Fuerza Regida is flying excessive. Bandleader JOP needs Mexican music to soar

If there’s anybody who believes within the energy of manifestation, it’s Fuerza Regida frontman Jesús Ortiz Paz. “I  all the time knew I used to be gonna do it,” he stated in November, on the eve of the 2025 Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas.

What “it” is has change into clearer within the final 12 months for the 28-year-old vocalist, additionally identified by followers as “JOP,” who has led his band to prime a number of Billboard charts and helped propel the Mexican corrido custom. We met in a comfortable bar on the Crockfords, one of many swankiest luxurious inns on the north finish of the Las Vegas Strip. Simply minutes earlier than our interview, a lodge staffer got here by to shake JOP’s hand, as if the 2 had identified one another for years.

“A brother from one other mom,” the lodge staffer instructed JOP, who flashed a smile glittering with tooth gems. Wearing a modest white tee and basketball shorts, the música mexicana star’s outfit that day was a far cry from the outsized streetwear and diamond-encrusted jewellery he often dons in public.

The next evening on the Latin Grammys, throughout Fuerza Regida’s efficiency of “Marlboro Rojo” on the MGM Grand Backyard Enviornment, the web rapidly clocked the value tag nonetheless affixed to JOP’s jacket — prompting an limitless scroll of jokes on social media. Reasonably than shrink in embarrassment, the singer poked enjoyable at himself on his Instagram story with a caption that learn: “Estaba en especial”/”It was on sale.”

Since then, JOP has continued to depart retail tags on garments in varied social media posts. If anybody goes to benefit from a scenario, it’s going to be him.

Fuerza Regida has come a great distance because it first went viral in 2018 for the music “Radicamos en South Central,” a rugged corrido tumbado that tells the story of how a kingpin’s empire was constructed brick by brick.

The San Bernardino band is a pioneer of the subgenre, which blends the normal instrumentation of Mexican people balladry with components of American entice music, specifically its beats and the gritty lyrical content material that offers with issues of shifting contraband, turf wars and limitless hustle. Corridos tumbados embody the biculturalism skilled by Mexican People, fusing lo de aquí with lo de allá.

Because of its street-wise sound and ethos, Fuerza Regida has helped pave the best way for a brand new era to stand up inside música mexicana. Luminate, a knowledge evaluation firm, credited the expansion of Latin music in 2024 to the surge of regional Mexican music; Fuerza Regida, Peso Pluma and Junior H have been a few of the most-streamed Latin artists within the U.S. that 12 months, alongside reggaeton singer Dangerous Bunny.

In 2025, the band’s groundbreaking ninth studio album, “111Xpantia,” elevated it to new ranges of world stardom. The 12-track venture leaned closely into genre-specific devices just like the tololoche and charcheta for its basis whereas nonetheless managing to be experimental and impressive — opener “Godfather” samples Nino Rota’s “Love Theme From ‘The Godfather’” from the enduring movie.

The LP (the title is impressed by the Nahuatl phrase for manifestations, “ixpantia”) debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and have become the highest-charting Spanish-language album by a gaggle or duo. Tracks just like the hypnotic “Tu Sancho” and the gritty “Marlboro Rojo” topped the Mexican Billboard chart, with the latter incomes the No. 1 spot on the Sizzling Latin Songs checklist.

“111Xpantia” landed only one spot under Dangerous Bunny’s chart-topping document, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” the primary time ever that two Spanish-language albums have occupied the highest two spots on the Billboard 200 chart on the similar time.

This additionally kicked off a sequence of firsts for the band, which made its TV debut final 12 months, together with appearances on “Jimmy Kimmel Stay!” and “The Tonight Present Starring Jimmy Fallon.” By the top of 2025, Fuerza would wind up No. 10 on Spotify’s world prime artist checklist.

(Ian Spanier/For The Occasions)

“My ft left the bottom,” stated JOP of the band’s groundbreaking previous 12 months and discovering a brand new degree of normalcy. “Now, my ft are on the bottom and I’m chilling.”

Regardless of its mainstream success in each Mexico and the U.S. — and making varied end-of-year better of lists — “111Xpantia” obtained zero nominations on the 2025 Latin Grammys and the upcoming Grammy Awards, which is able to happen Feb. 1 at downtown L.A.’s Crypto.com Enviornment.

“ I don’t get how that album didn’t get nominated,” JOP says. “However I respect their determination. Subsequent time.”

There have lengthy been widespread issues concerning the music business’s funding in música mexicana regardless of its decades-long observe document of being a commercially aggressive style in america. Because the inaugural Latin Grammy Awards in 2000, critics and teachers have lambasted the Latin Recording Academy, and the business at massive, for excluding common acts like Los Tigres del Norte from competition usually classes — compared to the outpouring of assist for mainstream pop stars similar to Puerto Rican hitmaker Ricky Martin and Cuban queen Gloria Estefan.

Occasions contributor Justino Aguila voiced comparable issues concerning the marginalizing of Mexicans on the 2019 Grammy Awards: “It was stunning that the Grammys telecast didn’t embody one regional Mexican artist, contemplating that Mexicans are the second-largest racial or ethnic group within the U.S. at about 36 million,” he wrote on the time.

But there have been current efforts to diversify the Grammy voters. In early November, the Recording Academy welcomed Latin Grammy voting members to its 2025 member class, successfully introducing extra voters for Grammy Awards to come back.

“We simply want extra Mexicans [in these institutions], that’s it,” stated JOP, providing up options to each the Recording Academy and the Latin Recording Academy. “Little by little, I’ve been seeing extra Mexicans all over the place, we’re getting in there.”

On the time of our interview, the band was up for its first Latin Grammy nomination underneath the regional music class for “Me Jalo,” a collaboration with Texan band Grupo Frontera, which took the TikTok world by storm. (The music would later lose to Los Tigres del Norte, who gained for the music “La Lotería.”)

Mexican singer Jesus Ortiz Paz of Fuerza Regida performs onstage in the course of the twenty sixth Annual Latin Grammy Awards on the MGM Grand Backyard Enviornment in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 13, 2025. (Picture by VALERIE MACON / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (Picture by VALERIE MACON/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)

(VALERIE MACON/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)

In February, each Fuerza Regida and Grupo Frontera will contend for his or her first Grammy Award within the música mexicana album class, for his or her joint 2024 EP, “Mala Mía.”

“ I used to be like, ‘Lastly!’ stated JOP. Fuerza Regida has claimed that its earlier studio album, 2024’s “Pero No Te Enamores,” was sidelined by its label Rancho Humilde forward of final 12 months’s Latin Grammys.

Though Fuerza Regida nonetheless releases music underneath the imprint, the band is within the thick of a authorized battle with Rancho Humilde — an impartial document firm led by music mogul Jimmy Humilde, who signed the group in 2018.

In September, Rancho Humilde filed a lawsuit towards Fuerza Regida, alleging breaches of contract for unilaterally collaborating with artists exterior the label (similar to Chino Pacas and Drake) and signing unique dwell efficiency offers with Apple Music and Stay Nation.

Fuerza Regida countersued, alleging that Rancho Humilde withheld hundreds of thousands in royalties and tried to “sabotage” the band’s success, together with by neglecting to submit its music for consideration forward of the 2024 Latin Grammys. The authorized tussle is working its manner by way of federal court docket.

A request for remark despatched to Rancho Humilde by way of its attorneys was not returned as of publication.

“Folks have completed a lot stuff to me, document labels and quite a lot of issues like that, that it don’t faze me no extra,” JOP stated. “I simply preserve shifting and onto the subsequent, , and we’re gonna determine it out.”

Since 2019, JOP has been build up his personal label, Avenue Mob Information, with the intent to assist rising expertise in música mexicana — together with the Salinas, Calif., band Clave Especial. The gamers fondly recalled JOP’s rigor within the studio; one evening he stayed up till 4 a.m. with the trio to assist configure the beats on their newest document, “Mija No Te Asustes.”

“It’s like working with any individual with that very same ambition,” stated lead singer Alex Ahumada. “[It’s] like [a] loquera, that’s how I prefer to name it.”

JOP prides himself in instructing his artists the ins and outs of the music business, together with negotiation abilities he needs he’d realized at the beginning of his profession. He’s suggested the artists on Avenue Mob’s roster — Chino Pacas, Armenta, Chuyin and others — to view their time underneath the label as akin to a school schooling.

“You’re gonna be right here for a certain quantity of years, you’re gonna be taught after which you possibly can depart if you need,” defined JOP. “ I went by way of sure instances in my profession the place like I used to be making an attempt to be taught and it was identical to, daban la pata,” he recalled, as if to say individuals within the business have been simply pulling his leg. “And so they don’t present you s—.”

All through our interview, JOP pressured loyalty. He’s nearly all the time surrounded by his bandmates — requinto guitarist Samuel Jaimez, guitarron participant Khrystian Ramos, tubist José Garcia and tololoche participant Moises Lopez — however there are additionally different recurring characters who populate his wondrous rock star existence.

Usually by his facet is Cristian “Toro” Primera, chief operations officer at Avenue Mob Information, who used to lend JOP music tools at the beginning of his profession; and by no means removed from the star is Jesus “Mosca” Amezcua, his supervisor and cousin, who fondly recollects taking part in soccer collectively once they have been youthful.

JOP is commonly flanked by bodyguard Mario Rogelio, who as soon as acquired his foot run over by a automobile whereas defending the band in New York Metropolis. His different bodyguard, Samuel “Rhino” Galindo, is a big who loves to speak about his favourite Westwood cookie store (Psst — it’s Diddy Riese).

(Ian Spanier/For The Occasions)

Defending the famed band is a troublesome gig, although. In 2023, one in all Fuerza Regida’s guards died from a firearm-related damage whereas in a car in Veracruz, Mexico. The band supplied their condolences on the time of the incident: “We need to ship our most honest condolences to the household of our safety element of Mexico, Mr. Morales, thanks for all the pieces that you simply’ve completed for the group, you’ll be missed,” the assertion learn.

Past all of the drama, intrigue and monetary issues of being a band, Fuerza Regida remains to be rising within the music business — and reinvigorating cultural pleasure amongst many Mexican People. The group’s ascent is very exceptional in a time when the Supreme Court docket has allowed the Division of Homeland Safety to consider race, language (Spanish), accent and job kind when conducting immigration sweeps which have been focusing on Latinos throughout the U.S. In some instances, federal brokers have brutally focused U.S. residents of Latino descent who’ve asserted their authorized standing.

“ I believe the style itself, the Mexican music style actually helped Mexicans be cool,” stated JOP — who used to bump songs by Chalino and Adán Sánchez on his solution to faculty in San Bernardino, however then decrease the quantity as he acquired nearer to campus. Most of his classmates, himself included, most popular to hearken to hip-hop again then. “Now [people] are bumping Mexican music, they don’t even know Spanish.”

JOP spends most of his time all through the day being filmed by a member of his group. With a private YouTube channel that counts over 1 million followers, the singer is looking for the candy spot between the music business and the influencer financial system, the latter of which is price $250 billion and counting, in keeping with a 2023 report by Goldman Sachs.

It’s a fascinating enterprise to interrupt into, however JOP says his round the clock filming has a less complicated origin.

“Once I was younger, my mother by no means recorded me, so I don’t acquired no recordings,” he stated. He’s the one little one of a mom who struggled with infertility; when she was pregnant with him, she prayed for his survival, promising to call him after Jesus Christ. “[I’m a] miracle child, that’s why we blessed,” he stated with a smile.

JOP stated his mother had lengthy hoped he would go to varsity. But after he graduated from Arroyo Valley Excessive Faculty in 2015, his fundamental focus grew to become pursuing music.

“I instructed her, when the leaves fall, I’ll be in faculty,” he stated. “She instructed me someday: ‘The leaf fell [and] I don’t see you in faculty.’”

In December, JOP would get a style of the scholarly life when Fuerza Regida headed to Harvard College to simply accept the Harvard-Radcliffe RAZA Trailblazer Award from a pupil group for his or her development of Mexican music. Though it was not associated to an honorary diploma, the band members have been every gifted caps and robes to put on.

“There you go, a Harvard graduate,” JOP jokingly instructed The Occasions.

In an leisure business that rewards low-cost gimmicks and surface-level solidarity with marginalized individuals, JOP’s slicing realness is a cornerstone of his identification as an artist. For a lot of, he represents an underdog spirit inherent to working-class communities.

(Ian Spanier/For The Occasions)

When the wildfires ripped by way of Southern California final January, Fuerza Regida rented a lodge to accommodate households who have been displaced. Then amid the ICE raids in the summertime, the band donated merchandise earnings to organizations such because the Immigrant Defenders Legislation Heart, which covers authorized charges for affected people. Within the fall, Fuerza Regida and Avenue Mob Information awarded 4 full scholarships for Cal State San Bernardino college students and supplied free meals to Supplemental Vitamin Help Program (SNAP) beneficiaries when the federal government shutdown delayed the distribution of advantages.

By the top of 2025, its members launched the Fuerza Music Basis in an effort to construct lasting social change in immigrant communities. “Earlier than [we] ever acquired nominated [for any award], I believe we’ve been nominated by the group, by the hood,” stated JOP.

The language of manifesting your goals into actuality would possibly sound nonsensical or contrived, however to JOP, his magical pondering grew to become his saving grace.

“My dad [would always say] ‘Get to work,’” recalled JOP. “My mother [would say] ‘Mijo, go to varsity, [or] you’re simply going to be singing to drunks.’

“And now, I do sing to borrachos,” he added. “Seventy-thousand of these motherf—.”