The Story Behind “GRADUACIÓN”

Ya que estamos en mayo otra vez y he estado yendo a fiestas de graduación, viendo fotos con toga y birrete por todos lados, y pensé que era el momento perfecto para hablar de “GRADUACIÓN.”

The cover art for “GRADUACIÓN.” I made the artwork in Canva, and my fraternity brother Alejandro Cartagena took my grad photo which I used for it.

Hice esta canción como un regalo para mí mismo y para mis papás. Quería hablar sobre todo lo que viví en la universidad: el estrés, las inseguridades, las fiestas, las relaciones, el crecimiento de uno mismo, sentirse perdido, y el intento de perseguir un sueño mientras tratas de sobrevivir la uni.

Switching to English now, it’s crazy to me that “GRADUACIÓN” is already a year old.

When I first heard the beat, I immediately it was something I wanted to write to. Walter Martinez, who also produced dejarte ir and some unreleased songs you’ll probably hear in the future, showed me the instrumental in his room while I was sitting there writing. The beat already sounded chill and super vibey, so I was coming up with concepts on what it could be about. I wanted the song to feel uplifting and a good time, which is how I ended up writing it about my college experience. The chorus was the first part I wrote because I wanted it to feel iconic and universally relatable and something simple enough that people could sing with their friends at graduation parties, like an anthem for latino college students how “The Spins” by Mac Miller is everyone else's. The main message of the chorus is basically I made it, I won’t forget where I came from, and even though I don’t know where life is taking me next, I know I’ll be okay.

I think most people graduating now can relate to that feeling. One chapter of your life ends, and another begins immediately, except this time there’s no roadmap anymore. Production-wise, “GRADUACIÓN” was also important because it marked the beginning of what I feel became my actual sound as an artist.

Before this song, I was experimenting a lot with different genres and sounds, but this hip-hop-inspired, bouncy type of production was something I realized I just kept getting drawn to, but I still wanted to incorporate reggaetón and beat switches because it ties the music back to me and my identity. I grew up listening to both American and Spanish music. That influence already existed in my other songs like “SIRENA”, “EN LA DISCO”, “AMANECER”, “Windows Low”, and “Belleza de Dios”, where I had movement in the song and beat switches, but I think after “GRADUACIÓN”, my music started sounding more coherent and connected stylistically. Even “UN CHANCE MÁS” later that summer took inspiration from this direction, with the intro and bouncy chorus with the Tyga-synth stabs. J. Medina mixed and mastered the record, and he elevated the song so much with his skills.

One of the funny lines in the song is:

“Un año atrasado, no fue culpa de mí
Fallé dos clases, sorry mami
Pero hacer música y estudiar no es fácil”

It’s played as a joke, but it’s true. I was originally supposed to graduate in May 2024 because I started college in August 2020, but after transferring from St. Mary’s College of Maryland to Towson University, most of my credits transferred without direct equivalencies, so I had to take additional classes. Originally, it was only supposed to be one extra semester… until I failed two classes. One because I didn’t turn in the final assignment even though my grades were fine otherwise, and another because I misread the final exam time and showed up two hours late thinking it started later. Business Law and Digital Marketing. Yeah, I know. Things would’ve been fine but my brain was already fully consumed by music. I was done with school and just wanted to finish so I could finally dedicate all my energy toward building my career instead of constantly balancing assignments with my rehearsals, performances, studio sessions, and marketing. I’m glad I chose to study marketing because ended up helping me a lot. I literally use my degree every single day for my LLC, promoting my music, analyzing content performance, and building my brand.

Another verse that I wrote is:

“Me metí a un colegio tan superficial
Sin cultura y todos se miraban igual
Intenté encajar pero no fue real
Me perdí un rato por querer ser profesional”

Me with my old roommate Keawe at Lacrosse house which basically served as the frat houses since the school was too small for Greek life. He’s Polynesian don’t worry.

This is a reference to my time at St. Mary's. I don’t hate that period of my life at all, I learned a lot there and met good people, but I never really felt like myself there. There was almost no diversity, I could probably count all the Latinos on campus using both hands. I tried fitting in as well and I hung out with a bunch of white kids, which is fine I love them, I learned a lot more about them and got into country music, but the real me was just not meant to spend much time there, I felt like I was slowly disconnecting from myself. It was nice my freshman year because that was the summer of the pandemic, so being isolated we had parties in the woods, swam in the bay, it was great, but after that it felt like I was in a prison. I had already met everyone I could meet at the school and it was so isolated I needed movement, cities, music, people who looked like me, people who understood me. Cultura, sazón y reggaetón. That’s where I put this later verse:

“Me fui pa’ buscar oportunidad
Promoviendo cada vez que fui a la ciudad
Me transferí a otra universidad
Y encontré una nueva comunidad”

Towson gave me that, a community that looked like me and where I could pursue my dreams of being a music artist close to Baltimore and DC (St. Mary’s was two hours away from DC 😩). Another personal section is this:

“Salí de una relación, todo roto
Y busqué atención como vago, no no
De chiquito siempre tuve grandes sueños
Pero también yo tenía miedo, miedo”

This references my first relationship ending during my freshman year of college which affected me deeply for years afterward. Growing up, I was always pretty insecure. I wasn’t the type of guy getting lots of attention or confidently telling girls how I felt, so when that relationship ended, it completely shattered my confidence. I felt replaceable, like I had already been emotionally moved on from before the relationship even ended. Because of that, for the next couple years I made a lot of mistakes searching for connection. I stayed too long in situations I should’ve left. I gave too much of myself emotionally. I ignored red flags because I wanted love and validation so badly, and kept getting played. I was left to myself to figure out who I was, and that’s when my songwriting really began, mostly sad stuff because that’s how I was feeling. But I was able to heal from that through music, it was my therapy and it was all I had in those dark times, which is why these lines exist:

“Hice amistades, también me equivoqué
Me enamoré de unas bichas que me hicieron doler
Mis inseguridades me hicieron tropezar
Pero mi arte me enseñó cómo pude sanar”

It’s hard to emphasize how much music was to me when I was going through it. It made me smile again, it made me happy.
One of my favorite lines in the song is also:

“Descubrí que esto se podía en serio
Y desde ese día empecé corriendo”

J. Medina and I working on my first ever real song “SIN TI” back in 2022 at The Kitchen DMV.

I remember I was talking to J. Medina in another unrelated session (I think we were recording “UN CHANCE MÁS”), I was explaining my vision for the music video to be Chris Brown style with dancers and whatnot. I remember him saying he was proud at how far I'd come. I recorded my very first song with him in August 2022 when I started at Towson University, I had bought his beat and came into the studio expecting to finish TWO songs in TWO hours (LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I did not know anything back then). It takes me now two hours to finish JUST vocals. But I came in hungry and was always consistent with my marketing and performing and just putting myself out there, so he told me since I started I came out the door running, so I added that to the song in. Thank you J. Medina, hope to work with you again soon.

But back when I was at St. Mary’s, I performed at Hawkfest, where Yung Gravy was headlining. At the time, “Chipelo and Crew” was basically a cover band/project I had started. I made a salsa remix version of “Bad Con Nicky” on FL Studio and recorded my own vocals on top, doing an English version of the track (only for my blog readers will I let you listen to this atrocious cover), and brought dancers from the dance team to perform choreography with me. For the first time, I saw what it felt like to combine singing, dancing, performance, visuals, crowd energy, and music all together. It changed my life. Afterwards, I remember sneaking backstage to meet Yung Gravy and asking him how he grew as an artist. He told me was that studying Marketing in college helped him heavily with building his music career and brand. Seeing the crowd after my performance and hearing Yung Gravy's words made me realize that maybe I could actually do this music thing, and that's what I began chasing ever since, never putting down the brakes. I’ve been running non-stop chasing this dream.

Lastly, “GRADUACIÓN” is also a celebration of my family.

The civil war in El Salvador had taken a lot from them and their families, and they came here to build something better so my sisters and I wouldn't have to live through what they did. The reason I’m even able to chase music the way I do is because of their sacrifices. Everything I’ve built comes from that foundation. That’s why one of the most important lines in the entire song to me is:

“Todo su esfuerzo vive en mi pecho.”

Because it’s true. I graduated because of them, and now I’m chasing my dream and can’t stop, won’t stop ‘til I reach the top.