On May 5, Banda MS and Ice Cube dropped their surprise regional Mexican collaboration “¿Cuáles Fronteras?” The result? A banda-infused ode to hard-working immigrants and a call to unite races.
“This song is a tribute to [immigrants], a voice and a song of solidarity for all our people – not only Mexican, but Latin, South American, Central American, from all over the world who are looking for a better future,” Banda MS’ singer Oswaldo Silvas said in a recent interview with Billboard Español. “So, it’s a way of how with what we do, we put that grain of sand of solidarity for our people.”
The connection was thanks to the event organizer Bobby Dee, a mutual colleague. Once Ice Cube heard the potential collaboration, he thought it was “amazing on all levels, from start to finish” – and jumped on it. The lyrics were written by the group’s lead songwriter, Omar Robles, and Ice Cube himself.
When asked about the important message of uniting cultures, Ice Cube said: “It’s very important, especially coming from Los Angeles, being able to preach that message that we’re better together than apart. We have more in common than not.”
He continued: “It’s important to show that we need to work together and make each other’s lives easier and not harder. We all know there are forces against both communities that make life hard, so we shouldn’t contribute to that.”
The music video, directed by Arturo Aldapa, shines a light on the tragic stories that immigrants go through every day trying to cross the border to the U.S. Except in their video, the roles are reversed—they show Americans with U.S. flags putting their lives in danger, fighting for their chance to escape the U.S. and cross to Mexico. Besides the sentimental visual message, the vocalists are featured in a desert landscape, laying their emotional verses about solidarity.
Banda MS is not new to collaborations featuring hip-hop icons. In 2020, the band from Sinaloa released “Qué Maldición” with Snoop Dogg, which has garnered over 85 million views on YouTube to date.
Watch the official music video for “¿Cuáles Fronteras?” below.