Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0

“I wanted to start putting hints to people through this classic era, the salsa sounds, the Puerto Rican immigration,” Rauw Alejandro tells Apple Music about returning to the world of his inventive and mature 2024 album *Cosa Nuestra*. “And through that journey, I found so many things, and so many sounds, that it was impossible to put it in just one project.” Framed as more of a prequel than a sequel, *Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0* moves even further away from the groundbreaking futurism of the preceding *SATURNO* era of his career. “I just went deep in my story as a Puerto Rican,” he says. In doing so, the Latin superstar’s style shifts closer to the very Caribbean essence from which he first emerged, a deliberate choice that provides the album with a profoundly unique sound with robust cultural roots. The forms presented here exist both within and beyond genre, with immersive songs like “Caribeño” and “NÁUFRAGOS” rendering well-worn terminology like “fusion” rather useless. “I always study everything before I’m going to jump into it, any type of sound or music,” Alejandro says. “I like to learn a little bit \[of\] the history.” Whether swinging to salsa on “FALSEDAD” or basking in bachata on “SILENCIO,” he seems consistently at home, sonically and otherwise. The spiritual and the secular become one on his sublimely tropical “GuabanSexxx,” while polyrhythmic percussion elevates the intricate love song “Carita Linda.” From pop-savvy Puerto Rican singer De La Rose to Dominican rap shapeshifter Jey One, the guests who occasionally enter Alejandro’s *Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0* zone contribute in ways simultaneously familiar and fresh. For instance, Wisin and Ñengo Flow naturally bring perreo power to “CONTRABANDO,” yet the underlying groove goes beyond the standard reggaetón mode. Even when he reaches beyond the Caribbean, as with Nigerian singer Ayra Starr on the Afrobeats-inflected “Santa” or Chilean alt-pop act Mon Laferte on “Callejón de los Secretos,” it all fits within the space he’s so carefully constructed. “I didn’t know where this journey was going to take me,” he says. “You keep growing as an artist, as a person.”

Puerto Rican hitmaker Rauw Alejandro offers wide-ranging tour of Caribbean music on his latest LP.