\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div> \n\tNo, but no. I love rock. I\u2019m still listening to rock music. But when I came to New York, this city opened my mind to be like, \u201cOh, wow, this culture is cool.\u201d The different types of rap, breakdancing, graffiti, like, the whole culture in general caught my attention \u2026 also, the business side of rappers doing brands and stuff like that. So I was like, \u201cOh, I love this.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tI want to get to New York because I know that you have a long love of the city, but actually, as your first entry point into the U.S., you went to Oklahoma for a while as an exchange student.<\/strong> \n\tI want to know what your first impressions of the U.S. were, based on getting there first.<\/strong> \n\tWhat is it?<\/strong> \n\tYou did eventually make it to New York, and \u2014 \n\tSo, what\u2019s gonna happen here? And I started seeing a type of a certain behavior that got weird. So she blocked computer science. They didn\u2019t let me use the internet, so I stopped having any contact with any of my friends or my family, and I just didn\u2019t get it. And I was basically kidnapped. And then when I wanted to escape, I packed all my luggage and I was like, \u201cWhere\u2019s my passport?\u201d And my passport wasn\u2019t in the room. So that\u2019s when I found out that she got my passport. And I had to do a whole quest to find it six months, no, three months after. So it was a really interesting story.<\/p>\n \n\tI didn\u2019t know this full part of the story. How did you get out eventually?<\/strong> \n\tYou\u2019re a mathlete.<\/strong> \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMaria-Juliana Rojas<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tOnce you got to New York, there was a period of your life where you were doing all kinds of things. You were dog walking, painting houses, but at the time, you were working without a permit; you were essentially living undocumented.<\/strong> I want to ask you what that period of your life taught you about the Latino experience in the U.S. \n\tYou eventually went back to Medell\u00edn and were also very active in the scene. There are pictures of you playing local parties with Karol G. I think you crossed paths with Maluma. What do you remember about that time and these artists who were coming up? \n\tI started doing freestyle battles at the beginning, and that\u2019s how I earned my respect in the streets. Before and still maybe in Colombia, just, like, rap and reggaeton was a huge battle. Like, they don\u2019t like each other. That was at that time. I don\u2019t know how it is now \u2014 I don\u2019t have time for that. So I earned respect by winning all these freestyle battles, and that way the rappers, when I started doing reggaeton, they couldn\u2019t hate on me because it was like, \u201cOh, he won so many freestyle battles.\u201d At that time, people were kind of feeling ashamed that they listened to reggaeton. So everybody was kind of in the closet. Everybody loved reggaeton, but they didn\u2019t want to say it.<\/p>\n \n\tBut the hoods were really loving it. They were loving it, so I started doing reggaeton, playing reggaeton in the hood. And that\u2019s basically the people who really supported me. Basically, it was those hoods which really gave me the love and support. And then I started doing my first shows. I always was like, \u201cI don\u2019t want to [sing] any covers, never,\u201d because I was, like, \u201cThese guys are very rich and famous. Why don\u2019t I want to perform their songs?\u201d\u00a0 So I was doing just my own songs, even if no one knew them. I\u2019m like, \u201cOne day those songs that you guys don\u2019t know might be big hits, you know?\u201d I was getting more confident onstage and feeling the love of the people. And finally, one day I had a show where they were giving me a million pesos. That sounds big, but a million pesos is like $150 now. I brought my dancers. And I have, like, six dancers, and we had a beautiful show full of my friends, my mom, my grandma, my aunt, just my friends, acting like they didn\u2019t know me. And I remember at the end of the show, I didn\u2019t realize that my dancers, they broke a whole window.<\/p>\n \n\tOh no.<\/strong> \n\tAfter grinding for so long, you now have, like, this incredible period of so many successes. \u201c6 AM\u201d and \u201cAy Vamos,\u201d and La Familia<\/em> was a huge album. And then you follow it up with Energ\u00eda<\/em>and \u201cGinza,\u201d which was something really fresh and new. \n\tYou were with her at Coachella. She brought you out<\/a>. \n\tLooking back at that period early in your career when you were having all of these breakthroughs, how did you feel at the time? How did you make sense of it? \n\tWhat would you do differently? How would you enjoy it more?<\/strong> \n\tYou\u2019ve always been open about your mental health and the realities of celebrity and fame. You even created a platform for Latinos called Oye that\u2019s dedicated to mental health and wellness. Why was it important to bring that dialogue in and make that a part of your career? \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tIt\u2019s very taboo. \n\tSo, we have saved a lot of lives. I just wanted to be honest, to express what I was feeling. I remember my label calling me, like, \u201cWhy are you talking about that? Why did you do it? Why didn\u2019t you ask?\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cListen, I cannot negotiate my human part. I just can\u2019t.\u201d And that\u2019s what happened. So I took a lot of shots. But I\u2019m grateful because now artists, they call me like, \u201cYo, I\u2019m feeling this. Is this normal?\u201d \u201cYeah, of course.\u201d And by the way, all these guys that look so tough, gangsters, and they\u2019re like, \u201cYo, I feel kind of weird, man.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat\u2019s up? You feeling this? And you\u2019re feeling this? Oh, you\u2019re fucked. Welcome to the club\u201d [laughs<\/em>].<\/p>\n \n\tYou\u2019ve always been so personal in your music as well. One of the moments when we\u2019ve seen you be very personal is on your album Jose<\/a>,<\/em>which got at that idea of the person and who you are. You have one song where it was the heartbeat of the sonogram of your son. How has fatherhood played a role in your career? \n\tYou were at the World Cup opening even<\/a>t with Ryan Castro, and you have always been big into sports. Tell me a little bit about that performance and how it felt to be on that stage. \n\tThat\u2019s a good example of something you\u2019ve done throughout your career. On Vibras,<\/em>you had an appearance by Rosal\u00eda before she had blown up. We saw you very early on touring with Bad Bunny, and you guys did Oasis.<\/em>Tell me what you saw in those artists and what caught your attention. \n\tSo when I see this kid in Puerto Rico doing his amazing raps, and at that time was basically a trapper. You know DJ Lujan, who is part of the history, of course, introduced me to him. He was like, \u201cListen to this kid.\u201d And then I\u2019m like, \u201cOh, this is special.\u201d When I met him, he was a huge fan of my album Energ\u00eda<\/em>. And I was like \u201cOh, it\u2019s cool that he knows what I\u2019m doing and what I bring to the table.\u201d And since that day, I\u2019ve been going to different places. There was a moment when it was me and Nicky Jam. He\u2019s one of my closest friends. But I like it, I always [want] people to not feel like, \u201cI\u2019m competing against you.\u201d Yeah, you\u2019re still competing, but why don\u2019t you embrace your competitors and work together? Me and Benito did Oasis<\/em>, our album. And then we did the Super Bowl together at that time with Shakira.\u00a0 And Jennifer Lopez. And then you see that Benito just did his Super Bowl. So it\u2019s beautiful that everything\u2019s been working out for all of us in an amazing way.<\/p>\n \n\tDo you have a favorite memory from <\/strong>Oasis<\/em><\/strong> and from making the album with him?<\/strong> \n\tWhen you were onstage at Coachella with Beyonc\u00e9, and you guys did \u201cMi Gente\u201d together, you said, \u201cThis is <\/strong>para la cultura.<\/em><\/strong>\u201d It was really a moment of representation. Tell me about bringing Beyonc\u00e9 onto that song and the feeling behind that, of really feeling like this was \u201cpara la cultura.\u201d<\/strong> \n\tWe\u2019re talking about Beyonc\u00e9. I always say things like, \u201cI\u2019m Latino. I\u2019m gonna represent what we do. Our language is Spanish. I\u2019m just gonna do Spanish until everybody in the whole world knows it.\u201d But we cannot forget that before, a lot of artists paved the way for us. In urban music, Daddy Yankee with \u201cGasolina,\u201d and Wisin y Yandel, and Tego Calderon, Don Omar, they opened those doors for us to let us pass through. But then \u201cMi Gente\u201d came, and it was a life-changing thing for culture in general, not just for me. So when I was in the studio with Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s assistant at the time, and he\u2019s like, \u201cOh, Blue listens to \u2018Mi Gente\u2019 200 times a day. I\u2019m like, \u201cOK, tell Beyonc\u00e9 if she wants to jump on the remix \u2026\u201d But I was just being a hustler, you know. A week after, he\u2019s like, \u201cOh, Beyonc\u00e9, she said she\u2019s down.\u201d She definitely did the song because Blue loved it so much. So that\u2019s beautiful. I hope you like the song too, Beyonc\u00e9.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Super random.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>You see my face? Wow. I was doing this thing of being an exchange student. It was like a lottery: You put your hand there, you get the paper, and it says Atoka, Oklahoma. And I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat in the world is this?\u201d I just want to be a little polite. At that time, the internet was just kind of blowing up, so we didn\u2019t have google to search \u201cHow\u2019s Oklahoma and Atoka?\u201d And it was funny because when \u2026 I got there I was in the middle of a forest, in the middle of nowhere, with coyotes and big bears and all this crazy stuff. And I used to live in a house where the biggest train passed by at six in the morning every day. I didn\u2019t know the first night that I slept there, and I thought it was a huge earthquake. I was like, \u201cWhat is this?\u201d And it was the train. And then they took me for the first time to the high school. And they had something really weird that I hadn\u2019t even seen when I was in Colombia. They had a basketball donkey game.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>They were on donkeys, throwing the ball. I\u2019m like, \u201cWait, I don\u2019t even see this in Colombia.\u201d I was expecting to see kind of like New York, and then it was this town. I think this town has, I don\u2019t know, 5,000 people max. You can google it. It\u2019s called Atoca. I went, for the first time, to high school there. And I remember that I went to the lunchroom. I sat down, and immediately all the people left, and they left me alone. And that\u2019s when you realize that the racism and all this stuff, it was true. And it was really weird to me to feel that, because I never felt that before. But it gave me a lot of strength too, and also to understand how different the world can be.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>My mom and my family always told me to be nice and to serve people and help them. As a good Latina mom, she\u2019s like, \u201cJose, if the lady wants to clean something, just go ahead and help her.\u201d So I started helping this lady a lot, and I think she liked that. I was helping her a lot, showing a lot of love. I think they were super cold there to express themselves. She started really having a lot of love for me. And one day I went to school \u2014 and I started using Messenger at that time \u2014 and she\u2019s like, \u201cNo, you cannot use Messenger because you speak in Spanish with your friends, or you\u2019re going to forget English.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cI don\u2019t even speak English anyways\u201d [laughs<\/em>].<\/p>\n
<\/strong>The education there, what I was learning there at that time, it was basically what I learned 10 or seven years ago. I was terrible at math [in Colombia], but there I was the best one and it feels great. So they sent me to compete in the Olympics, the Math Olympics.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Yeah. So at that time, they had these $5 cards to make these phone calls, long distance. Shit, I\u2019m 41 now. Jesus. So like five minutes. And so I asked a girl if she could lend me her cellphone, and I used the card, and it only gave me like one minute for five dollars \u2014 that\u2019s crazy at that time. So I called my dad, and I\u2019m like, \u201cListen, I haven\u2019t escaped out of respect for you guys, but I\u2019m basically kidnapped.\u201d He was crying, like, \u201cWhere you been?\u201d and everything. I\u2019m like, \u201cWell, I just didn\u2019t have any way to contact you guys, but I\u2019m asking you for your blessing, if I\u2019m gonna escape, like, hell yeah.\u201d Then I found my passport, and I escaped in the middle of the night. And that\u2019s how I ended up in New York.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/WDSC02574.jpg?w=683\")
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<\/strong>It was really hard. The payment, it was crazy. You see the one who got official and the one that doesn\u2019t is just, like, 70 percent less. So a lot of these people taught me a lot about resilience because it was a really tough job. I was painting houses in Miami, Orlando, and fixing floors. And it was really a hard job. Now, I have a lot of love for all the immigrants \u2014 also the illegal immigrants \u2014 that have this job because it\u2019s really tough, and I know how it feels to be in their place and in their situation. So that\u2019s why I\u2019m so proud to be Latino because I know what resilience is and what they gotta go through. It was really hard. And then I came to New York. Walking dogs is more fun [laughs<\/em>]. I remember there was one dog that was living in a penthouse by himself. I was like, \u201cThis is a dog\u2019s life that I want.\u201d I saw a lot of things, but we\u2019re here, we\u2019re blessed. And I came to New York once again, looking for opportunities, knocking on doors at radio stations until they played my song one day.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>It was beautiful because there were a lot of artists before me in urban music, but I think I was one of the biggest dreamers. What I learned in New Year about business and about how these rappers move, I brought that mentality to Medellin, like, \u201cOh, I want to create a brand. I want to be not just evolving, but also, like, \u2018How can I create my own world, and how can I make a statement in this?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
<\/strong>When I got out, and I\u2019m like, \u201cOK, time for the payment.\u201d The guy\u2019s like, \u201cA million. But give me 100 back because your dancers broke a window.\u201d So I end up with $200. I gave the dancers 100. It wasn\u2019t their fault. I kept my 100, and I bought a cellphone. I mean \u2026 that was the first thing I bought when I had my first show, my first gig. A nice cellphone at that time, a Motorola, I remember.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Yeah, it was crazy. But going back to Karol G. One day I performed in a sweet 16. The girl who was, you know, it\u2019s her birthday, she\u2019s like, \u201cOh, I have a cousin. You want to let her come onstage and sing with y\u2019all?\u201d \u201cYeah, sure.\u201d And that was Karol G. And since then, we\u2019re friends. We don\u2019t see a lot of each other, but she knows that I have love and respect for her and where she is \u2014 you from the sweet 16.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Yeah, of course. We always support each other. She asked me to go, and of course I was there. That was, I don\u2019t know, three months ago. It was beautiful.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>People see the glory, but not the story. It was constantly growing, so let\u2019s say it wasn\u2019t like a surprise. From my city, from neighbors and hoods then to Bogota, then to Cali, then Barranquilla, then Colombia, then Venezuela, then Bolivia. It wasn\u2019t something that was just one day to another, so I was really grateful. But at this moment, everything is going so well that you don\u2019t even see it. I think that\u2019s what happened to me. If I go back in time, I think I didn\u2019t enjoy as much as I should enjoy the first time that I blew up. Because I\u2019ve been in different generations and different lives in my career. And on my first one, I didn\u2019t even enjoy it as I should.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Well, because you\u2019ve got to be able to understand how many billions of people are in the world and how many can definitely live doing music and doing what they love. And that\u2019s the things that you maybe realize when you start growing up and you sit back like, \u201cWow, I definitely live off what I love.\u201d And even though I have a lot of sacrifices and it\u2019s a really painful career \u2014 I think it\u2019s a really hard job \u2014 it\u2019s a blessing, you know, to do what we do. So now when I grew up, I\u2019m, like, this is special, man. Like, the life we have, it\u2019s a blessing, and of course, at the same time, I cannot deny that it\u2019s really a lot of pressure too.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Well, I didn\u2019t think as an artist. I was just thinking I was a human being. I didn\u2019t know I had anxiety and depression until I talked to a shrink. It was a moment in my life that was way before I was an artist. I didn\u2019t know I was suffering from anxiety until I was 21 \u2014 I\u2019m like, \u201cOh, this was anxiety when I was a kid, and I didn\u2019t know.\u201d And then when it got worse, I had a huge depression, and then I understood that one thing is to be sad, another one is to be depressed. When you\u2019re depressed, it\u2019s something that is stronger than you, no matter how much effort you make. I\u2019ve been there. And in my case, it\u2019s a chemical that\u2019s imbalanced, so I need chemicals to balance my chemicals. And thank God for humans and men and art and technology, because we have this field that, at least for me, has been giving me this balance to stay good, and it\u2019s a blessing. So the fact that Latinos, they never talk about it, a lot of machista<\/em>, you know \u2014<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wDSC02536.jpg?w=819\")
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<\/strong>I was like, you know, I\u2019m living in hell, and I think that maybe someone is going to connect with me if I open about this topic. And I took a lot of shots because people are like, \u201cOh, man, you are one of the biggest Latin stars and you\u2019re complaining about depression, and you have money and you are famous.\u201d And I understand they don\u2019t get it because they don\u2019t know, so many people don\u2019t know what it feels like. I took a lot of shots, and also from my peers. They\u2019re like, \u201cOh, he\u2019s a pussy. He is weak.\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cI have to take the shots, you now?\u201d But at the end of the day, I saved a lot of lives, because every time I do a show, someone comes to me like, \u201cListen, I wanted to commit suicide, and when you talked about it, I found out that I was suffering from what you were saying.\u201d <\/p>\n
<\/strong>Well, I can separate one from another. It\u2019s not like my sound is going to change or some words are going to change because I have a kid. But I don\u2019t have hard, hard lyrics that are X-rated. I\u2019m the happiest person when I see my kid, and I feel blessed, and I think that it\u2019s the best thing that would happen to me. And I have a great wife, who is a great mom that gave me a lot of peace, too. And it\u2019s a blessing.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I wanted to take Ryan Castro, who is an artist coming out. He\u2019s from Colombia, but he\u2019s doing really well. And we did an album together [Omerta<\/em>], so I\u2019m like, \u201cYo, let\u2019s come to the World Cup. Let\u2019s sing together.\u201d And you don\u2019t realize how big it is until you\u2019re there, and then you see the reaction after that, you see your social media blowing up and everything. But it was beautiful. It was in Mexico with our people, with the Latino gang. I\u2019m happy that I can share those moments with my peers and with my brother, Ryan Castro. I didn\u2019t have anyone to take me to those places when I started. And if I can use my platform to make it easier, all win. I have the chance to be just by myself and take all the credit, but I know who I am. I know what I represent, so why not bring another person to put the flag and be like, \u201cI\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I just feel that there\u2019s something unique in them. When I heard Rosal\u00eda for the first time, she was kind of big in Spain at that time, but not as she is right now. But I found her voice. My producer, Sky, introduced me to her music, and I was like, \u201cThis girl is out of this world. This is like an angel.\u201d So we invited her to be part of Vibras<\/a>.<\/em> She also had the interlude of that album, and then we did \u201cBrillo.\u201d That was our first song in Vibras,<\/em> and then with \u201cCon Altura\u201d and a couple of songs. And with Bad Bunny, it happened the same. I saw a guy who was different, you know? Remember that I came in this game and I was kissing my peers on the cheeks, and they\u2019re like, \u201cThis guy is gay.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cNo, I just love to express myself. And if I was gay, I would have a beautiful boyfriend.\u201d The things that we brought to the game when we came, you know, like colored hair, skirts, I was just feeling great about it. It wasn\u2019t that I wanted to take people\u2019s attention. I was expressing myself. <\/p>\n
<\/strong>We shot the video here in New York for \u201cLa Cancion.\u201d It\u2019s a funny story about \u201cLa Cancion\u201d because we didn\u2019t see it coming. To us, it was a good song, but it was kind of \u201calbum filler,\u201d in quote marks. And it\u2019s crazy because we didn\u2019t see that coming. It\u2019s been seven years now, and I\u2019m still charting. It\u2019s crazy. We have beautiful memories of me and Benito doing songs, and I just got back from being with him in Paris. It\u2019s so cool, man. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m the one who made him mainstream at all, but I think that I saw something that a lot of people didn\u2019t see. He was going to be Bad Bunny no matter what. I just feel blessed that I can see part of that greatness too in my story and see Karol and see Anita and see Rosal\u00eda. They were going to be huge no matter what, but I had the chance to work with them before they blew up.<\/p>\n
Since I started, I always wanted to do music in Spanish, of course, because I didn\u2019t know English. I remember back in the day, our huge artists like Enrique Iglesias, Shakira, Ricky Martin, they did crossovers, but they did Spanish and English versions of the same songs. And I\u2019m like, \u201cI ain\u2019t got time for that.\u201d I actually learned English because I wanted to know what the rappers were saying. And that\u2019s the power of music. I\u2019ve seen so many people speak in Spanish to me on Twitter, like \u201cOh, I learned Spanish because of you.\u201d That goes beyond music.<\/p>\n