NataKong

“I started this record with a different mentality,” Natanael Cano tells Apple Music. “My personal life got complicated, and just when everything was getting harder, I found a glimmer of hope. That little hope helped me to express everything that was happening to me, and that’s how I finished the album.” The end result is a record as majestic as it is expansive. It begins with moody Latin trap workouts like “Free Nata” and “Kong.” Beginning with “Cuento,” the project’s second half shines with the light of the corridos tumbados sound that Cano pioneered. Regardless of genre, the lyrics evoke the outbursts and contradictions of a personal diary, with references to romantic disappointment and death as a constant presence. “Whenever I’m in Mexico, I don’t give much thought to the fact that it’s a dangerous land,” he says. “I was born here and continue to move around. Whatever happens will happen. This album describes some realities that only the people close to me can understand.” Here, he guides us through the songs of *NataKong*, one by one. **“Free Nata”** “I wrote this while living in Cancun, then finished it in the Dominican Republic. I asked Krizous to send me an R&B trap beat, like the ones we used to do together. At that moment I had no idea what was going to happen with my life, and I recorded a freestyle on my cell phone talking about that. It ended up being the starting point for the entire project.” **“Kong”** “I never thought I would write a song about death. Sometimes you feel something unconsciously and then express it in your writing. It’s what I was feeling at the time. I felt lost, because I spent a long time in the US and when I came back, I had no idea what Mexico was like. I didn’t know if my friends were still my friends. It’s at that point when I’m thinking, ‘I feel like I’m going to get killed.’ I can’t write songs on command. If I delivered a full album, it was because I felt all these things in my day-to-day and kept recording. In order to write songs, I look for trouble, I find trouble—then I record a song.” **“Lio”** “Everything is a mess. I wrote this song a year ago. It was so important to me that I never released it. Because my last album was made up entirely of corridos, it stayed there, but I love it. I felt sad when I wrote it. The string arrangement came to us from the very beginning. We never changed it.” **“Tay”** “Tay is short for Taylor, a girl I met in one of my shows. I fell in love with her and spent two days like that. What’s not meant to be is not meant to be, however, and I ended up writing this song. When all this was happening, I told myself: I know what to do to feel better—just write a song. That’s when I recovered.” **“Estrellas”** “It’s not about anyone in particular, but it’s still one of my favorite tracks. One of the few I wrote just because I wanted to, thinking about crafting a song that expresses a particular feeling. Maybe it’s not about my life, not about something that happened to me, but I’m talking about something that could happen to anyone.” **“Dinero Digital”** “A more hardcore trap song. I saved it for a long time, but the subject matter is still timely. The lyrics are all over the place. I talk about digital money and gangsters, \[but\] also about everything you feel when somebody dumps you.” **“De A De Veras”** “We always got along well with codiciado. We ended up on the same label, and I identify with him because we share many similarities. He posted a fragment of this song on his personal Instagram and asked: Who should guest on this? I told him, ‘Bro, I love what you’re saying in that song, I need to be there.’ I flew to Guadalajara, we met, and the track was completed very quickly. It’s a personal lyric. We’re both problem children and vented our feelings. People need to listen to our side of the story.” **“Gracias A Dios”** “We recorded this with Lil Mosey. I was living in Los Angeles; we would bump into each other partying and take a photo together. Then we met up in Miami and decided to record something. I was in a mental war with myself, having issues with friends of mine. Maybe I was drunk at that moment, because I felt depressed. It ended up being a duet with Mosey, which we recorded in about 20 minutes. Even though he speaks English, I can understand a bit of what he’s saying. When things happen naturally, it never feels forced.” **“Quien Va A Caer”** “This track was started by Tyan G, an artist on the same label as me—but most importantly, a good friend. We started our careers at the same time, and things happened a bit faster for me. Tyan arrived with a fragment of the chorus, and his words made sense. This song is real. You’re at a party, and you don’t know if everyone is getting murdered, or just one person. It could be you, bro. This is Mexico. Many friends of mine have died just like that.” **“Toronto”** “I wrote this at Drake’s house. A friend invited me to meet Travis Scott’s producer. I arrived at a mansion in Hidden Hills, met the producer, and we started recording backing tracks. Everyone was American and no one spoke Spanish. I started freestyling and they said, ‘OK, I don’t understand what you’re saying, but it sounds good.’ I named this tune ‘Toronto’ because we were hanging out at Drake’s place.” **“Cuento”** “It’s my favorite song on the album. I don’t know why, but whenever I write songs about love—or the lack of—they always come out in the same style. I call it ‘amor tumbado,’ because it’s a corrido turned upside down with so much love. The lyrics describe a never-ending story. Unrequited love, you cause things to end, but then you’re all dejected. There are a couple of words that are hard to understand, slang from my hometown in Sonora.” **“Brillo”** “This song came to life in Hermosillo, Sonora, with the same songwriter that I co-wrote ‘Diamantes’ with. We’re like brothers, and it’s only your good friends who really know what’s going on in your life. We were at my house, and suddenly I came up with that sentence: ‘I carry this glow with me, and it bothers them.’ It was the only bit we had. Then we incorporated my car into the lyrics—my Mustang, because it’s a personal song. Some of the things I mention are incoherent, but they’re also real, and at the end of the day I’m not embarrassed to name them.” **“Mochila”** “I was in Cancun when I wrote this one. I thought it was important to include Junior H—especially since he moved to the city where I was born.” **“Madrid”** “I arrived at Cancun deeply in love, and I departed armed with a song. Some of the details here I invented. The reference to Madrid, and the back seat of a Mercedes—I don’t even own a Mercedes. I co-wrote this with a friend. I have a bunch of composer friends, but we don’t steal from one another. We all bring so many strengths to the table, it’s a pleasure to collaborate.” **“Periquito”** “It’s really personal, this corrido. It has the underground touch of Sonora, something that only young people can deliver. At the same time, it could be a nice old corrido by Ariel Camacho. The root of all my love songs takes you back to Ariel Camacho, mixed in with my personal style—it’s a perfect combination.” **“Traigo Ganas”** “A narcocorrido, Natanael Cano-style. I’m not speaking too much or too little. I don’t mention any names, cities or states—but it’s still about organized crime. At this stage in my life, I don’t need to describe things in too much detail, so it’s a narcocorrido that I wrote while being as moderate as possible.” **“Me Gusta”** “It’s the same story that happens to so many of us. A man accepting the fact that he loves to party. All of my songs provide an outlet for delivering an answer to someone. Maybe she doesn’t know me, she is not aware of what I’m really like. Here I’m describing myself.” **“Nataaoki”** “A friend of mine tells me that I come from the future, and I’m beginning to believe him. The lyrics of this song are out of control. I don’t know how I came up with them, being so young. I wrote this four years ago but never recorded it. I had the rhyme and nothing else. I was in Vegas and Steve Aoki invited us to his studio. So I arrived fully prepared with this lyric of mine. Steve is such a carefree guy, like a kid. We’re very much alike, and I think we will continue collaborating for a long time to come.”