Puerto Rican trap upstart Brray has teamed up with Dominican MC Lito Kirino for a new track entitled “No Me Frontees,” produced by buzzy beatmakers Steve Lean (of Atlanta’s 808 Mafia) and Young Martino (formerly of San Juan’s Lv Civdvd). Brray delivers rapid-fire vocals in a rap-sing cadence, while Kirino drops a well-placed verse to match.
Perhaps the most noteworthy element here, however, is the instrumental behind it all, or more specifically – the beatmakers responsible for it. Producers Steve Lean and Young Martino can claim authorship of some of the most innovative songs from the vibrant trap movement gaining traction in Latin America and Spain. The two artists have shrewdly studied the chart-topping Atlanta sound, so much so that 808 Mafia founders Lex Luger and Southside even invited Lean to join their crew.
But Lean originally made a name for himself as the mastermind of PXXR GVNG, whose sad boy party rap continues to turn heads. While that audacious (and hedonistic) style may not line up squarely with the crepuscular, laid-back beats Young Martino made in Lv Civdvd, the collaboration between the two producers seems to fall into place naturally. Joint efforts like these reveal that bridges are being built across Spanish-speaking trap scenes and the line between the underground and mainstream continues to blur.
For Latino rappers, hopping on a trap instrumental for a U.S. artist is considered a go-to method for scoring a hit, but success just hasn’t come that easily. Lean and Martino are experts at crafting music for independent hip-hop artists who refuse to conform to the narrow labels the urbano industry imposes on them. With Brray and Lito Kirino tackling the rhythmic and fast-paced production with aplomb, it’s safe to say that trap en español will only continue to proliferate as a genre.