Jay Wheeler's La Voz Favorita Has a Track Nobody Is Talking About Enough

Let's get the obvious out of the way: La Voz Favorita is a great album. We all knew it was going to be a great album. Jay Wheeler doesn't miss on full-length projects, the run from Música Buena Para Días Malos through GIRASOLES and now this was never in question. But there's a reason I'm writing this.

But EVERY review of this album is saying the same thing. Rubio is beautiful (Naming a salsa track after his grandfather because his abuelo is the reason he loves salsa is genuinely one of the most heartfelt moves on any Latin album this year). De Lejitos is a hit wit 60 million streams and counting, his daughter dancing to it on livestream going viral, [Shout out to the princess of PR Aiunii] all of it earned. The first three tracks are intentionally connected and set up the emotional arc (they do).

All of that is covered.

What nobody is talking about though is track 19.

"Todo Mal" Is Not What others Thinks It Is

Rolling Stone called it "pop-flavored perreo." That description is not wrong for the first 90 seconds. Abraham Mateo comes in with his Spanish vocal style, the rhythm has the standard "urban" track, and if you stopped listening at the two-minute mark you'd agree.

But the track doesn't stay there, AT ALL. It progressively shifts. The production starts stacking. The bass gets heavier. The track get more aggressive. By the time you're deep into the back half of the song, what you're hearing is not pop-flavored perreo anymore. What you're hearing is borderline baile funk. Favela bass. The kind of production that reminded me of A-PAR out of Mexico City, dark bailebass with heavy electronic undertones that hits different from anything in the mainstream Latin orbit.

That progression, from a standard-sounding track that you think you've already categorized into something that ends in a completely different sonic territory. That production decision deserves way more attention than it's getting. The producers on this one understood something that most mainstream Latin production doesn't attempt: you can bring people in with the familiar and walk them into the unfamiliar without them resisting, because by the time the shift happens they're already inside the song.

For a 24-track mainstream album to have a track that ends up in "edm" baile funk territory is not just unusual. It's kind of insane. This isn't a random remix on SoundCloud or a producer showcase. This is Jay Wheeler. Track 19 is casually walking into a genre space that most of his audience has never consciously listened to.

If you haven't gone down the baile funk/favela bass rabbit hole and you want a starting point, look up A-PAR a Mexico City-based producer, DJ, and musician who builds dark bailebass and heavy bass tracks. His track "MOMENTO" is a good example of what I'm talking about.

Listen to that, then go back and listen to where "Todo Mal" ends up. The connection is unmistakable.

None of this works without the production, and the names behind it deserve to be in the conversation.

Yeziell Yeziell is a recording and mixing engineer at Dynamic Records and a producer for Jay Wheeler, Conep, and Zhamira Zambrano. He co-produced "De Lejitos" and "Rubio" alongside Manu Berlingeri, and he has production and composition credits on "Abrázame Fuerte" from GIRASOLES. His role spans the full signal chain: he's in the room building the beat and he's behind the board mixing the final file. That continuity across the creative and technical side is a big part of why Jay Wheeler's records have a consistent sonic identity from project to project.

Manu Berlingeri (Manuel A. García Berlingeri) is a producer and programmer with over 70 production credits to his name. Apple Music has a dedicated "The Producers: Manu Berlingeri" playlist, which tells you the platform recognizes him as a distinct creative force, not just a session contributor. He produced "Rubio" and "Modelito," co-produced "De Lejitos" with Yeziell, and co-produced "F.O.M.O." with Kevin Omar Ortiz. He and Yeziell have 45 documented collaborations on Muso.AI. That's not a working relationship. That's a production unit. The two of them operating together across this many tracks is the reason a 24-song album that touches five genres doesn't sound like five different producers fighting for sonic real estate. It sounds like one team that knows exactly what a Jay Wheeler record is supposed to feel like.

The De Lejitos Remix, The Smartest Move on the Album

Outside of the Todo Mal production surprise, the other moment on this album that hit harder than expected was the De Lejitos remix with Omar Courtz.

TOMA TOMA TOMA TOMA.

The original is already at 60 million+ streams. His daughter dancing to it on a Kick livestream went viral and gave the song a second life before the album even dropped. It was already the anchor single.

But putting Omar Courtz on the remix is a different kind of decision. This isn't just a feature for the sake of a feature. Omar Courtz dropped POR SI MAÑANA NO ESTOY in February. That album debuted at #3 on Billboard's Top Latin Albums and Top Latin Rhythm Albums. He put 11 songs on Hot Latin Songs in a single week... joining a list that only includes Bad Bunny, Rauw Alejandro, Ozuna, Anuel AA, J Balvin, and Daddy Yankee. The album has over a billion streams. "KOKO" alone has over 105 million. He's ranked #7 on the Global Digital Artist Ranking right now, next to Bad Bunny as one of only two Latin artists in the top 10.

That's not a feature. That's connecting two of the hottest in Latin music right now with a bridge track that both fanbases will stream into the ground. Jay Wheeler's album gets the Omar Courtz audience. Omar Courtz gets the Jay Wheeler co-sign on one of the year's biggest singles. Both win. Slam dunk for both sides, and honestly I would not have predicted it.

The Playback

La Voz Favorita is the album that proves the nickname isn't a gimmick. Jay Wheeler has been called "La Voz Favorita" by fans for nearly a decade, and this is the first time he's made a project that fully lives inside that identity, every genre he can touch, every emotional register he can reach. It's the album where you stop calling it a nickname and start calling it a description.

But go listen to "Todo Mal" again. All the way through. Tell me that's "pop-flavored perreo".

La Voz Favorita is out now.