Peso Pluma
Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija grew up in Zapopan and Guadalajara, teaching himself guitar from YouTube tutorials as a teenager and writing songs in a diary before uploading them online. His 2023 duet 'Ella Baila Sola' became the first regional Mexican song to crack the Billboard Hot 100's top ten, and albums like Génesis and Éxodo cemented him as corridos tumbados' biggest global export, fusing sierreño guitar and banda drama with trap's cadence and reggaetón's sheen.
Kabande has named the late sierreño star Ariel Camacho a primary influence, and Camacho's requinto-driven minimalism is the backbone Peso Pluma builds his own sierreño-tumbado tracks on.
listen forCue up Ariel Camacho's 'El Karma' and then Peso Pluma's 'Por las Noches' — the same intimate, guitar-forward sierreño heartbreak sits under both, even once Peso Pluma layers trap drums on top.
Kabande has cited Valentín Elizalde, the banda star murdered in 2006 for performing the corrido 'A Mis Enemigos,' as a foundational influence — Elizalde's emotive, full-throated banda phrasing surfaces whenever Peso Pluma folds brass and banda drama into a corridos tumbados track.
listen forCompare Valentín Elizalde's 'A Mis Enemigos' with Peso Pluma, Natanael Cano, and Gabito Ballesteros's 'AMG' — the same wounded, defiant banda swagger carries through, just reset over a trap beat.
Peso Pluma has said he grew up loving Chalino Sánchez's records, and the King of Corrido's plainspoken delivery of gritty street narratives is the template Peso Pluma updates in his own narcocorridos.
listen forPut on Chalino's 'Nieves de Enero' next to Peso Pluma's 'El Belicón' — both trade polish for the same flat, matter-of-fact delivery of a violent story, narrative first, technique second.