Benny Blanco remembers hearing Netón Vega’s corridos a few years ago and “really, really, really fucking with his style.” The longtime producer dove into the música mexicana singer’s catalog and was drawn to the Vega vocal delivery on both the corridos he started with and the urbano tracks that made him go viral.
“He wasn’t really known that much when I started looking into his stuff,” Blanco tells Rolling Stone. “I reached out to him and he was like, ‘Yeah, let’s work.’ And literally from the time we were trying to figure out dates, he got so big.”
In just two years, Vega has become one of the most exciting new faces in música mexicana — not only for his versatility, but also for his urbano collaborations, like the ultra-viral Alemán track “Te Quería Ver” that soundtracked MexicanTok for months.
Last week, Vega dropped his experimental project Delirium, stepping away from the corrido-forward sound of his February debut Mi Vida Mi Muerte, where he teamed up with artists like Xavi, Peso Pluma, and Luis R. Conriquez. This time, Vega leans fully into reggaeton, rap, EDM, and even a poppier, club-ready sound.
“I learned un chingo, honestly,” Vega tells Rolling Stone from his Las Vegas hotel suite ahead of the Latin Grammys. “Musically, it’s a new level of maturity, because you’re recording things you don’t know how to do — or don’t know how to do yet, because you’ve never done them.”
He told himself: I give it a shot — if it works, cool; if not, I won’t do it.”
Vega says he didn’t go into making Delirium with any real plan — he just let the songs build themselves over time. “As we started pumping out the songs, they started taking on that color, that theme,” he says. “It’s something for antros, for dancing, all that shit. Everything just happened very naturally.”
He’d been working with Edgar Barrera on several tracks when he connected with Blanco, with whom he had two sessions — and they immediately found synergy. “It was something bien chingón, honestly,” Vega says of working with Blanco. “Since he stepped out of his comfort zone, I think he worked a little differently. He played us some demos, we made a list, picked some, then narrowed it down, and kept only the ones I liked the most.”
Editor’s picks
Vega says they originally brought Blanco in for just one track, but he felt so comfortable with the team that they ended up making several. Blanco says they explored various sonic ideas, including a West Coast beat that Vega immediately gravitated toward.
“He just has the coolest vocal style of not caring, but caring so deeply at the same time about his process,” says Blanco. “That laissez-faire attitude comes off on the tracks is so intentional. I was just really drawn to his music.”
Along with producing tracks, Blanco is featured on “Perro Fiel,” a song they both felt blended their styles perfectly. “We instantly made it. He was like, ‘Damn, this is like you and me.’ It was his idea to have me be featured on that one,” Blanco says. “And it is cool because it was a little bit more poppy than he normally goes on, but it had his raw ideas. I don’t know if you can hear, but in the background, he does cocaine-sniffing sounds and it’s really cool.”
He adds: “People will make songs that are just about a party, but even when he’s doing something about a party, there’s a lot of dimension I feel to some of his lyrics.”
Related Content
Both say their chemistry made the process seamless, despite a slight language barrier. Blanco’s work with Vega came as he was also collaborating with Grupo Frontera on their latest LP and contributing to Xavi’s upcoming project.
“It’s some of my favorite music in the world and my wife [Selena Gomez] grew up on it, so we listen to it a lot,” Blanco says. “It’s very much what we’re playing at the barbecue… It’s the best shit to play when you’re by the pool or at the beach.”
Vega is quick to shut down any questions about whether he pivoted genres because of political scrutiny around corridos (some artists, like Luis R Conriquez, have skipped corridos after performers in the genre appeared to face visa issues). “I know what people like, so I have to give them everything,” he says. “I know I’m going to keep making what I’ve made since the beginning — and new things.”
Across the album, he experiments with rapping — including English verses on “Nada Es Igual” — dives into reggaeton on “Nachica,” which recalls Calle 13’s “Atrévete,” fuses merengue and reggaeton on “Lentes,” and collaborates with Jowell & Randy on “Baby de Los 2 Miles.”
“Most of the songs on this album are about viejas, la neta,” he says. “Women. I did it intentionally. Imagine you show up to a party and it’s all guys — you leave. You get to an antro and it’s all men — you don’t even walk in. You peek in and turn around. That’s why I did it — a lot of the themes are about a woman or women.”
Vega closes Delirium with what feels like an easter egg: a full corrido titled “Desvelaos.” The track is a sharp pivot from the rest of the album, but that was deliberate. “It’s so the people don’t think we’re not going to make them anymore. Like, ‘Here you go,’” he says. “We’re never stepping away from that completely. We just wanted a new experience. I don’t like boxing myself in.”
Trending Stories
And he shouldn’t. Just ask Benny Blanco: “Netón is truly one of the greats and he’s one of the best songwriters and artists that I’ve been in the room with as long as I can remember.”
