blog
No expectations, no limitations, This is where craft and curiosity collide. I create my world of sound & sight.
Every week I drop ten tracks you probably haven’t heard of, show a glimpse of what I uncover as I document my life in CDMX, and highlight other artists I’m tuned in to.
The Chris mix
By now it’s kinda obvious I like hyperpop, upbeat tempos, and catchy melodies. The vibes I be on usually reflect the type of music I listen to in any given moment — or is it the other way around? IDK. I’m still kinda riding a high of how great the last couple weeks been, but I’m slowly coming down to my standard baseline
These next ten tracks are not so in-your-face like the past week, with the exception of the two jerk tracks I added. I’ve recently gotten into jerk/hoodtrap and it’s great way to rediscover some classic songs with a more bouncy feel.
Track 7 is back again, but in jerk version. HELLOLOLA is another emerging Spanish speaking artist from Argentina who I found while cloud digging (I’m gunna stick to this phrase for the digital equivalent of crate digging). Her monthly streams sits at 83,000 and has a sound that jumps between trap rap and hyperpop. She plays to her strengths and her sharp delivery is what makes her music personality fit so well. Her latests releases are tied with other artists with bigger followings as a way to get her name out, but her style shines much more in her earlier solo releases like her 2023 EP XXXTRAFINO. She labels her music simply; “Iconic shit for iconic bixes.”
Every other artist on this playlist deserves some backstory as well cus each one of them are artists im closely following, but I’ll leave it for another week on the Chris Mix.
Documenting Mexico CIty
This past July 4th was a day where noise was made on both sides of the US-MEX border. By now everyone knows about the anti-gentrification protests that happened in Mexico City. What most people don’t know was that organizers only a plan for a protest and the march that took the most attention was pressured to happen from protesters.
The organizers planned the protest to take place at Parque Mexico, a park that was mostly taken over by the presence of foreigners (this has been noticed by locals in many videos on Instagram and TikTok where they express the irony of what they see for a park being named Mexico). It started as a way for locals to voice their experiences of how the government, at the local and state level, has failed them to do anything to combat higher rent costs or criticize how the government has been so welcoming of expats without addressing socio-economic concerns of the locals.
Organizers noted that even if America has been doing the worst to Mexicans on their side and Mexican citizens have a reason to return the same treatment, they must be intelligent and conscious in the way they respond. “Our consumption is our vote” and “consume consciously” were spoken about as a result of Fortune 500 companies that have violated human rights like Coca Cola.
Slowly the general attention shifted away from the stage where organizers set up and towards the edges of the crowd where many small interviews were taking place from influencers and independent journalists. It was Canal 5’s interview with someone whose opinion did not align with the views of the protesters about gentrification that escalated the crowd to march the streets. During the interview the person (red shirt in the video) was confronted with younger protesters who spray painted him. He began removing himself from the park entirely and a group continued to follow him a couple blocks after. This intensified the crowd’s sentiment and at this point the organizers began to announce a route for protesters to march on the streets and end at the Angel del la Independencia. The march did not finish at el Angel. It continued into the metro station Chapultepec, where protesters dispersed.
A lot transpired during the march through the street; harassment of foreigners that attempted to walk through the protest, destruction of property of foreign businesses and businesses that served foreigners, a physical altercation with a foreigner (from what I partially can interpret a dog that was caught within the protest was what the foreigner was worried about that might have led to the altercation).
I began recording before the march took place. The footage I uploaded to YouTube is almost everything and the video linked here is set to start at the first altercation with the man with he red shirt that was being interviewed at Parque Mexico.
Artist in focus
RAYBEN - Musician https://www.instagram.com/rayben_music/
Producer/singer-songwriter/DJ comes from Iztapalapa, MX whose music has reached as far as EDC Las Vegas 2024. She is currently at 219K streams on Spotify, but it wasn't until my TikTok algorithm (thats been tailored to mostly show Mexican content in contrast to my IG algorithm) showed me her video where she attempts throwing a rave at a random place in CDMX by simply asking different locations if she could throw a rave.
The first popup rave was at an ice cream shop and at its peak about 400 people showed up. It was eventually shut down by the police (footage on her TikTok). I followed and soon enough she uploaded a video similar to the first one where she locked down a location outside of a bar. I missed the first one and made plans for her second popup rave.
There was a lineup before Rayben began her set, but the most notable thing was the age demographic of the crowd. I saw abuelitas perreando and children vibin’ to what probably will be a core memory for them. There was no VIP, no tickets, no age restrictions. It was all about creating an experience en el barrio for la Raza and as a way to showcase that there is music breaking the mold of traditional Mexican music and making accessible.
Based on her previous shows at notable music venues, this may not give her significant global outreach, but it’s her intention behind these popup raves that speaks volumes to her reputation and makes her as one of the top emerging music artists of Mexico City.
Like her first popup rave, there it was eventually shut down by police. This time it ended in her being removed from the rave and being brought into the police station. She was release the next day.