,” he says before manifesting: “Let’s see what big festival he’ll invite me to perform with him!”
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