The most listened to Latin track of 2024 was “Gata Only,” a flowing reggaetón delivered with laid back cool by two young Chilean rappers, Cris MJ and Floyymenor. The track was a global, viral hit, becoming TikTok’s top song of the year, in any language, and topping Billboard’s year-end Hot Latin Songs chart.
And yet, Cris MJ, responsible for one-half of its success, hasn’t set foot in the U.S. since its release. Speaking on a Zoom call from his studio in Santiago, the 24-year-old rapper and songwriter smiles shyly and shrugs. While he still doesn’t have a visa, he’s been able to go pretty much everywhere else, including Paris, the inspiration for his new album: Apocalipsis, released today (June 27) on Sonar, the Rimas-owned, The Orchard-distributed label.
“Medieval Paris is the inspiration of all this art. It’s a city with so much beauty, so charismatic,” says Cris MJ, who’s even changed his look and his fashion –switching baseball caps for fedoras — to immerse himself in Apocalipsis world.
“It’s a rebirth. Apocalipsis is a new me, a new, more mature Cris. That’s what I want to explain. We’ve grown up — we want to continue growing and open doors for Chilean music.”
An ambitious, 18-track set of atmospheric reggaetón and rap tracks with strong melodies and pop hooks, Apocalipsis is lushly produced and is a clear attempt to evolve beyond run-of-the-mill, facile reggaetón, both musically and aesthetically. Witness the decidedly pop-leaning “Frozen,” where Cris MJ pays homage to Michael Jackson in look, feel and dance steps.
Overall, though, the album retains the party vibe and reggaetón base that’s made Cris MJ’s songs so appealing. At 24 years old, the artist born Christopher Andrés Alvarez García is already a star in Chile. Last year, he sold out three Movistar Arenas and in December will play two stadiums, in Santiago and his native La Serena.
Globally, his music resonates. He first entered Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart in 2022 with his irresistibly naughty “Una Noche En Medellín,” which peaked at No. 22 and was later remixed by Karol G and Ryan Castro, catapulting Cris Mj to mainstream Latin consciousness. His original version has over one billion streams on Spotify.
Then, in February 2024, Cris MJ joined fellow Chilean rapper Floyymenor on “Gata Only,” a runaway hit that rose to No.4 on Billboard’s Global 200 chart. By June, Cris MJ returned — solo this time — with a second hit, “SI No Es Contigo,” which debuted on the top 10 of Hot Latin Songs.
And yet, despite the chart success, here in the U.S., hampered by travel restrictions, Cris MJ remains very much a mystery.
So, we sought to unravel a bit of that, sitting down with Cris MJ in a Zoom from Chile that revealed a thoughtful artist with an oddball sense of humor and a surprising appreciation of history and aesthetics.
Here are some highlights.
You first visited Paris in 2022, doing promo for “Una Noche En Medellín.” Was it love at first sight?
Love at first sight. In fact, I was supposed to be there now for Fashion Week, but I have a show. But the art you have in Paris, there’s so many things there that motivate me to explore creatively. Everything excited me. The city of love and all that. I feel my music more in Paris, and it inspired me to do the rhythms in this album.
You have two previous albums. How is this one different?
It’s like a rebirth, a more mature me. I want people to see something different in me. The reggaetón essence is still there, but I carry it with more futuristic melodies and some pop.
It feels like a very intentional album. Is that how you always work?
My other albums were very fast because they had songs I’m always recording in the studio. This one took like a year and a half. We really sat down with the team to choose the songs and everything makes sense: Every track, every melody. It wasn’t simply laying tracks quickly.
In the song “Frozen,” you pay homage to Michael Jackson.
Yes, I’ve been listening to him all year long and I’ve been looking at what he wore. I have my fedoras now, like Michael.
When you recorded “Gata Only,” Floyymenor had already made the original track, but then you approached him and released the version we know now. Tell us the story?
I heard the track, and people actually thought I was singing in it. I liked it. I didn’t know Floyy but found out he was from my same city, La Serena. And I invited him to Santiago, to my studio to redo the track. Everything had a good vibe and we connected well. I changed some things; I wanted to make it my project as well. Everything flowed very quickly. In fact, we recorded the song and the next day we went to La Serena to film the video. I had faith in that song.
You speak a lot about the importance of opening up Chile to the world, musically. Tell me about your hometown, La Serena. How did it influence your music?
I heard a lot of reggaetón there. It’s where I most heard reggaetón. And it’s where I began my career. There weren’t many resources there. There were only like two recording studios. I’d film my own videos on my iPhone, I did my own album covers. But I always liked doing music as a kid, and I grew up listening to Daddy Yankee and things like that. I wanted to get into that, see how my voice sounded. So I started to do rap with a rap group. It was only later that I went to Santiago.
You grew in a caserío in La Serena. It was a rough place. In fact, your dad was shot in front of you [he survived]. How did this affect your music?
More than affect, it was a motivation, because I always wanted to get them out of there: my dad, my mom, my family. And I didn’t want to work in anything that wasn’t music. So I had to win, come what may. I always had a winning mind. In fact, there’s songs I did back then where many of the things I said are things I now have.
Let’s go back to Apocalipsis. This album has no collabs.
No, because I wanted it to be more intimate. I wanted people to listen to Cris MJ and identify with what I want to express. It’s risky, because it’s the first time I don’t have collabs. But we’re ready to break it big, and if you trust yourself, you have to give it your all.
And you trust yourself?
Yes. Yes, always.
Stream Apocalipsis in full here.
