Due to its geographical position, its free ports and its ties with America, things like Twix chocolate bars, Quality Street candies, canned meat or even some car models, such as the nineties Volkswagen Polo Classic, have arrived in the Canary Islands much earlier than in the rest of Spain.
In the early 2000s, although not by sea but as a result of a constant exchange and mixing of cultures, new Latin rhythms such as reggaeton from Don Omar and Daddy Yankee also landed, much earlier than in the peninsula. Because the gateway to Spain for "Dale, Don, dale" or "Gasolina" was the Canary Islands.
That vanguard served to lay the foundations for an avant-garde urban movement that was once led by the K-Narias and that, although it has had flashes in the last two decades -Soul Sanet or Adexe y Nau, for example-, ended up exploding in 2019, when Don Patricio published "Contando lunares".
This song, written hand in hand with Cruz Cafuné, broke the statistics of reproductions of streaming platforms such as Spotify and its video clip exceeded 150 million views on YouTube, figures that he repeated with the remix of the song, together with Rauw Alejandro and Anitta.
Now, with the mega-success of Quevedo and Bizarrap in their "BZRP Music Sessions #52", popularly known as "Quédate", the focus is back on the urban music factory that is the Canary Islands and whose main protagonists are the following:
Quevedo
The only Spanish artist to have topped the Spotify Global list, and for five weeks, Pedro Luis Domínguez Quevedo (Madrid, 2001), landed on the urban scene in 2020, almost at the same time as the confinement and the pandemic. Raised in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria since he was five years old, he has released songs such as "No me digas nada", "Ahora y Siempre" or, the latest, "Sin señal".
He is currently immersed in a tour of festivals throughout Spain while his fans await the possibility that he will at some point release his first album, since for the moment he only has about twenty songs, most of them collaborations with other artists.
Precisely the most important of all of them before Bizarrap, was "Cayó la noche", by Cruz Cafuné, Juseph, La Pantera, Abhir Hathi or El Ima, all from the Canary Islands.
Cruz Cafuné
Carlos Bruñas (Tenerife, 1993), artistically known as Cruz Cafuné, is one of the former members of BNMP (Broke Niños Making Pesos), one of the greatest representatives of current Canarian trap and valued in the scene for acting as godfather to many emerging artists whom, through collaborations, he helps to make known.
The song that gave the artist the most notoriety in his beginnings was "Mi Casa", released in 2016, with more than 35 million reproductions already accumulated on Spotify and which was awarded a gold record.
The collaboration with Rels B helped both of them to give visibility to their work, especially thanks to the song "Lo mejoré" (2016), in which Ellegas joined them. In addition, his first solo album, "Maracucho Bueno Muere Chiquito" (2018), features songs such as "Chivatos", "Cuenta Conmigo" or "Te enamoraste de un G", which put him on the map of emerging Canarians.
Don Patricio
One of the first to jump to the 'mainstream' with "Contando lunares", the most listened song on Spotify in 2019, Patricio Martín (El Hierro, 1993) approached the music scene at the age of 14, surrounded by friends such as Bejo and Uge, with whom he has formed the successful group Locoplaya, or El Pekas.
His collaborators define the style of his latest songs as a "reggaeton loaded with flow". He also has his own session with Bizarrap, number 25, which accumulates 51 million views on YouTube.
He has other hits of notorious success such as "Enchochado de ti" or "Pa' toda la vida", which was the soundtrack of a good part of the 'stories' of Spanish and Latin youth in the summer of 2020 and which accumulates 45 million views.
Ptazeta
Zuleima González (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Canaria, 1998), better known as Ptazeta, was the third Canarian to collaborate in the successful sessions organized by Bizarrap, number 45, which exceeds 85 million views.
Thus, her beginnings go back to 2019, when she opened a YouTube channel and began to upload her own songs in an exercise of self-production that is common in the industry.
One of her most successful songs has been "Mami", together with producer and DJ Juacko. Thus, in just two years, Ptazeta has managed to predominate in the Spanish rap scene and, three months ago, she signed with the American record label Interscope, where recognized artists such as Eminem or Lady Gaga are.
Bejo
Borja Jiménez (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1994), Bejo, is a Canarian rap and trap singer dragged by his older brother to these genres with only twelve years, age at which he began to compose his own songs. He was the first of the Canarian saga to collaborate with Bizarrap in session 27, which has more than 10 million views.
He is one of the members of the group Locoplaya, which he formed together with Don Patricio and Uge from El Hierro. Among his most popular solo songs are "Mango"(2016) and "Mucho" (2016), and he is one of the culprits of "Cayó La Noche Remix", which exceeds 80 million views on YouTube.
In this 2022 he has collaborated in "La guerra de los besos" together with the artists Macaco and Ana Mena.
Maikel Delacalle
Mikel Cabello (Tenerife, 1994), or Maikel Delacalle, rose to fame with the publication of his Spanish version of the song "Or nah", with original base Try Dolla Sign, in 2016, at a time when he also recorded the video clip "Nada que hablar" and the song "Ganas", which gave him recognition in the world of urban music.
In October 2018 he released his first album "Calle y Fe", composed of six songs, to which is added one of his latest hits, "Quiero que te acerques más", together with the Canarian group Efecto Pasillo. In addition, he has collaborated with artists such as Justin Quiles, Kevin Roldán and Rels B, among others.
Extra Track
To these six artists is added an important number of musicians and producers who make the Canarian urban school one of the most prolific and active of the moment. With a fame somewhat more contained than the rest, but probably lurking waiting to find the next 'hit' of Spanish music, there are other artists such as Abhir Hathi, El IMA, La Pantera, Pimp Flaco or Juseph, among others.