PARTWAY THROUGH FARRUKO’S set, the stage at Miami’s FTX Enviornment become a pulpit.
On a light evening in February, the Puerto Rican artist had been standing on the middle of the practically 20,000-person venue, a tangle of flashing lights and smoke-cannon explosions blaring behind him. Followers screamed alongside as he sang a few of his largest hits, just like the 2021 celebration anthem “La Tóxica,” plus different tracks from his deeply private 2021 album, La 167. In between, Farruko talked on to the viewers, telling them he’d been striving to change into a modified man. Some within the crowd thought they noticed tears in his eyes.
Then, the thunderous, amped-up EDM-and-guaracha beat of “Pepas” started echoing throughout the world. The tune is an ode to unbridled debauchery — the title interprets to “drugs” — and Farruko’s largest, most recognizable monitor, having shot to Quantity One on Billboard’s Sizzling Dance/Digital Songs Chart in 2021. Concertgoers belted a refrain that rolls out like a tribal chant: “Tablets and water for the hangover, everybody on drugs on the membership.”
However Farruko prevented these strains. As a substitute, he left the stage briefly, and when he got here again, he was dressed all in black. He launched right into a 15-minute sermon-like speech, apologizing for the message in “Pepas” and saying his devotion to the phrase of God. A purple cross lit up a huge display behind him, and he started to sing two emotional Christian songs — a large distinction with the start of the present, and with a lot of what Farruko has represented up to now.
On social media, the second could be blown wildly out of proportion. Folks inaccurately claimed that Farruko had refused to play a single tune and preached to a crowd whereas sobbing for 2 hours. Some had been turned off by the spiritual flip; others characterised your complete factor as a publicity stunt. However the fact is that evening was a fruits of one thing that had been rippling inside him — the tug of a better calling urging him to remodel his whole life and begin a brand new chapter in his music. What precisely was it?
THREE MONTHS LATER, Farruko is sitting on a powder-blue sofa within the modern Miami workplaces of Carbon Fiber Music, a label he co-founded with longtime supervisor Franklin Martinez. He’s prepared to speak in his first stateside interview. He’s carrying white shorts and a white baseball cap that emphasize a element simply forgotten amid all of the headlines and chatter about his transformation: He’s solely 31. Bearded, bespectacled, and tattooed throughout his arms, he additionally isn’t the rabid, Bible-thumping fanatic some individuals have made him out to be. As a substitute, he’s reserved and considerate, nonetheless processing this new part in his profession and what occurred on that evening.
“Once I bought to ‘Pepas,’ I felt this jolt in my conscience,” he says. “As a result of I had been going by way of this discovery in my life and this technique of therapeutic, I exploded. I mentioned, ‘I’m sorry for this tune, which is among the many most well-known on the planet. . . . I’m not pleased with this, however I’m going to sing since you guys paid for a ticket.’” He felt compelled to speak about God and his deepest emotions on that stage, although he understands the dynamics that led the entire state of affairs to detonate: “It was this massive conflict for some individuals.”
It in all probability additionally got here as a shock as a result of Farruko is, in spite of everything, one of many largest names within the Latin-music trade, one who’s captured the celebration facet of urbano in his work. He grew up in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, and began acting at neighborhood events, proms, and anyplace that might have him when he was simply 15. He blew up on MySpace and have become a profitable, perennially widespread mainstay on the scene. Through the years, he stood out for his capacity to establish rising sounds and developments: He was forward of the Latin-trap wave with 2017’s TrapXFicante, which featured “Krippy Kush” (a tune that helped break Bad Bunny), and he predicted urbano’s dancehall turns with 2019’s Gangalee. Nevertheless it was “Pepas” that shot his profession to a wild new peak and pushed the style deeper into its EDM roots.
The monitor was an experimental spotlight on La 167, an intimate album that he named after a gasoline station his grandfather owned; “Pepas” went on to get 469 million views on YouTube, leading to a form of sky-grazing fame that grew to become a double-edged sword for Farruko. He says that he’d lived recklessly for a very long time, indulging his worst impulses — and “Pepas” intensified every little thing.
“Have you ever seen these films the place a vampire bites you?” he asks. “You flip right into a vampire and then you definately’re solely thirsty for blood, blood, and blood. That’s what fame is like. It provides you an insatiable starvation for ego and vainness.” His vices, he says, had been weed and ladies. “I had uncontrolled intercourse. I didn’t love anybody. I didn’t love myself.” He didn’t see his youngsters typically — he has seven — and would typically choose partying over his household. At his live performance, Farruko personally apologized to a number of individuals near him. “I destroyed my first household,” he mentioned from the stage. “I harm a girl who liked me simply the way in which I used to be.”
As we speak, Farruko is blunt in regards to the particular person he was throughout that point. He’s described himself, on the peak of his fame, as “a pile of shit that put fragrance on on a regular basis” — his personal candid, plainspoken metaphor for a deeply sad man who was making an attempt to fill an expansive void again then. “Sadly, cash and acceptance purchase every little thing,” he says. “So you’ll be able to hold being a piece-of-shit particular person, however you destroy every little thing. You fragrance it. You attempt to kill the odor with distractions — for instance, your life may very well be in shambles and also you don’t have somebody who loves you, however you’ll be able to sleep with whoever. Perhaps you’re destroyed emotionally, however you’ll be able to celebration or purchase your self issues. However on the finish, the vacancy is there.”
There was a precise second that Farruko realized he wanted to vary, however it’s a deeply private one which he received’t go into an excessive amount of element about. All he’ll share is that it occurred this yr, and that he felt he had a direct encounter with God. “It was probably the most highly effective factor that ever occurred to me” is all he’ll supply. “I mentioned, ‘I’m not coming again to Earth.’ ”
The following few weeks had been disorienting. He didn’t know who to speak to or course of what had occurred. All he might assume to do was to open up the Bible, which he’d been raised on by his grandparents, and start studying. He was nonetheless sorting by way of the extraordinary expertise when he was due onstage in Miami. “It was overwhelming,” he admits. “I wasn’t able to be again within the enviornment, as a result of I used to be carrying all these items round.” So he selected to talk as truthfully as he might and let individuals know straight what he was feeling.
After working by way of his feelings, and the reactions that got here from that evening, Farruko dropped a jarring video for “My Lova,” the final single from La 167. In it, he carries a cross as individuals make enjoyable of him. The visuals are heavy, however Farruko needed one thing sturdy to speak the transformation he was going by way of — and to shut a chapter on the previous, marking a brand new starting.
RELIGION HAS ALWAYS coiled out and in of Latin music, winding by way of a variety of reggae, reggaeton, and urbano careers. After attaining worldwide success with era-defining reggae-en-español hits, the Panamanian artist El Normal retired from music in 2004 and have become a Jehovah’s Witness. He expressed deep remorse over the sexual, party-driven undercurrent of his catalog, calling its success “trophies from the satan.” The rap-en-español pioneer Vico C grew to become an evangelical Christian after a near-fatal bike accident led him to morphine and heroin addictions, and the old-school reggaeton artist Julio Voltio started main a Christian radio present along with his modern Hector “El Father” after they each stepped away from the style.
However whereas many of those artists have left music, unable to discover a option to stability the excesses of the enterprise with their perception techniques, Farruko’s plan is totally different. He’s fast to level out his purpose isn’t to transform anybody. “I’m not right here to impose a particular faith on individuals,” he says. “I’m not right here to promote faith. I’m simply saying, ‘Look, I’m a human who was falling, who wasn’t doing the precise factor. Now I bought up and I’m sturdy, and you’ll, too.’” He sees his music as a possibility to unfold a constructive message rooted in spirituality, all whereas nonetheless making gigantic dance bangers that may rocket to the highest of the charts. In different phrases, he desires to protect the success and classes of “Pepas” on holier terrain.
“Look, I’m a human who was falling, who wasn’t doing the precise factor. Now I bought up and I’m sturdy, and you’ll, too.’”
Gabriella N. Báez for Rolling Stone
That’s how “Nazareno,” a monitor he launched in Could, took form. Like “Pepas,” it takes inspiration from massive bursts of EDM; the lyrics, nonetheless, straight deal with the darkish facet of fame. “You’re surrounded by envy and in addition hypocrisy, all eyes are proper on you,” he sings. However Farruko’s phrases aren’t pedantic or preachy, a cautious tightrope he’s been strolling as he has began to return to the studio. “Once I did ‘Nazareno,’’ I knew I had the precise message… This isn’t a tune for Christians. It’s designed for people who find themselves going by way of a tough second and who don’t have the instruments to flee that,” he says. In September, he debuted a remix of the tune with Ankhal, a Puerto Rican rapper he signed to Carbon Fiber, who was shot and gravely wounded earlier this yr. The 2 of them shared the stage in an emotional efficiency on the Billboard Latin Music Award, with Ankhal rapping in a wheelchair earlier than an viewers for the primary time.
Latest songs displaying his new emphasis on spirituality additionally embrace “Luz,” a collaboration led by Carbon Fiber signee Akim that’s all about embracing positivity even in low moments. However Farruko admits not everybody has been behind his new music, and his associates within the music trade have had combined reactions. “Lots of people have reached out and mentioned they like what I’m doing. They help me,” he says. However there are additionally individuals who have let him know that enterprise comes first. “There are artists who I had collaborated with earlier than, on songs that hadn’t been launched but, and once they noticed how I’d modified, they’re like ‘Brother, I must launch the songs anyway — I already put cash into every little thing.’”
That didn’t hassle Farruko, who says he understood the place they had been coming from. “I mentioned, ‘Launch it. It’s your corporation.’ Plus, it’s issues I made up to now.” However he additionally supplied to report fully new songs with these artists, ones that he might promote whole-heartedly, that might present his new values, and that would permit him to share his platform with different acts. “They simply don’t see it,” he says. “They shut down as a result of all they need is cash or acceptance. And for me, that’s been laborious and painful.”
He’s additionally needed to grapple along with his place heading up Carbon Fiber and managing his relationships with these he signed to the label. “It has affected issues as a result of not each artist has my beliefs,” he says. “They don’t essentially wish to observe the identical path or footsteps as me. And perhaps I’m not completely in settlement with the message that they wish to get throughout, however I can also’t choose.” All he can do in his personal profession is to proceed making music he can stand behind.
No matter individuals consider his future plans, he’s at peace with himself. “In a short while, I’ve discovered to speak extra,” he says. “To have extra empathy, to have extra gratitude. To make choices, even when not everybody goes to grasp them.” Most important to him, his private life is lastly the place he desires it to be. “In my household, issues are so significantly better,” he provides. “My relationship with my youngsters. My mother and father. In love, I’m nonetheless working towards that. However a very powerful factor — my youngsters, my mother and father, my siblings — that’s a lot more healthy.”
And the music, in the long run, is one thing he desires to show to the world that he can obtain. “It at all times makes me nervous, however that’s the problem,” he says. “It’s what I really like. It’s the unknown magic in all of this.”
