Noriel
Noriel — born Noel Santos Román in Hato Rey, San Juan — is one of the artists Billboard credited with driving Latin trap's mid-2010s breakout in Puerto Rico, alongside Anuel AA and Bryant Myers. He started as a teenage ghostwriter, composing songs for his older cousin's reggaetón act before he ever rapped on a record himself, and a guest verse on that act's 2015 single effectively launched his own career; his 2016 feature on Maluma's "Cuatro Babys" and the Trap Capos compilation series then turned him into one of the genre's founding voices. Signed to Sony Music Latin since 2017, he has kept releasing albums into the 2020s (Trap Island, 2024) that swing between hard street trap and reggaetón-leaning romantic singles.
Noriel grew up in the same Hato Rey orbit as his older cousin Baby Rasta and spent his early teens writing songs for Baby Rasta & Gringo before he ever rapped on a record himself; his first vocal appearance, a guest verse on the duo's 2015 posse cut "En Su Nota," is what effectively launched him as a performer. Noriel has said Baby Rasta is "like my dad in this and in real life," and that he lived with him through much of his adolescence.
listen forListen for the plain-spoken, half-sung cadence and unhurried menace running through Baby Rasta & Gringo's classic reggaetón verses — the same conversational grit Noriel leans into on "Piropo," a song he's said was built specifically to bring back "reggaetón viejo."
Ñengo Flow was already a battle-hardened reggaetón/underground veteran (Real G4 Lif3) when the Trap Capos generation broke; he shared the mic with Noriel on early posse cuts like "Fanático del Full" and "Plo Plo," one of the older-guard voices blessing the new movement alongside Baby Rasta. No interview establishes a direct quote from Noriel naming him, so treat this as a documented collaborative/generational link rather than a stated personal influence.
listen forNotice the flat, almost bored menace in Ñengo's delivery on "No Dice Na" — he barely raises his voice while the beat does the threatening — and compare it to the same coiled, half-spoken toughness Noriel works on "El Problema."