A key player in the rise of the current generation of música mexicana artists, Adriel Favela has built a catalog that straddles norteño, corridos, and more. San Francisco-born and Sonora-raised, the Mexican American singer-songwriter now releases his most meaningful full-length statement yet with Cosas Del Diablo, his first album since signing with Fonovisa. These diverse songs reflect his individualistic voice, revealing personal details about his road to sobriety, complicated youth, and relationship tumult. Yet even as he bares his soul, he still finds time for some fun, best represented by “444 X Tipo Need for Speed.” With features ranging from Carin Leon on “Con Un Botecito Al Pecho” to online personalities La Cotorrisa and YouTube star Strecci on the instant fan-favorite “Contigo No Fue,” the project rightfully positions Favela as one of the leaders of contemporary música mexicana. At the same time, he’s also seized the opportunity to spotlight some of the young signees to his Esperanto imprint, including El Bala and Brandon Reyes. Experience the full album in Spatial Audio and read more about each of its songs and the collaborators—in the artist’s own words—below.
“EL BO” (feat. El Bala)
“El Bala, he’s just a beautiful human being. I see a reflection of myself in a certain point of my career in him. I feel I could do something for him that nobody did for me. I had to actually knock on the doors in a really greedy time, a time where artists didn’t really know what we were signing. It was a really millennial type of learning. It makes me feel I’m actually doing something for somebody, the way that I would’ve loved to have that help back then. It purifies my soul.”
“Oveja Negra” (feat. El Bala)
“His style, his voice, his essence—it’s like a dragon coming out of an egg, you know? El Bala doesn’t really know how much power he has. He’s burping big burps of fire and you’re over here seeing the little kid with so much potential. He’s literally from 30 minutes from where I grew up, so just hearing him speak reminds me of a lot of my friends back then, and it takes me back to a point where I was home.”
“444 X Tipo Need for Speed”
“I was a fan of, and I’m still a fan of Need For Speed: Underground and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I had been involved in those type of games, honestly, since I was a young boy. It was a tribute to those moments of frustration when I tried to get those packages for my cars.”
“Ray02”
“I’m trying to give people the complete essence. A lot of people classify me: ‘Oh, I miss this Adriel from 2017, bro.’ ‘Oh, bro, you should not have so many tattoos.’ ‘You should have stayed like Adriel from 2009.’ I’m still me. I’m just evolving. I still listen to and make those type of corridos. Reggaetón came into the scene. Trap came into the scene. All these other types of influence came into the scene, and it was inevitable for me to listen to these type of songs and vibe with them.”
“Maldito” (feat. Brandon Reyes y Elvin)
“Brandon, another baby of Esperanto. It’s beautiful boys with beautiful hearts, living a real fucking life, going through tough shit. Brandon brings into the scene a completely new sound, a complete new touch to what a regional Mexican artist is. We were both very involved in [Natanael Cano’s] career, in Rancho Humilde, in that writing scene. He’s just a boy with his brother, living life that is just about to blow up. If it’s beautiful or not, it’s just what it is, and I respect him for that completely. ‘Maldito’ reflects that.”
“Bayo 17” (feat. Luis R Conriquez)
“It’s one of my top four songs. I love the way that he gave that essence, his voice—it’s just very him. And it’s an honor to work with all these new talents that are fucking killing it in the scene. It’s just a blessing.”
“Con Un Botecito A Pecho” (feat. Carin Leon)
“It was such a great experience working with someone that I knew for such a long time, just having these times to actually make it be completely organic. He’s also from Sonora—we love our food, we’re down to earth. He’s someone that I’ve learned a lot from in the industry. He’s one of those people that, if he sees it, he’s going to go get it, no fucking matter what.”
“Osiel”
“The name itself is hard. It’s one of the darkest, musically speaking. It pretty much tells you a story of a person, whose name is Osiel, that did a lot in the narcotráfico world. You start getting to know these stories, and all of a sudden, you see the villain not being so much of a villain anymore when you get into his shoes. It’s very hard, but it’s really that type of vibe that I get when I write these stories, really getting into character and making it as raw as possible.”
“Mi Otro Yo”
“Sometimes I wake up and I don’t even understand myself. I think that a lot of people go through it. I go through bipolar, I go through stress, I go through fucking anxiety attacks. I constantly try to tell my team and my family and my fans, those who I can approach, that I’m just a human. I think that people sometimes forget, and they start seeing artists as figures that are completely perfect. I try to be the best boyfriend, the best son, the best leader, the best brother, the best person to talk to if you have a problem. I try to value myself as much as I can and to give myself that self-love that we all need that, sometimes, we forget.”
“Lágrimas De Miel”
“I was going through a very toxic cycle in that moment of my life. I don’t know how I managed to do it. I was so deep in drugs, but I was so deep into business that I was making money to get those. Brandon Reyes and his brother Elvin came into the scene, and they just got to see a side of me that was completely fucking dark. I invited them to my party because I was going to say bye to alcohol. I had a party to drink to say bye to alcohol. They were just looking into a very honest, realistic, and dark process that I went through. I think that he respected it so much that he came in later on, and he was like, ‘Bro, listen to this idea. I have this song called “Lágrimas De Miel.”’ He was like, ‘This is for you. I can’t sing this shit. It’s not going to come out like that.’”
“Diciembre”
“Christmas—it’s a love-and-hate situation for me. I understand a lot of people get gifts and hugs. I didn’t have my family most of the time. I didn’t have gifts most of the time. So, for me, December is just like, here comes that coldness again. You don’t need a fucking gift. All you need is some self-fucking-love. All you need is those right people that you know you need, and family. I remember I would wrap pictures from my family and give to my mom with a letter. I was going through a very bad cycle in alcohol. My girlfriend, she’s been through rough and through good times as well, so that’s the type of person that grows with you, That’s the type of person that gets to know you like nobody else. It talks to the irony of feeling alone, working to actually getting that one person back.”
“Mi Barrio”
“For those who don’t speak any Spanish, it’s just really a reference to where you grew up, to what made you. We hear this from Venezuelans, we hear this from Mexicans, we hear this from Guatemalans, from Colombians, from Ukrainians, from Russians, South Koreans. It’s something that we hold tight as humans. My best friend who I grew up with, he would go pick me up from my grandma’s house when I was, like, four years old. He would hold my hand. They would pay him five pesos to take me to school, take care of me in school, and take me back home. He committed suicide six months ago. It was just a big impact, knowing that he was the last person in my barrio that actually knew me. There’s nobody else that could tell you my fucking story anymore that is not me, you know? That just gives me a different value to when I go back now. I had to let these people know that there’s a lot more to fight for, man—that ending your life is not going to fix shit.”
“Lunes”
“Well, my girl wrote this song for me. We’ve been on and off since, like, six years ago—been a rough journey. We broke up. She ended up going out with another artist for a year. It was just bad for me that year. We men fuck up, and we have to see our problems straight through the eye to actually say sorry and keep on going and roll as a team that we are.”
“Contigo No Fue” (La Cotorrisa & Strecci)
“I went to do a vlog, and it ended up in a studio with these dudes being drunk, screaming. It was like kind of a Hangover movie. I woke up the next day and I had a song in my phone. I heard it, and I wasn’t trying to get excited. I know what had happened because I don’t drink. I was scared of even pressing play because I was so excited. There’s so many things that contribute to it, just how organic it is, what it talks about, who wrote it, because La Cotorrisa practically wrote it. They don’t sing, they don’t write. They have music inside them. It was just a very positive ambiance.”