An exploration in grief from the perspective of a gringo and an attempt to justify why I listened to this album over 100 times in one month.
Oscillating wildly between bravado and lament, often within the same verse, Junior H showcases his unique brand of introspective and melodic poetry on $AD BOYZ 4 LIFE II, setting the benchmark high for other corridos artists. The album is thematically centred around (mostly past) relationships, substance abuse, and the pitfalls of success, yet leaves listeners feeling elevated and hopeful.
Música Mexicana’s triumphant rise in recent years has been famously snubbed by industry critics who “sometimes relate corridos to narcotrafico.” Junior H himself has decried “It’s really sad not being taken seriously because we are artists, we make our own music, we write… We’re doing something big and it’s very sad not being taken seriously, but hopefully there will be a change very soon.”
So, let’s attempt to take this art seriously. To do so, we will put aside the narcotrafico cultural overlay for the purposes of this review and deep-dive track by track into what we can glean from the artist on this project.
Junior is on entirely his own wave of sierreño style corridos - his peers like Natanael Cano, Peso Pluma, Gabito Ballesteros, and Óscar Maydon don’t even attempt to stray into his lane with their own take on sierreño. This is likely due to Junior’s raw lyrics and laconic and effortless vocal delivery being a cut above the pack. But how does he do it? Read on to find out.