walking upstream…
Dei V
Dei V (David Gerardo Rivera Juarbe) is a Puerto Rican rapper and singer from Carolina who split his teenage years between the island and New York City, a bicultural upbringing that shows up directly in his bilingual, English-inflected flow. He broke through via posthumous features on the late Yeruza's La Ruta Del Dinero, then built his own run — 2022's "Quieren Ser Yo" and 2023's "¿Quién es Dei V?" — around a deliberately unhurried, synth-draped strain of Latin trap he's since carried into features with Karol G and Anuel AA and a Bad Bunny co-sign that culminated in 2025's Hot 100 hit "Veldá."
the sound in question
2025
VeLDÁDei V
walk the tributaries ↓
A Boogie Wit da Hoodie2010s · Hip-hop / Trap
Dei V has named him directly as a formative artist from his New York years — the unhurried, half-sung hooks laid over moody, synth-heavy beats that define Dei V's self-described 'relaxed style' trace back to A Boogie's melodic sing-rap blueprint for trap.
listen: upstream & here
2019
Look Back At ItA Boogie Wit da Hoodie
2025
El Del FlavorDei V
listen forListen for the way Dei V lets his voice droop into an actual melody mid-bar rather than staying locked to a rapped cadence — the same laid-back, half-sung delivery A Boogie popularized in New York trap.
The Notorious B.I.G.1990s · East Coast hip-hop / Gangsta rap / Hardcore hip-hop
Dei V has said in interviews that he draws a lot of influence from the English-language artists he heard in New York, naming Biggie specifically — it surfaces as an unhurried, boastful storytelling swagger, a rapper thoroughly at ease narrating his own come-up rather than rushing to prove it.
listen: upstream & here
1994
JuicyThe Notorious B.I.G.
2022
Quieren Ser YoDei V
listen forListen for the confident, conversational pocket Dei V settles into on braggadocio tracks — less about speed, more about a laid-back certainty that every line has already landed.
Arcángel2010s · Reggaeton / Latin trap / Latin hip hop
Coverage of Dei V's rise points to Arcángel (alongside De La Ghetto) as a touchstone for the bicultural, Nuyorican flow that lets Dei V move fluidly between a reggaeton cadence and English-inflected trap ad-libs.
listen: upstream & heresource: Remezcla — interview citing De La Ghetto and Arcángel as Nuyorican-flow inspirations ↗
2008
Pa' Que La Pases BienArcángel
2024
Bad BoyDei V
listen forListen for the code-switching inside a single verse — Spanish street slang landing in the same bar as English asides, a bilingual pocket Arcángel helped normalize in Puerto Rican reggaeton and trap.