Mexican Artist Peso Pluma Threatened by Mexican Cartel

Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija, the famous Mexican artist you know today as Peso Pluma (Double P), the artist that has helped lead an international surge in Regional Mexican music and a major contributor to the revival of corridos, one of the biggest faces of Mexico. So why is it that he is receiving death threats from Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of the most powerful and brutal cartels in Mexico and a major rival to the Sinaloa Cartel?

Banners with alleged threats from Mexican Drug Cartel against Mexican singer Peso Pluma appeared in Tijuana early Tuesday, the day of his performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, leaving fans in shock and confusion as to whether his upcoming October concert in the border city will be canceled or postponed. Will he cancel his show for his safety? And if so, will people get their money back? While those are all interesting questions for those who planned to attend, the real question that fans are speculating is why is he being imperiled?

Peso Pluma has gained popularity among audiences worldwide with his favored love ballads, as his fans love his guitar riffs, big horns, and the splash of hip-hop culture he has in his music. But, he has another side of his music, the narcocorridos genre, a form of traditional Mexican ballads that formed in the 70s and 80s, where songs are about the exploits of real-life drug traffickers. One of his popular narcocorridos with just over 320 million streams on Spotify is “Siempre Pedientes” (Always Ready), a track in a first-person style about life of a Sinaloa Cartel member. Pluma states in his song, “JGL” which stands for “Joaquin Guzman Loera”, the drug lord, also known as El Chapo, which became involved in drug trafficking in the late 1980s as a trafficker and air logistics expert for the once powerful Miguel Angel Felix-Gallardo, a convicted Mexican drug kingpin and a former Federal Judicial Police agent. Pluma then proceeds to say “Cuido la plaza del señor Guzmán”, translating to “I take care of the plaza of señor Guzmán”. This lyrical statement was not only considered a "diss" by the CJNG, but they also saw Peso Pluma as a possible threat to their ultimate goal...overthrowing the Sinaloa cartel for control over the heroin trade and it's smuggling routes, leading to the CJNG’s retaliation via the threat given at his concert for his “loose tongue”-  sending a clear and sinister message to the artist.

On Wednesday, Sept. 20, the show was confirmed to be canceled. According to Variety, Peso Pluma has canceled his event in Tijuana, originally scheduled for Oct. 14 at Estadio Caliente in Baja California. The news of the cancellation was confirmed by Peso Pluma’s labels in an Instagram story, stating, “Our Goal is to protect the fans and the team. For the safety of everyone involved, we will cancel our show in Tijuana”. 

So the question lingering is will this heated situation cool down over time or will he continue to receive ultimatums?