For Quevedo, the very young rapper from the Canary Islands, a musical phenomenon of 2022, co-author of a record-breaking song that will remain forever linked to a summer of which there is no longer a trace, a year is too long a unit of time. So many things have happened to him and every milestone achieved he could have only dreamed of a few months ago.
Once his theme with the king Midas of urban music, the Argentine producer Bizarrap, became the most listened to song worldwide, he himself published a video on Instagram in which he could be seen together with his friends and also singers Juseph and Sergio ‘La Pantera’ giving a concert on a very humble stage. Only 10 months had passed from that modest concert to achieving a number one song in the world.
The theme released on July 6, which will remain in the memory as ‘Stay’ even though its title is something as encyclopedic as ‘BZRP Music Sessions #52’, it held first place for 55 days. Incontestable numbers to win the title of song of the summer. But earlier, at the beginning of the year, in a superhit produced by a handful of Canarian artists, ‘Cayó la noche remix’, one could already intuit that one of them, Pedro Luis Domínguez Quevedo –full name of the artist born in Madrid on the 7th of December 2001 but raised in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria– could be, as it has been but at an unimaginable level, one of the names of the year.
And he faces 2023 determined to continue with the magic that has guided him here. “Next year is going to be very special, and not only because of everything that has already happened in 2022. It is going to be the year of the first powerful tour [anunciadas están las fechas de Las Palmas, Madrid y Barcelona] and above all the launch of the first album”, comments Quevedo with El Periódico de Catalunya, from the Prensa Ibérica group.
It will be, yes, his first album. “I think there is a great job behind this album. We have tried to find both musical and audiovisual quality, which I hope will be transcendent and leave its mark on the scene. I am very happy with the album and I hope people enjoy it as much as me in the ‘construction’ process”, he exposes to this newspaper about the work, which will finally be published at the beginning of next year.
“I hope it is transcendent and leaves its mark on the scene,” says Quevedo about his future album
Quevedo, just turned 21, started college, dropped out, and spent time working as a bricklayer before the music he made – he usually moves between rap and reggaeton – offered him the chance to start a professional career. “He is very talented, the genre, the language, the rhythms are deeply rooted… And that he combines with a brutal voice timbre,” defines his colleague Abhir Hathi, another talented rapper from the Canary Islands.
“We saw it very clearly”
Those are the qualities that they saw in him at the ‘management’ agency Taste The Floor, which has been working with Quevedo since June 2021, after his current manager put them on his track. “He taught us a couple of songs and we freaked out, we saw it very clearly. The idea was to start working because we thought that when his music began to come out it would work from the first moment,” recall sources from the agency’s management.
“He is not a person who has excessive ambition,” says his team
The last year of the Canarian rapper has been dizzying, it has passed at a devilish speed and he has been climbing steps two by two. According to Spotify data, he ends the year as the 87th most listened to artist in the world (more than 32 million monthly listeners).. And the second Spaniard with the most reproductions after Rosalía. “He is a humble guy, a good person, with his feet on the ground. His story inspires us. And Pedro comes naturally, very quickly, he is very productive in the studio… And this in an industry like ours, which he does nothing more than ask, he makes a Quevedo happen”, says Abhir Hathi.
The explosion has been brutal, a few months ago I was an artist far from the ‘mainstream’ spotlight, and this shock wave can leave anyone touched. “He is not taking his career with the idea of seizing the moment, but of trying to get to enjoy it. He is not a person who has excessive ambition, he is a normal guy with his feet on the ground and success has not changed him, “they say from Taste The Floor.
no headlines
Interest in Quevedo, with a calm and discreet profile, skyrocketed in an industry that is constantly looking for new idols. “The expectations and the need for him to have a great presence, make headlines… It’s really not his profile,” say sources who work on the musician’s career and who follow “the strategy set with the artist so as not to saturate him.” .
For now, the artist continues his path independently, publishing with the Taste The Floor Records label, despite the fact that “many” offers arrive. That independence allows him a freedom that he now takes advantage of himself to work where and with whom he wants. “In independence he feels very comfortable. His ambition is to own his career, and that doesn’t mean that if you sign with a multinational you won’t be”, expose from the agency. “Right now it is not something that is being considered,” they settle in reference to a hypothetical record contract with a major label.
Quevedo’s last published song summarizes his crazy 2022. A few months ago, the rapper could be seen through social networks watching a concert by Myke Towers, his great reference, euphoric, and how he greeted him afterwards – still as a fan and not as a colleague. Well, on December 15, he published a single (‘Playa del inglés’) with him.