“I wanted to start putting hints to people through this classic era, the salsa sounds, the Puerto Rican immigration,” Rauw Alejandro tells Apple Music about returning to the world of his inventive and mature 2024 album *Cosa Nuestra*. “And through that journey, I found so many things, and so many sounds, that it was impossible to put it in just one project.” Framed as more of a prequel than a sequel, *Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0* moves even further away from the groundbreaking futurism of the preceding *SATURNO* era of his career. “I just went deep in my story as a Puerto Rican,” he says. In doing so, the Latin superstar’s style shifts closer to the very Caribbean essence from which he first emerged, a deliberate choice that provides the album with a profoundly unique sound with robust cultural roots. The forms presented here exist both within and beyond genre, with immersive songs like “Caribeño” and “NÁUFRAGOS” rendering well-worn terminology like “fusion” rather useless. “I always study everything before I’m going to jump into it, any type of sound or music,” Alejandro says. “I like to learn a little bit \[of\] the history.” Whether swinging to salsa on “FALSEDAD” or basking in bachata on “SILENCIO,” he seems consistently at home, sonically and otherwise. The spiritual and the secular become one on his sublimely tropical “GuabanSexxx,” while polyrhythmic percussion elevates the intricate love song “Carita Linda.” From pop-savvy Puerto Rican singer De La Rose to Dominican rap shapeshifter Jey One, the guests who occasionally enter Alejandro’s *Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0* zone contribute in ways simultaneously familiar and fresh. For instance, Wisin and Ñengo Flow naturally bring perreo power to “CONTRABANDO,” yet the underlying groove goes beyond the standard reggaetón mode. Even when he reaches beyond the Caribbean, as with Nigerian singer Ayra Starr on the Afrobeats-inflected “Santa” or Chilean alt-pop act Mon Laferte on “Callejón de los Secretos,” it all fits within the space he’s so carefully constructed. “I didn’t know where this journey was going to take me,” he says. “You keep growing as an artist, as a person.”
NorthSideBenji wasn’t mincing words when he named his third record. The Brampton, Ontario, trap&B sensation has always been upfront about the fact that your problems don’t just magically disappear once you gain access to the VIP room, but *Misery Loves Company* finds him in an especially introspective mood, dispensing self-analytical soliloquies about success and excess that flow as freely as the album’s aqueous productions. “Don’t you think shit was easier ’fore this money came through?” he asks on “Running Game,” as piano chords rain down around him like a light drizzle. But if the album doesn’t shy away from mining NorthSideBenji’s miseries—whether he’s seeking chemical cures for his mental health (“Lost My Mind”) or reckoning with his drug-dealing past (“A Life to Die For”)—he keeps good company: “A1” is a tranquil, tropical-trap track brightened by UK rapper Nafe Smallz’s playful flow, while Alabama MC NoCap seizes the spotlight on the smooth yet swaggering “Save Me.”
After whetting fans’ appetites earlier in the year with the EP-length *LOS FLAVORZ*, Dei V returns with his second project of 2025, *Underwater*. A full-length follow-up to the still-ascending Puerto Rican star’s breakthrough *Quién Es Dei V*, this 16-track effort goes deeper into his bag as a melodic rap phenomenon, beginning with the come-up narrative of the title track and continuing through the closing flex fest “Pretty Boy.” He’s very much at ease in a softer mode, too, persuasively making his case on the smooth “TUMBAO” and calling back to an R&B classic on the sexually charged “Te Capie.” Confident and direct, he makes his desires known to prospective lovers on “El Del Flavor” and the Afrobeats inflection “Queen.” That thematic approach seeps into some of his collaborations here, too, alongside fellow boudoir provocateur Arcángel on “QNP” and opposite Blessd on the like-minded “BB.” That said, he still makes room for some choice reggaetón moments, with perreo-ready vets Ñengo Flow and Yandel on “Dejala Caer” and “Wo Oh,” respectively.
