Mexico’s ‘narcocorridos’ going mainstream. What’s behind their popularity explosion?

A Mexican musical genre often accused of glorifying drug cartels is exploding in popularity, reaching global pop charts and filling arenas.

It marks a new era for “corridos,” which are Mexican narrative songs, or ballads, that often recount a heroic struggle.

Mexican artists Natanael Cano, Peso Pluma (Featherweight), Fuerza Regida, Eslabon Armado and others have been showing up in the Billboard, Spotify and Apple Music charts with their new subgenre called “corridos tumbados” and the already-established “corridos bélicos.”

“Corridos tumbados,” which translates to “knocked or lying down,” has a mix of electronic beats, reggaeton and hip hop. “Corridos bélicos” means “warlike,” and its lyrics are mainly focused on drug trafficking and the ongoing cartel turf battles in Mexico.

But both often fall under the controversial “narcocorrido” label, meaning “drug ballads.”

In these lyrics from the 2022 Peso Pluma/Raúl Vega song "El Bélicon," it's easy to see why:

"I'm the one in charge here/Sports cars in my collection/Minimis, bazookas and Kalashnikovs/All my boys are ready/They like action."

"The corridos have always been very attacked and very demonized," Peso Pluma, whose real name is Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija, told AP after performing in April at Coachella. “At the end of the day, it's music ― you see it in rap, you see it in hip hop, you see it in reggaeton.”

Some government officials in Mexico have moved to ban narcocorridos music from public spaces because of its explicit lyrics, but that effort was later overturned by the Supreme Court as a violation of freedom of expression.

“The government wanted to ban the genre in radio stations, record companies and (with) artistic promoters ― to not give concerts by groups who advocated violence, because, indeed, the narco-ballads are normally legitimizing criminal groups and criminal activities,” security analyst David Saucedo said.

“I don't know of a single narcocorrido that induces the population to stay away from drugs or not join a criminal group,” he said. “Their main characters in these musical pieces are the drug traffickers and their adventures against the authorities.”

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‘Narcocorridos help us to feel powerful’

Hector Amaya, a communications professor at USC Annenberg who studies narcoculture in Mexico and the U.S., told The Courier Journal there are two types of audiences behind the corrido explosion, one on each side of the border.

“I think they have different reasons for approaching the narcocorridos,” he explained. “It seems to me that many people in Mexico do it as a way of understanding the violence that surrounds them, as a way of processing it.”

He said young Latinos in the U.S. gravitate toward the music because it helps them process the systems of power that surround them.

"Here in the U.S., we suffer a little from social power, and the narcocorridos help us momentarily to feel powerful, somewhat similar to the way ‘gangsta rap’ in the U.S. has also been used by African American youth.

"... This is a genre that lights up the lives of many young people, and what they get from the narcocorridos is a sense of life, a sense of freedom, and of having fun."

Warner Music Mexico producer Abelardo Rivero Levy said what began as regional music in Mexico is now going global.

"We are ... excited that the whole world listens to Mexican music and raises the Mexican flag," he said. "The music that really transcends is the one that really connects with the feeling of a generation."

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'It's full of blood and death'

The exposure that corridos music is getting on platforms such as TikTok is also helping fuel its rise.

“It’s part of the ‘narcomarketing’ evolution. (The singers’) specialty has always been on social media, and because YouTube lost power, they’re now on TikTok, which is excellent for marketing,” said Alejandra León Olvera, an anthropologist who studies narcoculture marketing.

“I think it has helped them to promote this cultural consumption and reach other latitudes, so that they really become fashionable,” León Olvera said.

Narcoculture in corridos, television shows and movies often show only the prosperous part of that lifestyle, she noted.

“These videos, these songs are really attractive because of the way they also show themselves ― not only this idea of belonging to the drug world but all those possibilities that exist to access luxury,” León Olvera said. “They hide the violence to promote this lifestyle.”

Saucedo, the security analyst, said while the songs do advocate violence and invite young people to see drug traffickers as role models, he doesn’t think censorship is the answer.

"All that censorship does is provoke a black market for products. Banning narcocorridos, narco-series or video games will only cause more people to come to consume them.

“It seems to me … that drug culture must be fought with information. You need to report what’s behind the facts: In all these situations, life in the narco is not full of glamour, beautiful women or success. It’s full of blood and death,” Saucedo told The Courier Journal.

CJNG: Get out of Tijuana or face death

Corridos date back to the Mexican War of Independence in the early 1800s. They told romantic stories about battles, cowboys and thieves. But in recent decades, with the rise of the drug cartels, some corrido singers followed suit.

And while not every modern corrido includes criminal references, it’s not a secret some have been written for drug lords or to highlight their criminal activities.

The recently released song, titled “El Azul,” by Junior H and Peso Pluma focuses on a powerful gangster, commonly believed to be the late Juan José Esparragoza Moreno, aka ‘Azul,’ a former federal detective who later joined two of Mexico's most notorious drug traffickers, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, in the Sinaloa Cartel.

And in the 2022 song “Ch y la Pizza,” Natanael Cano and the group Fuerza Regida are believed to be referring to La Chapiza, the name used for those working for Los Chapitos ― the sons of Guzman, who is in prison in the U.S.

“That’s how I also interpret it,” Saucedo said. “It's very difficult because sometimes singers speak in code, and they even use slang, words, and names of dealers and characters that they only know inside the organization, so who orders the song knows exactly what it means.”

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But not all bands and singers are allowed to sing freely about a specific cartel.

“To be able to do a corrido of those where you openly say names, cities where events took place, you need a permit,” Rivero Levy, the Warner Music producer, said.

The permit would be from "someone close to those characters ... because who told you the story? Where did you get the idea? It’s part of a code that exists within Mexican music that it’s not talked about much, which is that you cannot sing of any character if you do not have authorization from a relative or someone close to them."

He said a narcocorrido dedicated to a drug lord ends up being a trophy for the character's ego.

“The gangster's ego fills by saying ‘I'm locked up here in jail, and my corrido is playing,’ or if they've already killed him, the family likes to say that the corrido is playing throughout Mexico,” Rivero Levy said.

“For them, it is one of the greatest achievements because, in those corridos, they send messages against the government and against their enemies, and many times the artist is not aware of the problem he is getting into for doing it.”

In an interview with Mexican media, Peso Pluma said people ask for corridos to be written.

"It's normal. Otherwise, we wouldn't have content, we wouldn't have the corridos. All the regional Mexican artists who sing corridos know that there are people who call them, ‘hey, how much do you charge me for a corrido?’ I'll tell you, I’d do it, and give it to you," he said.

In February, ‘Grupo Arriesgado,’ a narcocorrido band that allegedly sings to the Sinaloa Cartel, visited Tijuana for a concert. During an autograph-signing at a mall, armed men fired shots and forced the band to leave.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG, the main rival of the Sinaloa Cartel, left a written message behind, giving the band a few hours to get out of Tijuana or face a death sentence.

The group canceled its Tijuana concert and later scrapped its upcoming tour dates in the U.S.

Karol Suárez is a Venezuela-born journalist based out of Mexico City. She is a contributing writer to The Courier Journal. Follow her on Twitter at @KarolSuarez_.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Mexico corrido singers Peso Pluma, Natanael Cano popularity explosion