Eladio Carrion

With a reedy baritone and slippery freestyle delivery, rapper and singer Eladio Carrión exploded on the Puerto Rican scene in 2016 with his debut video single “Me Enamoré de una Yal.” His unique beatcraft, hooky melodies, and lyric writing endeared him to artists and listeners alike. In 2020, Carrión released the 20-track mixtape Sauce Boyz as his debut album. It included collabs with Yandel, Cazzu, Lunay, and J Balvin, among others, and landed inside the Latin Album Top Ten. After spending the remainder of the year releasing 15 singles and videos, he followed with the all-trap Monarca in January 2021, adding Corina Smith, Natanael Cano, Ovi, and Noriel to his list of collaborators. The reggaeton-free outing peaked at 11. Before the year was out, he would return with the completely solo Sen2 KBRN, Vol. 1 and the collaboration heavy Sauce Boyz 2. In November 2022, he released SEN2 KBRN, Vol. 2 another completely solo offering.
Carrión was born in Kansas in a military family. Before he was 11, he spent time not only there but in Alaska and Baltimore before moving permanently to Puerto Rico. As a teen, he dove deep into social media networks, where he posted a wealth of popular, comical homemade videos and composed songs for other artists. Before recording on his own, he made “2 × 2” with Flowsito, and “No Quiero Más Amigos” with Rawlenz. When Carrión debuted “Me Enamoré de una Yal,” the first people to embrace it were other reggaetoñeros who talked it up on their own social media pages, thus getting it out to the public. He followed it up almost immediately with “Si Tú Te Vas, Mi Cubana,” “Culpable,” and “Ave María.” Based on their popularity, he spent the next two years being solicited for guest spots on tracks by Big Soto, Randy, Zion, Darkiel, Myke Towers, Rauw Alejandro, Noriel, and many others.
Carrión was regarded by other urbanos as an established stylist in Latin trap. His 2018 collaboration on the video for “Sigue Bailandome” with Yann C, Darkiel, and Myke Towers put him over the top, making him one of the most in-demand Latin rappers. “Mi Error,” with Zion, racked up a Top 20 chart position and over 33 million YouTube views. Other streaming hits from the period included “Candela” with Ecko, the smash party anthem “Animal” with Myers, and the hit “Kemba Walker” with Bad Bunny. In January 2020, Carrión released his debut full-length album, Sauce Boyz, as a star-studded mixtape — only one of its 20 tracks were solo performances. Among his collaborators were J Balvin, Yandel, Arcangel, Smokepurpp, Lil Mosey, Bad Bunny, and others. It peaked at number eight on the Top Latin Albums chart. He didn’t stop there, however; in 2020, Carrión issued no less than 15 singles with a corresponding video for each. With the exception of “Mi Error,” none were album tracks.
January 2021 saw the release of Monarca. While the 20 tunes on Sauce Boyz balanced trap and reggaeton, his sophomore long-player eschewed the latter entirely. Warned that such a move would hurt him on the charts, Carrión persisted. While he enlisted a host of top-shelf collaborators including Balvin, Lunay, Yandel, and Cazzu, he added new names to the mix such as Corina Smith on the track “Todo o Nada,” and Natanael Cano, Ovi, and Noriel on “Ele Uve.” Nine of its 14 tracks were solo performances. The set peaked at number 11 at Top Latin Albums.
Over the next several months Carrión was featured with Jon Z and Myke Towers on “Quedata Sola,” and with Chucky73 on “Nube.” He released the single “Sauce Boy Freestyle 4″ solo, and followed as the subject of a Bzrp Music Sessions volume that went to number ten on the Latin Rhythm albums chart that June. In July, Carrión released the nine-track, 27-minute trap-centric SEN2 KBRN, Vol. 1. Though he worked with a host of producers, the set marked the first time he had performed completely solo on an album. Led by the singles “Sauce Boy Freestyle, Vol. 4” and “Al Capone,” the album entered the Top Latin Albums chart at number 20. Carrión returned in December with his third project of the year, Sauce Boyz 2. The extensive release had a run time of over an hour, and featured guest spots from Jon Z, Ovi, KAROL G, and many others. In November 2022, he returned to solo recording on SEN2 KBRN, Vol. 2. It entered the Top Latin Albums chart at number four and placed inside the Top 200. ~ Thom Jurek