Becky G curls up on a burnt orange couch as she maps out the Inglewood neighborhood where she was raised, all by memory. “When I look at where I grew up, everything is on a nearby corner,” she says. She’s thousands of miles from home, inside Brooklyn’s Tower Labs, where the boxy and uninviting muted grays of modern architecture across Kent Avenue feel like a world away in this cozy, dimly-lit speakeasy meets vinyl lounge. At 26 years old, Becky has entered a decade-long music career, reaching multi-platinum record-selling status. When she’s not teaming up with Erehwon or launching a wildly popular beauty brand, she’s grabbing drinks with Omar Apollo at Disneyland and exchanging memes of telenovela villains via text with DannyLux.
But she really lights up when she talks about her beloved Inglewood, the inspiration behind the title of her newest album, ESQUINAS. “La escuela está en la esquinita of so and so. Or la marketa está en la esquina de so and so. Randy’s Donuts is literally on the corner, and then my grandpa — the cemetery where he’s buried — is on the corner,” Becky explains.
The singer has spent the past two years moodboarding and sketching out the material on ESQUINAS. Back in April, she made her Coachella debut in a sequined, cobalt blue cowboy core wardrobe. She shared the stage with a cast of buzzworthy guests like Fuerza Regida and Marca MP and honored Tejana icon Selena with a moving medley. She also dropped hints about the release of her own forthcoming música mexicana project, teaming up with raspy-voiced crooner Peso Pluma on “Chanel” and later with singer and songwriter Gabito Ballesteros on the steamier “La Nena.”
Becky G’s new album comes at a time when corridos and styles within the música mexicana world, such as banda, norteño, and sierreño, continue to pique interest on a global level among those who were not raised on them. But rather than take advantage of the momentum around regional Mexican’s skyrocketing popularity, the singer dedicated the time to really immerse herself in the evocative art of storytelling and recreate the sense of organic intimacy prominent in the music she grew up listening to.
“When you sing regional music, it’s just a one-vocal track and then the segunda voz,” she says. “It demands a different style of voice for me. Reggaeton is fun, and I started as a rapper — I know all that like the back of my hand. But this is a deeper part of me that, as an artist, I feel more connected to on a soul level. I think it’s because it’s folk music. That’s what I grew up with, listening to Chente, listening to Jenni, listening to Chalino. For us, it’s like the practice of tradition. But at the same time, giving it that new school flair.”
While the corridos tumbados sub-genre continues to catch heat from Mexican officials going so far as attempting to prohibit live performances that “promote violence,” a wave of younger artists, which includes Becky G, have recently embraced the more folkloric framework and amorous roots of the classic corrido. ESQUINAS is easily Becky G at her best moment. Its 13 tracks are imbued with traces of sierreño ballads (“PATRAS”) and vivacious norteño (“CUIDADITO”). It shines the light on both metamorphic loss and falling in love, making it some of her most tenderhearted material to date. “Bien Canijo” pounds with the aching intensity of an Amy Winehouse deep-cut as she comes to a somber realization (“Te la pongo fácil/ Quiero ser feliz/ Pero ya no se si lo soy contigo”). Certified romántico DannyLux and major label bidding war-inciting newcomer Ivan Cornejo swoop in on the tracklist, adding onto its contemporary touches by weaving in mellow alt-rock chords and emotive choruses.
ESQUINAS is not only an ode to her musical roots, but it allowed the Mexican-American singer to reconnect with her lineage and family, namely her grandparents. Becky mentions that the passing of her grandfather Miguel back in 2021 also served as a major catalyst for the sonic direction heard throughout ESQUINAS. On the sentimental “Querido Abuelo,” an ode to her grandparents’ unconditional love and support, the singer reminisces on being raised by a multi-generational family, or what she describes as their own little pueblito. It’s a heartwarming reflection on her humble beginnings, dedicated to Miguel and his legacy. “Getting as close as I could to him was so important to me,” she says. “It was such a sacred moment.”
The album’s closer, a stunning cover of “Cruz de Olvido,” popularized by the late Vicente Fernandez, also marks a full-circle moment. “Look,” she says as she leans forward and picks up her phone from the coffee table. “It’s the song that he dedicated to my grandma Cruzita when he was coming over to the States from Mexico,” Becky says with a warm smile.
She thumbs through her phone before landing on a video of herself belting her heart out for a performance of the Chente hit at just 12 years old. A beaming Miguel stands tall to her right among a crowd of enthused friends and family. “Also…don’t ever let me cut my bangs like that again! Please,” she quips. “Losing him was maybe a subconscious pressure. This is such an important part of my being, and everything that I once knew as a little girl feels further and further away. The city I grew up in, Inglewood, and the gentrification that’s happening throughout all of LA…it’s changed so much every day, so much that I wanted to capture it as closely as possible and [how it was] when I was younger.”
“This is such an important part of my being, and everything that I once knew as a little girl feels further and further away. The city I grew up in, Inglewood, and the gentrification that’s happening throughout all of LA…it’s changed so much every day, so much that I wanted to capture it as closely as possible and [how it was] when I was younger.”
ESQUINAS is also a testament to making your wildest dreams come true. While it may be heavy on the heartache, the album details an ongoing tale of triumph. Lines like, “Lo quе te conté de niña hoy es rеalidad/ Desde arriba yo sé que de mi, orgulloso estás,” from “Querido Abuelo” coincidentally arrive exactly 10 years after her 2013 breakout single “Becky from the Block,” where she first flexed her manifesting energy: “I’m a be a crossover/ Right now it’s just who is that girl?/ But one day I’m a be all around the world.”
The Inglewood star may be singing about herself with clear-cut specificity, but the many nuances to her narrative are something countless first and second-generation Latines can identify with. When there are minimal examples or blueprints to work off of, you’re forced to carve your own path. As terrifying as that dilemma may be, it’s become a source of fuel for Becky.
“We are so tied to where we come from that even the rooms we walk into, we’re not just carrying our own dreams,” she says. “We’re carrying the dreams, and the traumas, and the sacrifices of everybody who came before us. I think that’s really heavy, but it’s something that when you lean into it, you realize the power in that.”
Listen to ESQUINAS below.
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