PESO PLUMA PACKS A PUNCH

AFTER TWO MASSIVE ALBUMS IN TWO YEARS, THE SINGER (AND BOXING FAN) IS THE NEW FACE OF MEXICAN MUSIC AND AN INTERNATIONAL SENSATION. THE FUNNY THING IS, HE DOESN'T SEEM AT ALL SURPRISED. WHO IS THIS GUY?

- BY CRYSTAL OKONKWO PHOTOGRAPHS BY GUY AROCH STYLING BY ALFONSO FERNÁNDEZ NAVAS

Sweater ($1,295) by Dolce & Gabbana; Prada sunglasses, Pluma’s own.

BEFORE HE WAS A GRAMMY-WINNING GLOBAL MEGASTAR, THE Mexican singer known as Peso Pluma met a boxer. At a private performance early in his career, the aspiring pop star was introduced to Marco Antonio Barrera, a legendary fighter from Mexico who once held world titles in three different weight classes. Barrera looked at the skinny young singer and his band and dubbed them peso pluma, or “featherweight” — one of the weight classes Barrera himself had once dominated. “He explained to me that I was a champion in that category,” says Pluma, “and the name just stuck.”

Not only did Pluma take the moniker as his stage name, but also La Doble P (or Double P, as he’s often known) embraced boxing as part of his branding. To perform his massive hit “Rubicon” at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards, for example, Pluma made a video in which Mike Tyson escorted him to a boxing ring surrounded by screaming fans, and he sang while wearing a black-and-white boxer’s robe.

This past March, I witnessed Pluma make history as the first Latin artist to headline the Rolling Loud festival in Los Angeles. Standing just outside the pit, I was struck by the diversity of the crowd. Pluma’s fans roared in excitement with the first strum of the guitar, and I felt the bass shake the ground. In keeping with his passion for pugilism, he opened the show with “Gervonta,” a song named after the boxer Gervonta “Tank” Davis, the world lightweight champion from Baltimore.