THE OUTLAW TALES OF PESU PLUMA

He grew up listening to Ice Cube and Travis Scott, unless he was singing along to the corridos that immortalized larger-than-life Mexican legends. Now, the mullet-rocking superstar is fast becoming as famous as his rap idols-and as compelling as the folk heroes he used to sing about.

- PAULA MEJÍA

Pluma can't decide which tattoo-his second of the day, after an image of the Virgin Mary-he wants emblazoned on his shin. Initially, the wiry 24-year-old Mexican singer, rapper, and record label CEO settles on the cosmic Vivienne Westwood "Love" insignia, with Saturn (the planet) in place of the o.

He eagerly pulls up the logo on his phone and shows it to Ganga, one of several tattoo artists who've joined him at his recording studio in California's Orange County. The location, wedged into a strip mall a stone's throw from Disneyland, belies the unconventional things he's been up to here for the past few years.

Furrowing his brow, Peso asks a member of his team for a second opinion. "Está perro," his friend concludes. It's cool.

But Peso isn't convinced. Seconds later he's moved on from the designer logo, deciding instead on a tattoo of the Super Star icon from the Mario franchise. Ganga suggests that the star would look better somewhere else.

Peso wordlessly drops his Celine sweats so Ganga can trace an outline of the symbol on his right thigh. Before he's done, Peso has moved on to yet another idea: the Parental Advisory label. Seconds later, he throws out a spider as a fourth option. He already has an arachnid inked on his right hip bone, a nod to his boyhood love of the Tobey Maguire-era Spider-Man flicks. "What if they're running up and down my leg?" he asks the room.

This quality-an ambition verging on itchiness-has guided Peso, born Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija, through an extraordinary ascent that has kicked into overdrive this past year. He was YouTube's most viewed artist of 2023 in the US, beating out pop behemoths like Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift.