“It’s fun to give a lot of options and different types of music to the people,” Rauw Alejandro tells Apple Music about the purposeful creative process behind his new album, SATURNO. “I always want to be innovating in my music and my art.” Progression and a diversity of styles have been integral to the Puerto Rican singer’s ascent to stardom, beginning with his arrival during Latin trap’s R&B wave and continuing through enormous pop moments like “Todo De Ti” and “Baila Conmigo” with Selena Gomez.
Like so many artists before him, Alejandro grew up listening to his parents’ music collection. His impressionable youth just so happened to occur amid reggaetón’s emergence in the ’90s. “I was listening to freestyles because of my dad,” he recalls of those formative years. “It wasn’t even called reggaetón; it was called ‘underground.’” As he forged his own path in the now more mature genre, rising through the ranks to become one of its biggest performers, his love for the sounds that preceded him remained. And while out dazzling live audiences on his extensive VICE VERSA world tour, further inspiration struck that led to the decidedly upbeat and immersive SATURNO. “I was thinking more about, performing-wise, what my show is missing. For next tour, I need more energy.”
Nostalgic and even melancholic inclinations drive this counterintuitively forward-thinking effort, one occasionally interrupted by world-building segues and skits. Though his R&B beginnings manifest from time to time, as on tracks like “LEJOS DEL CIELO” and “QUÉ RICO CH**GAMOS,” the ambitious SATURNO more often looks further back to yield retro refurbishments like the dancehall throwback “RON COLA” and the nu-electro jam “CAZADORES” featuring his influential predecessor Arcángel. His choices speak to his intentions of integrating past and present, reviving a Playero mixtape gem by Maicol & Manuel for “DE CAROLINA” and reinventing a reggaetón staple in “PUNTO 40” with Baby Rasta himself. “I’ve always paid tribute to the OGs, since the beginning of my career,” Alejandro says. “Now that reggaetón is around the world, I have this responsibility to show people what are the roots and who are the real ones.” Read more about some of his favorite SATURNO songs below.
“SATURNO”
“My motivation was the tour, so you already know what song is going to start the tour. As soon as you hear that intro, you know something’s coming. So, everything is prepared for the show, and I put it in an album. I recommend people listening to it in order. It makes sense in order, with all the transitions and how I build it up. The first track is insane. It’s just to be in your car at nighttime and just go and start the adventure.”
“PUNTO 40” (feat. Baby Rasta)
“It was going to be a single just by myself. I took the sample, and I created the beat from scratch. Then I was hearing the beat going, and I was like, ‘It doesn’t make sense if Baby Rasta is not here. I need him with me here. He needs to give the approval to make it more special.’ I created a space for him on the track, and he killed it. When he went into the studio, I remember he was really, really impressed. It’s a classic song, so there’s so many artists that tried to do a remake or a new song inspired about that.”
“QUÉ RICO CH**GAMOS”
“At the same time that I’m trying new stuff, I also maintain the essence of Rauw, the R&B, those ‘2/Catorce’ vibes, the sexy songs that people like about me. ‘QUÉ RICO CH**GAMOS’ is a happy medium of SATURNO sounds and what people are used to listening about Rauw. This song is for my fans—more for my fans than for me. But it’s one of my favorite ones. I know people are going to love it.”
“VERDE MENTA”
“It’s everything connected from that era—late ’90s, the beginning of the 2000s. I was strictly using sounds just in that era. That’s why I used the sample of Ivy Queen in that song. And it’s funny because the same time the underground it was coming up, the mainstream was freestyling. Freestyle in the ’90s was the mainstream songs in the radio. So, in this album, I got both sounds together. I did maybe 30 versions. When I try something new, I study a lot of the melodies of that sound, giving my touch of urban and more explicit lyrics, just trying to create that mix. And I wasn’t feeling it. It was a process, but I think we did it.”
“DE CAROLINA”
“It’s going to be a nostalgic and melancholic album. Even the image that I have right now is this young Rauw. I know it’s going to connect with the older generation and with a new one. With Maicol & Manuel, ‘La Gente Sabe’ is an iconic song. There’s so many people that don’t know about them. And I was like, ‘Yo, people need to hear this again, but I’m going to do it in my own way and create my own sound.’ I sit down with Playero in that song. It’s a banger.”