Maybe what rapper Kaydy Cain says is true: it’s not really summer until La Mafia Del Amor (aka trapero crew Los Santos, formerly known as PXXR GVNG) says so. If he’s right, pull out your sunscreen and charge your beach speakers because the group just dropped two mixtapes on the influential Barcelona-based label La Vendición Records. Together, Reggaeton Antiguo and 808 & Xapiadoras comprise a choice playlist for a party on the dunes or in the sheets.
Starting with the perreo project: the bubbling “Es De La Mafia” hardly sounds like the reggaeton antiguo the mixtape title promises, and “Tu Me Querrias?” gives more Drake vibes than anything else. But fans are unlikely to care about the misnomer; it’s sexy music para bailar pegado, or hug your pillow and fangirl over your fave Mafia del Amor heartthrob. And there’s no doubt the boys are growing into those pop culture roles — Yung Beef is rapping about Roberto Cavalli (“Dice Que No Me Quiere”) as befits a runway model. Mafia’s tracks continue to smooth into products worthy of gentlemen with their years in the industry; less fighter, more lover.
The other mixtape is called 808 & Xapiadoras, perhaps to avoid the extreme over labeling of trap that we’re experiencing in 2017, a year in which everything from R&B to experimental club music has been thrown into the genre’s basket. PXXR GVNG has been with the genre for years, to the extent that they have come up with their own definitions. “El trap es vender coca y ver memes,” tweeted Yung Beef the day before the double mixtape dropped, as good of a definition as you’re going to get these days. As far as standouts go, “Lookin’ Like This” features FKi 1st, an Atlanta titan and Diplo mentee who describes his work as homegrown “trap that goes left” and joins an impressive list of ATL collaborators who have worked with this crew. “Disisamor” is a sweet, radio-ready R&B ode to ratchets that makes it clear, à la 2015 Mafia hit “Independiente,” that the crew’s priority is babes who aren’t jealous.
The Mafia just kicked off summer; show some gratitude.