2024 Impact 50 Honoree: George Prajin

CEO
Prajin Music Group

FIRST GIG IN THE BUSINESS: Dad’s Huntington Park, California record store.
2024 Highlight: Winning a Grammy award for Peso Pluma’s GÉNESIS.

No one could have expected that a lanky young singer from Mexico with a nasally, scratchy voice and a mullet would become a global phenom and face of the música Mexicana movement, but George Prajin bet everything he would.

The artist known as Peso Pluma became a viral sensation with his corridos (Mexican folk music) and was quickly thrust into U.S. arenas not long after, grossing $74.6 million across 47 shows, according to Pollstar’s Boxoffice Reports — all under the guidance of Prajin, who followed in his father’s footsteps in boosting the popularity of the genre.

“My dad was the first person who helped Chalino Sánchez when he started recording music,” Prajin, CEO of Prajin Music Group, told Pollstar. “He came to our store like every other independent artist and brought a box of cassettes. I think he had 500, and my dad said, ‘Leave them all.’ A week later, Chalino came back and asked, ‘So how am I doing?’ He said, ‘I sold ‘em all. Make 10,000 more.’ And the rest is history. [Sánchez] is iconic and a folk hero in Mexico.”

Now Prajin is making history of his own with his independent entertainment company, Prajin Parlay, adding artists such as Santa Fe Klan, Código FN, Jasiel Nuñez, Tito Double P and Los Dareyes de la Sierra. Along with Peso Pluma (which translates to featherweight), Prajin has made corridos and regional Mexican the new pop by incorporating hip-hop into the traditional guitars, upright bass and tenor horns.

“It’s badass. I can’t even explain how lucky and proud I am of the project and the fact that we have taken the music to a whole different level,” Prajin said. “No regional Mexican artist ever had more than 20 million monthly listeners [on Spotify], and now you have 10-15 [artists].”

Prajin and his 24-year-old prodigy from Guadalajara aren’t resting on their laurels. The two were in the studio the past few months to put the finishing touches on Peso Pluma’s new album, Éxodo, which is dropping June 20. “I was in the studio with him the other day,” Prajin says. “I feel this year is going to be way stronger than last, we’re not slowing down.”