Features
Hotstar: Mozart La Para – Free-Styling His Way To The Top
Evan Pierce / Evan-Pierce.com – Concierto de los Mozaristas:
Mozart La Para performs a free concert for fans at El Monumento de Santiago in Santiago, Dominican Republic, in June 2017.
Although the U.S. arenas Mozart La Para played in the past year are a big step up from the streets of the Dominican Republic where he got his start free-styling as a pre-teen, the 30-year-old is as humble as ever and still known for his improv rapping.
The singer-songwriter Erickson Fernández carries his legacy in his stage name, with his first moniker a nod to Amadeus Mozart, who also began his career at
age 12, and “La Para” Dominican slang for “to stop.” As his manager, Roc Nation Latin’s Nicole Sarmiento, explains to Pollstar, it’s a reference to “winning
his street freestyle battles, because once he spit his freestyle, it would be all over.”
Early YouTube videos of La Para showing off his rhymes caught Roc Nation’s eye and he became the first artist signed under the company’s new Latin division in fall 2016.
“Our CEO at the time was Romeo Santos, who is also Dominican,” Sarmiento said. “Because Mozart has such a successful trajectory – he’s the No. 1 urban artist in DR – we knew signing him here was perfect.”
She added that his freestyle sets him apart from other artists.
“The way that he freestyles is the same way that he does his music. He doesn’t write music, he just freestyles. He kind of has to grab it in the studio and that’s how he’ll make a song.”
His performances in the Dominican Republic usually feature bigger production and a band, while traveling outside of the country he’s accompanied by just a DJ, dancers and his hype man. The one constant highlight in his live shows is the freestyle battle.
La Para will put on a beat and invite someone from the crowd on stage to join him in a freestyle battle, which he told Pollstar (translated from Spanish to English via Sarmiento) “the audience enjoys as much as I do.”
Sarmiento noted that one reason he’s so successful in the Dominican Republic – including winning the “Audience Award” for the sixth consecutive year at the Soberano Awards, as well as the 2018 trophy for “best urban artist or group” – is that he prides himself on being a positive figure and a family man.
La Para said that it’s important to him to “walk the right path, trust God, and create music with positive content because many people who are unhappy or go through hard times in their lives lean on music and it immediately changes their mood.”
Roc Nation has been keeping that essence but “turning his sound a little more international so that it reaches a global audience,” Sarmiento explained.
She added, “He’s so versatile. You can put him on a reggaeton track [or] a trap track or a tropical song. His favorite genre is reggae. This new album we’re experimenting with a lot of Caribbean sounds and a lot of Jamaican artists. He just got on some English tracks. We’re on the way to getting him to learn English so once he has that down pat he can definitely take over the world.”
La Para’s career has been on the way up thanks in part to the success of his latest single, “Mujeres,” which recently went gold and platinum in Spain. The official YouTube video for “Mujeres” has been viewed more than 37.8 million times and La Para has gotten even more exposure with the song’s remix featuring Farruko, the duo Jowell & Randy, and Justin Quiles, who is also on the original track. “Mujeres” will be included on his full-length debut album due out in early 2019.
“I feel very grateful,” La Para said about his accomplishments in recent months. “Especially, with the success of ‘Mujeres.’ … It feels very good seeing all the hard work we’ve put into it being accomplished.”
Sarmiento commented on the rise of the Latin market, saying, “It’s grown exponentially. The Latin market right now is what everyone is paying attention to. [With] YouTube, I think Latinos are dominating. The streams that some of the biggest Latin artists have are at the same caliber as a Drake or a Rihanna. The Hispanics are definitely making a space for themselves globally.”
On the live side, La Para got the chance to grow his fanbase by supporting Romeo Santos’ U.S. arena tour in early 2018 including playing three nights at Madison Square Garden (grossing $5.4 million), two shows at Boston’s Agganis Arena (grossing $1.1 million) and one night at Miami’s AmericanAirlines Arena (grossing $1.4 million).
“Since he plays club dates mostly – all of those are 21 and up – opening for Romeo and playing these arenas gave his younger fans a chance to see him live,” Sarmiento said.
La Para also spent 2018 visiting new markets, including Colombia, Venezuela and Peru. He’ll close out the year by returning to Spain and the Dominican Republic.
“This year we focused a lot on visiting new territories for the first time and feeling out his audiences there. We’re gearing up for shows all over the place in 2019,” Sarmiento said. “We’re definitely going to keep going to Europe because of the reaction that we’ve had with this single and with all of his other music. … We want to go everywhere.”
La Para added, “I hope to see myself in a year exactly where I’ve always visualized myself – filling large arenas, releasing good music, and continuing to reach new countries.”