La Favi had no idea her recently missed flight from New York to Madrid would lead to the release of the collaborative No Lo Siento EP with New York and New Jersey-based So Icey Trap. “I saw her on IG and I liked her attitude, so I hit her up and stayed with her for a few days,” La Favi tells Remezcla via text. Those few days quickly turned into recording sessions, in which both singers’ styles shone through in different ways. On the title track, So Icey Trap takes the lead, with La Favi providing her melodic lull over a beat sampling Lil Uzi Vert’s “XO TOUR Llif3.”
So Icey Trap, born Vianey Otero, is currently promoting a documentary about her life as a former escort and prison inmate titled Vianey. “I feel like I don’t have to say a lot because my aura says a lot for me,” she recently told NJ.com about the film. But Otero commands attention throughout No Lo Siento’s songs, flipping her powerful aura into reggaeton oscuro flows. It’s an audible treat for listeners, one that could possibly translate to wider recognition for both artists.
Recently, the artist born Natalia García has started to enjoy some of that increased visibility, drawing the attention of rising stars like Catalan singer Rosalía. The buzzy vocalist recently gave Favi a shout out in her Premios ICON acceptance speech. “Of course it’s an honor to be named alongside [the other] artists mentioned… Sometimes it feels like no one is listening right now,” La Favi tells Remezcla. It was just another affirmation of something we’ve said before: the underground always informs the mainstream.
And though it may seem like reggaeton’s underground artists aren’t getting wider recognition, a shout-out like this shows people are listening. “To know that you influence someone or that people are noticing makes me think a lot about who has access to being seen or commercialized. There is a lot of racism and poverty that keeps the real underground from being heard. I know it’s the same for black women. [I had a lot of] opportunities being raised in the United States, and I hope to continue to do what I do while having respect to the culture that has kept [reggaeton] alive,” says García.
Stream our premiere of No Lo Siento EP below.