Peso Pluma Is the New King of Mexican Music. He’s Not Surprised.

Before he was a Grammy-winning global megastar, the Mexican singer known as Peso Pluma met a boxer. At a private performance early in his career, the aspiring pop star was introduced to Marco Antonio Barrera, a legendary fighter from Mexico who once held world titles in three different weight classes. Barrera looked at the skinny young singer and his band and dubbed them peso pluma, or “featherweight”—one of the weight classes Barrera himself had once dominated. “He explained to me that I was a champion in that category,” says Pluma, “and the name just stuck.”

Not only did Pluma take the moniker as his stage name, but also La Doble P (or Double P, as he’s often known) embraced boxing as part of his branding. To perform his massive hit “Rubicon” at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards, for example, Pluma made a video in which Mike Tyson escorted him to a boxing ring surrounded by screaming fans, and he sang while wearing a black-and-white boxer’s robe.

This past March, I witnessed Pluma make history as the first Latin artist to headline the Rolling Loud festival in Los Angeles. Standing just outside the pit, I was struck by the diversity of the crowd. Pluma’s fans roared in excitement with the first strum of the guitar, and I felt the bass shake the ground. In keeping with his passion for pugilism, he opened the show with “Gervonta,” a song named after the boxer Gervonta “Tank” Davis, the world lightweight champion from Baltimore.

Cardigan sweater ($5,700) and shirt ($1,850) by Fendi Men’s; sunglasses ($550), Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello.

As rapid and steep as his ascent has been in the music world, the twenty-six-year-old Pluma seems neither daunted nor particularly surprised by his success. On a rare off day, he joins my video chat from his car in Newport Beach, California. He tends to split his time between southern California and Mexico City when he’s not on tour. The raspy-voiced singer matter-of-factly concedes that in just the past few years, he “has become the face of the Mexican music industry.” And he’s done so by driving a resurgence in the popularity of corridos, a genre born out of the Mexican Revolution in the early 1900s. By combining traditional corrido ballads with contemporary Latin hip-hop and reggaeton, Pluma has concocted a new sound all his own that draws in fans across genres and across borders. There’s nothing else quite like it in music right now.

“I always knew I was gonna be big,” says Pluma. “I didn’t know what level or where I was gonna take it, but I always knew I had something to offer this world. I’m just happy with the way it went and I’m thankful to God for giving me this opportunity, and becoming, I guess, the King of Corridos.”

T-shirt ($380) and belt ($790) by Tom Ford; trousers ($2,200) by Dior Men; hat ($455) by Gladys Tamez.

Born Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija, Pluma grew up in Guadalajara, the biggest city in the western Mexican state of Jalisco. On his father’s side, he’s partially of Lebanese descent. Pluma says he gravitated to songwriting as a teen. “When I started playing the guitar, at like fifteen or sixteen, I wasn’t really good with showing my feelings, so I had to write everything that I went through back in those days,” he says.

The release of his third studio album, Génesis, in 2023 was a turning point for Pluma. It became the highest-charting Mexican music album in Billboard history and earned him his first-ever Grammy for Best Música Mexicana Album. He ended the year as the most-viewed artist on YouTube globally, with some 8.5 billion views. Pluma followed up in the summer of 2024 with Éxodo, a twenty-four-track double album on his Double P label that offered a deeper foray into his blended worlds and immediately shot to the top of the Spotify and Apple Music streaming charts.

Jacket ($3,900), shirt, trousers ($1,390), and belt ($480), by Ferragamo; sunglasses ($2,195) by Cartier; tie ($198) by Veert; wallet chain ($110) by Vitaly.

When we talk, however, Pluma is in reset mode. After a few years of long nights in the studio and nonstop global touring, he is fighting against any pressure he might feel to rush out a new record. He laments how quickly the public and the industry cycle through new material. “Right now, music is just so fast, [sometimes] it’s not appreciated the right way,” he says.

Pluma is aware of the weight of expectation that he’s created. “I’m really glad that a lot of people are following in my footsteps and a lot of kids are doing what I’m doing,” he says. “But I have a lot of pressure on me for what’s coming for corridos and what’s coming for this new era.”

Jacket ($3,900), shirt, trousers ($1,390), and belt ($480) by Ferragamo; sunglasses ($2,195) by Cartier; tie ($198) by Veert; wallet chain ($110) by Vitaly.

While he ponders his next musical step, Pluma says he is spending time with his girlfriend, Mexican pop star Kenia Os, and devoting extra attention to his job as CEO of his record label. With the help of his music-industry mentor and business partner, George Prajin, he’s building a roster of artists on Double P Records. “I’m focused on the development of different artists on my label,” says Pluma, “sitting with them and just listening to where they want to take their own projects.”

Pluma says his “fans are everything” and he’s aware that they would probably like to know more about his daily life, but don’t expect him to accommodate that desire. “I like to be anonymous. If you see my Instagram and shit, I’m not the kind of artist that’s posting what he’s doing minute by minute. That’s how I like to be and I’m not changing for anybody.”

This article appeared in the Sept 2025 issue of Esquiresubscribe

Rest assured, though: Pluma is working on new music. While recording material for his next album, Pluma says he has been pondering personal aprendizajes, or lessons. “What’s really happening in this life, and what’s happening in our culture.” Of course, it’s impossible to ignore the Trump administration’s current crackdown on the border and the effect on Mexican immigrants and the Latin community. I ask if he has any thoughts on the subject he’d like to share with his fans? “Unidad,” he says. “We have to stick together and help each other. I feel bad for the situation right now.”

Just how all these ideas will be filtered into his new music remains a mystery for the moment. “To be honest, nobody knows what I’m gonna do,” says the singer. Meanwhile, to his fans, he counsels patience. “Just wait, it’s gonna be good.” Peso Pluma will always come out swinging.

Story by Crystal OkonkwoPhotographs by Guy Aroch Styling by Alfonso Fernández NavasGrooming by Nathaniel Dezan at Opus Beauty using Oribe and Shark BeautyVisuals Director: James Morris

Entertainment Director: Andrea Cuttler

As seen in the opening look: Sweater ($1,295) by Dolce & Gabbana; Prada sunglasses, Pluma’s own.