Eladio Carrión: The Puerto Rican Rapper Breaking Barriers
Graphic by Jonah Weintraub
By: Emmett Milberg
If you haven’t been living under a rock these past couple of years, then you’ve seen the exploding popularity of Latin music starting to dominate American charts and culture. While Bad Bunny and other reggaeton stars have been the face of this, Eladio Carrión is showing that reggaeton isn’t the only genre Spanish-speaking artists can succeed with in the States. He’s actually having success with the genre that Bad Bunny started with: rap.
The Puerto Rican star wears his influences on his sleeve, constantly stating in interviews that he grew up listening to legends like Eminem, Jay Z, Nas, and more. These core influences, combined with Eladio’s growing up in multiple cultures and places such as Hawaii, New York, and Puerto Rico, result in an extremely global and refreshing sound. While Eladio has mastered the art of being able to bar up, he also has the ability to make catchy and fun trap songs without abandoning the bars, which is what makes me respect him so much as an emcee.
Eladio performing at SXSW in Austin, Texas (Photo by Christopher Polk for Billboard)
His witty writing paints a canvas where different cultures collide in his songs, with lines like “Soy de la H, no la de Travis, Yo tengo la salsa, flow Hector Lavoe” (“I’m from the H, but not Travis’ H, I got the salsa flow, Hector Lavoe”).
However, you don’t need to understand Spanish to enjoy his music. I am nowhere near fluent in Spanish, but Eladio’s smooth and confident delivery over layered and vivid instrumentals makes up for the language barrier.
Eladio has been releasing music for many years, but 2023 has easily been the most notable year of his career. In March, he released his sixth official project 3MEN2 KBRN (in Spanish it reads “Tremendo Cabrón”). This marked his first project with more American features than Latin ones, and he got some serious names: 50 Cent, Lil Wayne, Future, Quavo, Lil Tjay, Fivio Foreign, and Rich The Kid. This project also has a club banger with Bad Bunny, titled “Coco Chanel,” his first song to chart in America (on the Hot 100) that would later win Eladio his first Latin Grammy. 3MEN2 KBRN was his third project to chart in America (on the Billboard 200), debuting in the top 20.
Just a month after this release, Eladio performed at Coachella, and his set was incredible. The first weekend, he killed it (as he always does), and the second weekend, he brought out Latin trap legend Anuel AA during his set while his father watched proudly in attendance. At the start of May, he collaborated with Mexican superstar Peso Pluma for the third song on Peso’s now platinum debut album GÉNESIS. To close out May, he started the first leg of his US tour, selling out venues with capacities as high as 7,000. After the fourth date of his US tour, he hosted his own two-day festival in Puerto Rico before heading back on the road. The festival, titled “Sauce Boyz Fest,” attracted a crowd of over 30,000 people per day, with Eladio performing alongside artists like Wiz Khalifa, Lil Wayne, and many more on his home court.
Eladio sharing the stage with Lil Wayne in Puerto Rico (Photo by Cheery Virtuet on Instagram)
In June, Eladio finished the first leg of his US tour, announcing the second leg after his performance at the Governors Ball Festival in New York City.
Throughout the rest of the year Eladio would continue to tour the world and be seen on some guest verses, with the most notable being his feature on Bad Bunny’s album nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana (“nobody knows what’s going to happen tomorrow”). This album was Bad Bunny returning to his roots and fixing the fans appetite for music in his old style which was mainly rap or latin trap. The song with Eladio is titled “THUNDER Y LIGHTNING” but it’s not the only time Eladio gets mentioned on the album. “MONACO” is the second track off the album with over 300 million spotify streams to date. On the smash hit Bad Bunny, the biggest latin artist in the world, raps “Hace rato me quité del trap, yo se lo dejé a Eladio” (“I quit trap a while ago I left it to Eladio”) officially passing the torch down to Eladio for the whole world to hear.
Eladio is on a hot streak right now, and he doesn’t plan on slowing down. As a fan, I can’t wait to see Eladio continue to push boundaries with his amazing music and evolve as an artist as he keeps proving to be one of the most talented rappers of this new generation. You should definitely give him a listen if you haven’t already— I promise you will not regret it.