Looking back, Keysokeys remembers feeling sheepish about the music she would listen to when she was younger. “I was sometimes a little embarrassed to have someone walk by and hear what I was listening to. I was embarrassed that they would judge me,” she tells Remezcla. In those days, you could find her (secretly) enjoying everything from “Bachata en Fukuoka” by Juan Luis Guerra to tracks by Rihanna, Reik, and Juanes. “That’s why it’s a little crazy to me that nowadays I make music and have this freedom and this confidence to share my sound with the world. Because before I didn’t have any at all, not even to show people my musical tastes.” As her trajectory over the past half-decade has shown, that shyness has continued to erode in manifest ways.
With today’s release of her second album Como Vengo, Keysokeys cements herself as one of the last women standing of Puerto Rico’s indie rap scene. She began in earnest in 2020, performing in San Juan’s La Perla neighborhood, before slowly getting into the rhythm of releasing singles more consistently. By 2022, her songs were doing the rounds, bolstered in part by her being included in Bad Bunny’s all-female Latinx Heritage Month playlist for TIDAL, and also by the surge in attention on female rappers fueled by Young Miko’s meteoric rise. Later that summer, Miko invited Keys to participate in her Trap Kitty Festival event, celebrating the former’s debut album by the same name.
In 2023, she was one of the rising crop of new artists profiled by Remezcla for The Rise: A New Wave of Sounds in Puerto Rico, and she released Inmortal, her acclaimed debut EP, keeping up her productivity throughout 2024. But one particular song she released that year would go on to shift the way she approached her music going forward.
Inspired by Chuwi’s 2023 hit “Tierra,” Keys felt compelled to try something that would feel more holistic and attuned to the relationship between nature and her inner feelings, and incorporate more instrumentation into her sound. The result was “NAVEGANDO,” an open-hearted confessional light on rap wherein she compares her life to a river dragging her unwillingly along its current. The track was her boldest swing yet and greatly influenced the work she put into Como Vengo.
“Obviously, I started out as a rapper, and I came out with this rougher urban sound. I was very afraid that maybe I’d lose my audience, [and] what the feedback would be from people,” she says. “But I think that song definitely helped me a lot to lose that fear of experimenting and of what I can do with my voice.”
The appeal of Keysokeys to her fans is her bar-heavy, unbridled attitude, which harkens to the alleyway rap battle style that flourished during hip-hop’s heyday. Keys was a late bloomer when it came to listening to rap, but she quickly caught on and has her share of favorites, such as Ñengo Flow, Cosculluela, Canserbero, and Mexicano (“I know he was a bit of a character, [but I loved] the way he narrated things”). Those who flock to her music for her raw lyricism can rest assured that, despite the pivot to trying new things, she hasn’t lost her fiery magic. Lead single “Como Vengo” easily channels her rap prowess, as she makes a statement that is also shared with the album title. Guest artists like Celestia, Calma Carmona, and Erre add flair that pushes Keys to explore her sound in different genres, while producers Søul, Matt Burr, and Aris square out the beats that give Como Vengo even more dynamism than her previous output.
“I think the final work is pretty incredible and very much in line with the specific sound I was looking for: urban, rock, rap, but also these bohemian sounds,” she says, referring to the live trumpets, guitars, and congas included in some of the tracks. “It adds value to the [music]. That’s why I also called it Como Vengo (As I Come), y’know? Because I wanted it to be a statement, like, “Okay, look, I’m coming now a little more evolved, musically stronger.’”
Keys knows her music isn’t what typically breaks through to the public, but she doesn’t sweat any worries and bets on her versatility to continue keeping her voice afloat. “I’m very aware of what’s popular, what’s really moving the masses, and that’s why I never stop making reggaetón tracks here and there, [or] trap tracks,” she says. “But I’ve always been more about doing—it sounds a bit cliché—what my heart tells me, artistically. Sometimes you think, ‘Maybe people won’t like this because it’s not mainstream,’ or whatever. But that’s what happened with ‘NAVEGANDO,’ and people liked it. So, that will never be an impediment for me to continue creating the things that keep coming to me as ideas.”
The landscape is very different now than it was three years ago. Back then, a renaissance of female rap acts powered Keys and others to the forefront of an exciting new movement that brimmed with promise in regards to what many already knew: ladies is pimps too, and they could shoot with the best of ‘em. But the volume has died down, and Keys has thoughts on why. “I would like to see record labels offering more support… Or not just record labels, but everyone in the music industry who has the ability to contribute to the careers of artists. I would like those people to be a little more open to collaborating with female artists or with artists who aren’t just following the same old formula,” she says. “I’m not just talking about myself; there are many independent artists in this scene who are struggling every day to make their art possible and to make their personal lives possible as well.”
To that last point, Keys addresses the gender opportunity gap as well. “I can also say from my personal experience that music is a difficult path. And being a woman, it sounds incredibly cliché, because sometimes it even makes me uncomfortable to keep hearing it, but being a woman also makes the path extremely difficult,” she says. “You have to be tough, learn the tricks of the trade, because it’s a path that, if I’m honest, anyone can get disillusioned and say, ‘Look, I’m not going to do it anymore, I’m not going to keep wasting energy on this, I’m fighting against the current, I’m investing a lot of money.’ There are so many things at once.”
What she has demonstrated over the past few years, though, is that she is an artist who believes strongly in herself and her art, and has learned the lessons of consistency and growth when it comes to making sure you don’t get stuck in a rut. Her authenticity is undeniable to all who cross paths with her and her music, and it’s what she banks will fuel her ascent as she navigates a turbulent industry that’s as rough as her bars.
Como Vengo is out now.
