“The most important thing is to let the music do the talking.”

“I feel that I’m representing a whole country, its urban music and its youth,” El Alfa tells Apple Music. On his new album El Androide, 11 new songs debut alongside 10 of the most explosive singles that the Dominican star has released over the last couple of years, creating a snapshot of the leading dembow practitioner in the contemporary canon. A vision of música urbana far removed from the pop mainstream, his latest is maybe the most diverse offering in a career that never fails to surprise. “Outside of dembow, which is my turf, there is a little bit of everything, from romantic trap to dancehall and some street things,” he tells Apple Music. To that end, the collaborations with artists like Diplo and Farruko are opportunities to paint his very personal world with different colours. “The most important thing is to let the music do the talking,” he insists. Nonetheless, Apple Music asked him to personally guide listeners through the 11 new songs, one by one.

Recógelo
“If people are expecting the same old, they’re in for a surprise right from the intro. I start rapping, then get an instrumental going, and everything is designed for a maximum impact from the get-go. I think this song will go a long way. It’s one of my best.”

Un Día Sí
“Farruko and Myke Towers make it special. I arrange my own songs. I don’t produce them, but I am the one that brings in the ideas and the vibes. ‘Un Día Sí’ is dancehall with some dembow flavour to it. I used Farruko because he has a bit of a Jamaican thing, and Myke Towers because he’s been doing lots of things with rappers now, just like me. I decided to get Farruko in the chorus, with Myke Towers and me rapping. It’s clean but still El Alfa. It sounds like international music with my essence.”

Singapur
“On my last album, El Hombre, I had a song called ‘Pa Jamaica’ that was like a trip and it was the most popular one. This time I wanted to travel to a different country. I went to Singapore and looked for a different colour. I wanted to give it a bit of an ’80s touch. The sample is from the ’80s and had never been used before in any songs. This is another one of my favourites.”

Me Enamoré
“This is the first time I dedicated a song to my wife and the first time that she appears in one of my videos. I never post pictures of my family on the internet. My fans are always asking when I am going to show them this or the other, but I have always kept that separate. I have very few romantic songs, and I wanted to do something that was completely different, something organic and from the heart. I worked with different producers to get the best colour. It’s soft trap, but it still has that El Alfa touch.”

A Correr los Lakers
“This is a whole other vibe, with the trumpet, a different kind of flow and banging trap. It reminds me of a song I did years ago with Bad Bunny, the one that went, ‘Que el padre me lo proteja y que el hijo lo bendiga’ (‘Demaga Ge Gi Go Gu’). It’s a really energetic track, a fast trap to change the pace right away. This is something I did for the sake of diversity, but my team likes it better than any other trap here. You can’t find this kind of style, this rapping anywhere else. I worked hard to get a really good bass.”

Bésalo
“This is my favourite song on the album. It has a completely different rhythm. It’s not trap, it’s not dembow; maybe it’s more like really slow dancehall. I wanted to work with Rauw Alejandro because of the flow that he has, which is romantic but also makes you wanna dance. It’s a unique style: the bass, the melody, the chorus, and the hook. I was trying to top ‘Suave’ but doing it a little slower. This is the song that I want everyone to hear.”

Guaremate de por Vida
“I did this one with Chael Produciendo, same as ‘Recógelo’ and ‘Singapur.’ I love it.”

Chapón
“In the Dominican Republic we call booties ‘chapas.’ I wanted to do something a little Mexican, with some vallenato and a Central American feel to it, and then mix it up with my dembow foundation. This is one to dance to. I don’t want to put out anything that’s not a banger. It’s been like that for two years now.”

El Dueño del Bizcocho
“This is gangsta trap. I’m catering to the audience that we refer to as ‘tigers,’ the street people. There’s a lot of street code in here. It’s about what’s going on today, what’s real for young people.”

Hablamos Nunca
“Here I rap with Kiko El Crazy and El Fother, two local rappers from the Dominican Republic who never went international. Here, they’ve been legends for 10, 12 years. It’s a banger. These artists don’t have a platform today. They are not working as the industry demands these days because they don’t have the resources, but in my scene they are legends. I tried to get them in one of the best dembows that I had, one of the hardest. When people listen to this, I want them to say, ‘This guy brought these two badasses back and it’s a killer!’”

El Lobo de Wall Street
“This is a song to please myself in the first place, and then the underground audience. I talk about how I operate in the music industry, about the things that you need to do if you want to make money. It’s me talking to the young from my vantage point.”