Becky G on Assembling ‘Esquinas’ With Producer Edgar Barrera and New Mexican Artists: ‘As Serendipitous As It Can Get’
29.09.2023 - 19:55
/ variety.com
Thania Garcia This particular Friday has been a long time coming for Becky G: Her third studio album, “Esquinas,” (“Corners”), finally sees its release via Kemosabe-RCA Records after living only as a concept in her mind for the last several years. It’s a truly intimate project. In it, the singer is overwhelmed with moments of gratitude, at other times with pride — whether that be for her dual heritage as a Mexican-American, or for her long-earned and winding ascent to the top.
In rarer moments, she confronts grief and loss. Mainly, she hopes fans will hear this record and recognize it as her at her truest. “This is for my 200%-ers,” Becky said in a speech she gave at her album-listening event just a few weeks ago.
Friends, family, industry insiders, her co-managers Ben Tischker and Marc Jordan and other members of her team gathered around the 26-year-old Inglewood, Calif. native to hear her relay the album’s ethos: “I’m not just one side of the border, I’m not just in one industry — I’m literally in the corner, at the crossroads of two flags, two languages, two cultures… ” she later repeated over a Zoom call with Variety. Long before the release of “Esquemas” in 2022, which she describes as “a body of work that really proved my genre-lessness as an artist,” the idea for a Mexican Becky G album was a request that came from her family — her grandparents, to be specific.
“It was a dream of mine for years,” she says. “When I was younger, my grandparents would always tell me, ‘Mija, I’d love to hear you with a mariachi or with a banda.’ And my grandma would always make fun of me because I would be rapping. She would tell me: ‘I hear you very angry, mija — what’s wrong?'” she laughs.