The Lawless Reign of Dillom and Argentina’s New Rap Agitators
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It’s 5 p.m. early in April, and there’s already a crowd of teens in blood-splattered clothes lining the sidewalk around Antiguo Hotel Reforma, the once glorious art-deco monolith where Argentine rap star Dillom is set to take the stage for his first ever Mexico City show. The gory attire has become a sort of uniform among his devoted fanbase, who scream-sing and mosh wildly at each of the rapper’s heart-pounding concerts. Inside the dilapidated hotel-turned-eerie art space, a production manager leads Dillom and I into a ripped-up guest room to chat, while music from soundcheck booms in the background, punctuated with intermittent blasts of drums and screeches from his blockbuster 2021 debut album POST MORTEM.
Dillom broke out three years earlier with viral single “Superglue,” rode the trap wave that made superstars out of Duki and Cazzu, and even landed the ninth installment of Bizarrap’s now-hallowed BZRP Music Sessions. POST MORTEM afforded him artistic retro-continuity. The LP aimed far beyond trap innovation — or really, disruption— and grew into a monument of genre lawlessness and transgressive creative agency. He shook the rafters with conceptual campfire tragedies on the interlude “DEMIAN,” lampooned money-hungry yes-men on club banger “PELOTUDA,” and came clean about existential insecurities on torch song “220.” Meanwhile producers Evar, Lamadrid, and Fermin expanded Dillom’s sonic universe with inspired strokes of electro and garage rock.
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Neither a savior of Argentine trap, nor a disciple of the country’s thriving freestyle movement, Dillom has always felt most comfortable in the role of rap agitator. Last year, when POST MORTEM was nominated in three categories at Argentina’s prestigious Gardel Awards, he rolled up to the red carpet in a hoodie and sweatpants emblazoned with logos of major record labels including Sony and Warner Music. The cheeky stunt underscored the rule-breaking circumstances of his meteoric rise, free from the corporate greed and ambition that often lead to becoming a cog in the music industry machine. The move also drew attention to his in-house label Bohemian Groove Corp., and the unique visual and marketing strategies that have propelled Dillom and his peers in the buzzy RIP GANG collective to the forefront of a new musical age.
Long before he became the enfant terrible of Argentine rap, Dylan León Masa was just a regular Porteño kid playing soccer in the street with his friends. He was born in Buenos Aires in December, 2000, and raised in separate parental homes, bouncing between middle class neighborhoods Colegiales, Nuñez, and Belgrano. At nine-years old, he picked up a bass guitar, encouraged by his father who was a drummer in a Ramones cover band. He fell in love with hip-hop in his early teens, studying Cypress Hill and Beastie Boys, and became increasingly interested in the instrumentals behind the bars. His father told him many of those records were produced with Fruity Loops, which put 13-year old Dylan on the path of beatmaking and DJing. Two years later he set up shop in Villa 31, a jagged tenderloin of Buenos Aires’ Retiro neighborhood, alongside rapper/producer MHTRESUNO. Together they launched 31Studios and began cultivating a fresh ecosystem for local underground rap.
“At that time there wasn’t much of a national rap industry, not like there is now,” says Dillom, reminiscing on the days before Argentina’s trap and freestyle explosions. “I’d just tell friends we should make music together; no money on the line. We were on old-school boom-bap, and I’m a hip-hop nerd so I loved that, but I was eager to get into new stuff. I started producing trap beats and nobody wanted them, so I decided to start using them for myself.”
At 31Studios, Dillom collaborated with Ill Quentin and Broke Carrey, rappers who embraced the evolving language of trap. They formed the Talented Broke Boys collective and took inspiration from U.S. luminaries XXXTentacion and Lil Pump, as well as Spanish trailblazers Pxxr Gvng. He began writing his own songs in 2017 and describes Argentina’s current trap movement as “the punk of our generation.” Though early singles “Drippin” and “Superglue” racked up hype and millions of plays, it was his July 2019 session with Bizarrap that cemented Dillom’s signature as a provocateur. On the hook he squeals, “Esto es trash, lo tuyo es basura” – a seemingly nonsensical barb aimed at clichéd trap boastfulness, saying to haters that if they think he’s wack, at least he’s internationally so.
“I love Eminem,” he says, a devilish smile creeping across his face. “I was always attracted to the idea of creating a character and saying things I might not get away with in my regular life. That hook in the Bizarrap session was like saying, ‘We’re not the same,’ but also highlighting the more alternative side of what was going on in trap: the screaming, this whole idea of trash; it all drew from punk. Making something that purposefully sounded bad to get under people’s skin. I think it’s still Bizarrap’s most ‘disliked’ session on YouTube, but I’ve always enjoyed well-made trash.”
By 2020, the Talented Broke Boys had evolved into the RIP GANG, bringing Muerejoven, Saramalacara, ODD MAMI, and K4 into the fold and expanding the collective’s sonic palette with indie pop, reggaeton, techno-punk, and grotesque avant-garde. They launched the label Bohemian Groove shortly after, building a legal framework behind their growing community and allocating funds for videos, promotion, and artist development.
That same year, the global shutdown hit. For Dillom, a fear of death began creeping in, amplified by the shocking demise of rappers Pop Smoke and Juice WRLD. He took a sabbatical most of 2020, and began pouring his anxieties into music. His November comeback single “DUDADE” with producers Evar and Omar Varela was an instant smash, showcasing playful new beats that strayed from trap archetypes and hinted at the ongoing sonic and lyrical metamorphosis that would come to fruition on POST MORTEM.
“I started wondering what would happen if I died,” adds Dillom, reflecting on some of the pandemic’s darkest days. “All these rappers were dying and all I could think was, what if it was me? I didn’t want to leave my ouvre unfinished. I couldn’t go before putting out a record or a larger piece of work that truly represented me. POST MORTEM is essentially a posthumous album created in life; a collection of songs that could be my legacy. Ironically, that process is how I overcame my fears. The only way of achieving immortality is to leave something behind by which you can be remembered.”
POST MORTEM also allowed Dillom and his growing network of associates to flex the might of their creative muscles. Cumbia/reggaetón juggernaut L-Gante and RIP GANG alumni Muerejoven and Saramalacara have brilliant features on the record, while filmmaker and Bohemian Groove Creative Director Noduermo developed in-universe visuals adorned with branded underwear, fictional Playboy magazine covers, and even a Dillom puppet. The album was such a runaway success that when tickets were announced for an October 2022 show at the legendary Luna Park – a modest 8,400 seater – the event sold out in 10 minutes.
But Dillom isn’t resting on his laurels just yet. A string of singles has kept his momentum and genre adventurousness going. He dipped into cumbia villera with Broke Carrey on “ORGANIKO” and went full poptimism on “Dos,” an effervescent crossover with Argentine institution Miranda! And just this weekend he dropped a brand new anthem titled “Ola de Suicidios,” delving into post-punk and dissecting his growing fame by pondering what his fans might do if he suddenly ceased to exist. In the song’s Noduermo-directed video, Dillom dawns his finest Axl Rose drag, satirizing glam antics enshrined as the pinnacle of stardom while ribbing the rockists who won’t give him his due. He even name-checks Argentina’s Rolling Stone for keeping him off the cover despite his achievements, while an uproarious cameo from rock icon Andrés Calamaro co-signs yet another masterclass in industry defiance.
“I don’t really identify with genre labels anymore,” muses Dillom, teasing the makings of his next album. “I don’t think what I do can be considered trap anymore. I’m not a rocker, but there’s punk in there. I vibe to everything from Madonna to Skrillex to The Ramones and cumbia villera. I’ve always liked Kanye [West] and Tyler [the Creator], and the eclectic, conceptual records they put out. POST MORTEM came out the same year as El Madrileño, which I think opened people’s minds to songs that sound really different but are part of the same story. The challenge with a second album is deciding whether I want to go deeper and more solemn and make my own To Pimp a Butterfly, or if I want to destroy everything that came before with a Yeezus or Motomami. I guess we’ll find out.”
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