Lito Kirino

Born in the Dominican Republic, Lito Kirino later relocated to New York. Around 2014 he started uploading tracks to SoundCloud and other platforms, quickly drawing a loyal audience that grew from those independent releases and videos into a Sony Music contract. Working almost entirely in Spanish, he developed a personal blend of brooding trap production and pop-leaning material that first surfaced on the 2015 EP Love & Passion. Steady output followed, mixing numerous mixtapes with individual singles. Among the highlights were his reworking of Childish Gambino’s 2018 hit “This Is America” into “This Is Dominican Republic,” plus the originals “Karma” and “777,” both slow, dark trap cuts whose videos each reached millions of streams. Although he explored varied styles, his most widely embraced work remained the darker rap tracks. Fresh material appeared constantly, with key moments including the breakthrough 2016 single “Somo Lo Fuerte (All the Way Up),” the trippy 2017 collaboration “Lean” with Amenazzy and Bad Bunny, and the mixtapes 2016’s Coronamos and 2018’s Love & Passion, Vol. 3, after earlier projects such as Morfina and Love & Passion had laid the groundwork.