There is a uniqueness to the humble beginnings of Luis R Conriquez. The hit-and-run gas station worker, now known as the king of corridos bélicos, began writing songs for an unlikely group of early listeners who became some of his first customers.
Soon after writing his first lines in his early 20s, the Sonora-born artist began receiving direct messages on Instagram from construction workers in the United States wondering if he could write dialogue for them.
“If it wasn't for Instagram I wouldn't be famous. Instagram was how I got my first jobs,” Conriquez said Bulletin boardGriselda Flores on its latest cover. Although an odd request to acquire, it was, after all, a source of income for Conriquez, who worked at a gas station and made music on the side. “I asked them to send me a short summary describing themselves so that I could be inspired,” he continued. “I would write, record and send it to them.”
Conriquez admits he didn't even know how much to charge them. At the time, he explained, “I was my own manager at the time, my own distributor, raising my own money.” So, initially, he charged $150 per runway, but as demand grew, he tripled his fee. “The most I asked for was $1,000 for a corrido.”
The “Si No Quieres No” singer-songwriter has since fueled the local Mexican music movement after rising to stardom as soon as he signed to Kartel Music in 2019, also an up-and-coming indie label based out of Santa Maria, California. The founders, Alfredo “Freddy” Becerra and Leonardo Soto, discovered Conriquez at an audition in Mexicali, Baja California.
Today, Conriquez has become the go-to partner for regional Mexican and non-local Mexican acts, including Nicky Jam, Ryan Castro and Peso Pluma. With 1.42 billion official on-demand streams in the United States, according to Luminate, he has 20 entries on Hot Latin Songs and most recently scored his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Si No Quieres No,” a collaboration with the up-and-coming Neton Vega. His Corridos Bélicos, Vol. IV, released in January, earned him his first top 10 entry on any album chart, debuting at No. 5 on Top Latin Albums and No. 3 on Regional Mexican Albums. It also marked Conriquez's debut on the Billboard 200 with a No. 36 debut.
He is set to headline the RUMBAZO 2024 event in Las Vegas this weekend. Conriquez will perform on Saturday, September 14th. See the program here.
Billboard Latin Music Week returns to Miami Beach October 14-18, with confirmed superstars Gloria Estefan, Alejandro Sanz and Peso Pluma, among many others. For tickets and more details, visit Billboardlatinmusicweek.com.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/latin/luis-r-conriquez-construction-workers-fueled-rise-1235774724/
