Rauw Alejandro

“I don’t wanna be stuck in the same pattern,” Rauw Alejandro told Apple Music. “Every project that I’m gonna do is gonna be totally different from the past. You’ll see my essence—you’ll see reggaetón and the Alejandro essence—but you’re always gonna find a new thing to listen to.” Born Raúl Alejandro Ocasio Ruiz in San Juan, in 1993, the singer, songwriter, and dancer grew up in both the mainland US and Puerto Rico, and his first love wasn’t music—it was soccer. But an injury in his teens put his dreams of a pro career out of reach so Alejandro turned to music—his second love—as a kind of therapy, finding an outlet for his frustration as he learned to sing and write songs. While he honed his musical skills, his innate physicality drew him to clubs, where he made friends and a name for himself as an inventive and (unsurprisingly) athletic dancer. That gave him a built-in network when he dropped his 2016 debut mixtape, Punto de Equilibrio, which showcased both his deliciously lovelorn tenor and his penchant for eclectic, future-forward production. His 2019 EP Trap Cake, Vol. 1 drew trap in an ambient and emotional direction that was almost more in line with cloud rap. Such early feats of versatility set the stage for Alejandro’s dramatic ascent to mainstream stardom in the 2020s. That thirst for reinvention yielded the triumphantly diverse SATURNO, released in late 2022 and expanded upon in early 2023. Its companion album—PLAYA SATURNO, released the same year—built on his futurist sonic exploration. Cosa Nuestra (2024) and its follow-up Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0 highlighted Alejandro’s ability to expand beyond his reggaetón roots by blending the genre with the traditional sounds of salsa. Whereas earlier reggaetoneros had built their reps on braggadocio (with amorous conquests as the ultimate status symbol), Alejandro flipped the script, bringing out narcotic, enraptured love songs that have topped the charts and pulled in a broad range of fans, allowing him to expand his range and push Latin music into uncharted territories.