Mexico has been exploding recently with a barrage of talent ranging from the champions of corridos like Natanel Cano and Peso Pluma as well as the new reggaeton talents such as Bellakath and Yvng Lucas. 

With the infinite scope of Mexican music continually growing, can an alternative pop-rap talent stand out? 

Nsqk seems to have answered that question with his new album, “ATP”. 

Made to sound like you’re seated in your car listening to the local station, Nsqk has dropped one of the most ambitious concept albums in a while. With 5 skits and 12 tracks, “ATP” is made to immerse you into the mind of Nsqk and his unique approach to making music. 

“I've always treated it as a mixtape more than a studio album. My last album is called Roy and it's really experimental and it's really left field and it's really cathartic and it's about mental issues, like depression and shit” 

This made the Mexican artist come to a stark realization. 

“After I made [Roy] I realized I wasn't having fun making music anymore. I was like damn if this is gonna be my job like my 24/7 for the rest of my life, I might as well be having fun.”

This helped in creating the album’s main radio centered concept. 

“I didn't want it to necessarily have a theme, or like a certain genre or like a designated sound in a way, but what I wanted to do was the radio thing so that it would be like its own universe and maybe like a narrative.” 

This cohesiveness plays well for Nsqk as he bounces between genres such as dance, techno, rap, and corridos across the 40 minute project. 

Along with the radio bit and the genre hopping, Nsqk has made “ATP” stand out with it’s orange color scheme thrown around the promotion of the project. Old album and singles covers were suddenly splashed with orange in order to help emphasize the identity of “ATP”. 

Like Charli XCX’s hit album, “brat”, which has turned green into the color of summer 2024, Nsqk wanted to bring something that is easily recognizable to his project. 

“To be honest, the orange was Valeria's idea. She's my stylist, but she's also the creative director behind the project, behind the music videos and stuff.” 

He was also very bluntly honest about the inspiration for this idea.

“It was her idea to align the music to a certain color, which is something that happens a lot. It's happened a lot recently. People are like, oh you're copying brat. I'm not gonna front, of course we're inspired by brat, but Feid has been green his whole career too.” 

It’s a smart move as it helps flesh out the album’s identity to listeners. 

“It's cool when your music connects with fashion. It's cool when your music connects with culture. It's cool when your music connects with the color, and I wanted the music to be a lot more recognizable and have a lot more personality. We wanted to do something very flashy and it's a big color. It's a very in your face color, so it really doesn't go deeper than that.” 

Now that Nsqk has figured out the visual aspect of the album, he expects fans to show up to his upcoming “Alter-Ego” tour dressed to the nines in orange. Speaking of which, the tour is set to kick off in Guadalajara on August 31st and set to take him throughout the US and Mexico, stopping in cities like Chicago, Monterrey, San Antonio, and Brooklyn. 

“So the tour is called the “Alter-Ego tour because that's what it's about. It's about everything. It's not the ATP tour, you know. I want to play like everything in my catalog. It's called alter ego because  I feel like I have multiple personalities in my projects, I do like them to sound different, distinct from each other.” 

With a brand new show set with video packages, lighting setups, and a new stage design, Nsqk is excited to go back on the road and perform the new album. He tells FAME that performing is one of his favorite parts of being a musician and easily one of his favorite. 

But it all seems to have happened so quickly as Nsqk has been producing since he was 13, but he only started recording his own music back in 2020 after deciding to hop onto some of his own beats. 

With a range of influences ranging from Tyler, the Creator to Portishead, Nsqk seems to pull from as many corners as he can in order to find the right sounds for his songs. 

“The game has really changed like the playing field has been leveled and says that anyone can make a good beat or like to get their hands on a good instrumental. In my case I've always been a lot more inspired by electronic music. I started producing EDM and to this day Porter Robinson, for example, is still my favorite artist.” 

He tells us of how much he loves Tyler, the Creator, and the fanbase that he has cultivated over the years. This is followed by a quick conversation on Mac Miller and how Nsqk is such a fan of the rapper that he has a tattoo dedicated to his “Circles” album. 

Rap and EDM, but where is the love for Latin music? 

“I've always listened to mariachi and Mexican music, especially, Latin urban music. I didn't like it that much until maybe a year and a half ago when I really took a deep dive into the history and the OG stuff and the newer things.” 

“And I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the culture, with the history, with the impact, with the scene, the worldwide Spanish language music scene. It took me a while to understand how to produce it because it's a science and it's very different from producing everything else.”

This newfound love for reggaeton led to the creation of the fourth track off ATP, “Tarde o Temprano”, which he describes as being made initially as an experiment where he wanted to use drums similar to Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights”. 

“I found this sample with these pads. Very epic, big, in your face pads. And that's where that combo came from. But laying on top of it, these Latin reggaeton style vocals. I love that track and I think it's a really good example of what the project wanted to sound like” 

Speaking of reggaeton, one of its other rising power players, Alvaro Diaz, gave Nsqk a bit of exposure when he was featured on the Sayonara interlude “MAMI 100PRE SABE “. 

“So with Alvaro, it came about because  I feel like our music is very similar, not in sound, but  in intention.I think he's also very akin to experimenting and doing things people might not expect from him or from the music he makes. Trying different genres and mixing stuff, even though it might sound blocky or choppy in a way to some people, I love that.” 

The friendship has blossomed fully on the new album as Alvaro delivers one of the best features with his verse on “MUBI”, coming in full force on an EDM inspired beat. 

“I got to see again how good he really is because I just sent him the [MUBI] beat with a little bit of my voice and I was like, hey, like I don't have it as planned out as he has, And he was like, yeah, no problem.”

“Like a week later, he sent me back a whole track. The whole thing. And I was like, that's dope. It's incredible. Obviously I went back into the lab, but he's like that good. So it's been really cool to work with him and I really do hope I get to work with him more in the future.”

With a bumping album having just been released and a continually rising name, Nsqk is not only proving that there is a market for more alternative styles of Latin music, but also a growing demand for Mexican music. 

“I love it all. I listened to all of it and I haven't met any Mexican artists who I don’t like. Genuinely. I think there's so much hate within the country that it feels like you have to be on the defensive everywhere, but I think that's gonna stop real soon and Mexican music is gonna keep being like something very global.”