Cris MJ
Christopher Andrés Álvarez García was born in 2001 in La Serena, Chile, and took the name Cris MJ from his own first name and his father's friend group, nicknamed 'Mala Junta'; largely self-taught, he began releasing music toward the end of the 2010s. He broke through in 2022 with 'Una Noche en Medellín,' a single that went viral on TikTok and was later remixed with Karol G and Ryan Castro, establishing him as a leading voice of the emerging Chilean urbano wave. In 2024 his collaboration with FloyyMenor on 'Gata Only' became a worldwide hit, helping push Chilean reggaetón onto the global stage.
In a Billboard profile Cris MJ is described as inspired by old-school reggaetón acts, Daddy Yankee among them; that lineage surfaces in his reliance on the genre's signature dembow rhythm and its shouted, party-driving cadences as the backbone of his hits.
listen forThrow on the relentless dembow snap of Daddy Yankee's 'Gasolina' and then Cris MJ's 'Una Noche en Medellín' — hear how both ride the same swinging kick-and-snare pattern under a chanted, call-and-response hook built to move a floor.
The same Billboard profile lists Drake among the American artists Cris MJ drew from, and you can hear it in his blurring of singing and rapping — soft, melodic, half-sung phrasing delivered in a low-key, after-hours register rather than a hard bark.
listen forPlay Drake's languid, tropical-tinged croon on 'Passionfruit' next to Cris MJ's 'Marisola' — notice how both float a gentle, melodic vocal over a mid-tempo groove, letting the melody slur and drift instead of hammering every syllable.
Billboard names Travis Scott among Cris MJ's American trap influences, and Cris MJ has said he gravitates toward 'futuristic beats'; the connection shows up in his taste for hazy, auto-tuned melodic hooks laid over spacious, atmospheric production.
listen forCue the woozy, auto-tuned melody and cavernous low end of Travis Scott's 'goosebumps,' then Cris MJ's 'Gata Only' — both drape a smeared, effects-heavy vocal over a minimal, echoing beat that leaves lots of empty space around the hook.