This Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, NPR Music celebrates artists from all corners of Latinidad with an 'El Tiny' takeover.
Anamaria Sayre | October 7, 2024 English language hip-hop and Latin trap exist in two separate dimensions; Kansas-born, Puerto Rico-raised Eladio Carrión embodies both and neither at once. That’s perhaps a poetic reflection of a childhood spent as a military brat, moving from state to state, across the country that colonized his family’s island before settling back in Humacao. At the Tiny Desk, Carrión wasted no time putting that multicultural flow on full blast.
He kicked things off with a victory lap on “Gladiador,” leading straight into a keys-heavy arrangement of “Air France” and then the delightful staccato of “Tata” off his 2021 album Monarca. As if “Where my lil mamas at today?” wasn’t a perfect enough line to warm up the crowd, he carried on with the bilingual bars of “Hey Lil Mama,” seamlessly transitioning into a glorious trap-rock rendition of his 2022 hit “Mbappe.” Carrión’s studio collaborators include some of the biggest names in rap and reggaeton, but his only guest at El Tiny, rising Spanish singer Lia Kali, brought a new level of magnetism to the performance, demonstrating how the uncategorizable Carrión can’t help but keep us on our toes with his every move.
SET LIST “Gladiador” “Air France” “Tata” “Hey Lil Mama” “Mbappe” “Me Muero” (with Lia Kali) “Luchas Mentales” “Mama's Boy”
MUSICIANS Eladio Carrión: lead vocals Lia Kali: vocals Diamond Johnson: drums Damien “Dammo” Farmer: bass Jason Taylor: keys Corey Isaiah Cooper: guitar LaMar “MyGuyMars” Edwards: keys Larrance “Rance 1500” Dopson: percussion Devin Velez: background vocals Alexandria Dopson: background vocals Tayler Green: background vocals Faahz: beat box
TINY DESK TEAM Producer: Anamaria Sayre Director/Editor: Kara Frame Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter Videographers: Kara Frame, Joshua Bryant, Sofia Seidel, Zayrha Rodriguez Audio Engineer: Josephine Nyounai Production Assistant: Elle Mannion Photographer: Keren Carrion Tiny Desk Team: Maia Stern, Hazel Cills Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
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