Steve Aoki has another hit on his hands, and it’s packed with heavy hitters. Willy William and Grammy-nominated DJ’s latest song “MAMBO” features Sean Paul, El Alfa, Sfera Ebbasta, and Play-N-Skillz. All in one song, you will hear four languages total with a heavy reggaeton and Latin influence, and that is by design.
“MAMBO” features Dominican Republic’s El Alfa–a known bachata and reggaeton artist in his own right–with collaborations such as the Black Eyed Peas called “NO MAÑANA” to his credit. Play-N-Skillz have collaborated with Aoki and Daddy Yankee in the past, with “Azukita” on their resume. With Sean Paul and Sfera Ebbasta, they all make up the four minute and nine second hit that already has over six million views since being released earlier this year.
“MAMBO” is one of the latest single releases off Aoki’s Latin Music Label Dim Mak en Fuego. Operating alongside Aoki’s Dim Mak record label, Aoki created DMEF in July of 2020 to be a new home for the Latin music underground. The label intends to channel traditional Latin music and fuse it with evolving soundscapes using both established and upcoming Latin artists. As for artists that are currently signed to Dim Mak En Fuego, there are a couple: the group known as the “anti-boy band” AQUIHAYAQUIHAY is out of Monterrey, Mexico and Venezuelan singer Andrekza was the label’s first Latina artist to be signed.
One of Aoki’s biggest fan bases is in Latin America so his creation of a Latin label isn’t that much of a stretch for an artist always looking to support and empower other artists, including Latinx artists. Aoki told Hola that accomplishing that goal was a big reason for creating DMEF, “I want to support them. I want to give them a foundation for them to grow. And it just made sense that we needed a label to sign Latinx artists. The Latinx generation they’re too powerful. They’re too big. They need their foundation, their infrastructure, and their team.”