Corridos Singer-Songwriter on Visa Loss and Career Rebirth

In early 2018, the future looked bright for corridors singer-songwriter Codiciado. Grupo Codiciado, the band he had founded three years earlier, was quickly on the rise: After breaking through on Billboard‘s Hot Latin Songs chart in 2017 with “Gente de Accionar”, the act reached number 8 on the Regional Mexican Albums chart with I don’t want others to look at me (I see what others don’t see). And with its success, the group helped define the urban style of Rancho Humilde, the Los Angeles-based label known for its modern take on Mexican music.

Then, in April, Codiciado’s visa was revoked at the U.S.-Mexico border amid a marijuana possession charge. He had immigrated to the United States in 2016 and was working in the farm fields of Southern California to support himself while trying to launch his music career. Now, the physical walls along the border in his hometown of Tijuana—and the legal restrictions that would have prevented his return—stood in his way.

It was a devastating turn of events. “I really wanted to quit. I didn’t want to make music,” the 31-year-old artist (born Erick de Jesús Aragón Alcantar) admits today. “I was having a hard time when I left. I didn’t have a job; I was building my whole career in the United States. I thought something divine wanted me to leave, like someone didn’t want me here. Then I put my pants on and said, ‘Well, if I’m here (in Mexico), I have to do everything I can.’ At the end of the day, I was hopeful (that I) would get my visa back.”

Rather than let the visa revocation end his career, Codiciado built a new one. Fueled by a renewed creative conviction and the support of fans, he broke with Grupo Codiciado and went solo. “People encouraged me to say it wasn’t over, that it was just a stumbling block,” he says. “I had to keep going.”

Codiciado grew up in the Villa del Real III neighborhood of Tijuana, an impoverished place but one rich in Mexican music. He absorbed the culture of his surroundings. Influenced by icons like Los Tucanes de Tijuana and Explosión Norteña, he began writing songs as a teenager, channeling the chaos of his surroundings into his music.

Codiciado’s early songs were inspired by Sinaloa’s notorious drug lords and written partly out of financial necessity. Drug lords often pay songwriters to write corridos about them, and although Codiciado notes that “at that time I didn’t know anything about cartels, just what I heard on the streets,” landing the work marked a turning point in his career. While honing his musicianship, he teamed up with longtime friend and drummer Giovanni Rodríguez in 2015 to form Grupo Codiciado, recruiting four more members in Tijuana.

The group organized and recorded a concert toward the end of the year, which generated millions of views on YouTube; one of those videos alone has been viewed 233 million times. The frequent new releases helped the band cultivate a loyal fan base, and soon the band was headlining festivals throughout Tijuana. The following year, Rancho Humilde signed the act and it came to the U.S.

“Erick was the first artist to bring this new style to Mexican music eight years ago with Grupo Codiciado,” says Fabio Acosta, part of Codiciado’s four-person management team. “They were pioneers in changing the style of the genre, moving from highly decorated suits with fine stones to incorporating streetwear.”

Codiciado’s sense of style, now common among modern corridos acts like Natanael Cano and Fuerza Regida, was ahead of its time. “I had disagreements with older colleagues,” he recalls. “Many took it as an insult and said, ‘No man, we’re the same and you’re wearing do-rags, caps and sneakers, while we’re here with cowboy hats and boots.'”

“He was at the forefront of this new wave of corridos,” says Chris Den Uijl, another member of Codiciado’s management team. “He was one of the first to appear in Air Force 1s and have a more progressive style.”

Since late last year, Den Uijl has overseen Codiciado’s touring strategy, along with Aaron Ampudia, with whom he founded festivals including Baja Beach Fest and Sueños. Ampudia, who has roots on both sides of the border, was actually the first member of the current management team to connect with Codiciado, through a mutual friend. Ángel del Villar, founder of the corridos label DEL Records, completes the team. “(My managers) help me give structure to my work, to my company, to my band, to my music,” Codiciado says. (He releases music independently and has a distribution deal with Warner.)

As Codiciado’s career blossomed and he made his debut on the Billboard graphs, his life took a sudden turn. In 2018, when he entered the United States from Mexico, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement accused him of being in the United States on a nonresidential visa and tried to revoke it. “I kept saying I had a work visa and I was traveling back and forth a lot,” he said. “Then, when they checked my bag, they found less than a gram of marijuana that I don’t know how the hell it got there. I was held for 12 hours without (access to) an attorney. They made me sign a voluntary deportation agreement, which gave up my visa and my rights. A lawyer would have told me not to sign and to go to court.”

Back in Mexico, Codiciado felt “frustrated and alone” as he watched música mexicana continue without him. Rancho Humilde founder and CEO Jimmy Humilde “started signing new acts like Fuerza Regida,” Codiciado says from his home in Riverside, California. “A year went by, two years went by, three years went by, and nothing happened (with getting my visa back).”

Ultimately, Codiciado decided, he says, “to get my act together” — including formally separating from Grupo Codiciado, which disbanded in 2021 and released its final single as a band, “Maquinando,” in February 2022. He doubled down on his solo songwriting, releasing his first solo album, Waves of life (Strokes of life), distributed by Virgin Music US Latin; he wrote and produced 17 of the set’s 20 songs himself.

The album kept the essence of his sound intact, while recent singles like 2024’s “Gabachas” continued the rising trend of electrical corridors — electronic music interwoven with corridos instrumentation and sampling. As he chronicled the monumental changes in his life amid his visa struggle (including becoming a father for the second time; he has a 10-year-old daughter and a 4-year-old son), his lyricism has also deepened. “The biggest lesson was to keep pushing and not wait. If I had waited, I wouldn’t have grown. Even though I left the group, I can say that I made it. I came back a different person.”

With legal counsel and the proper paperwork, Codiciado returned to Southern California in 2023 on a new visa (he wouldn’t specify what type). Earlier this year, he completed the aptly named—and wildly successful—five-date Ando Enfocado (I’m Focused) tour; Live Nation is producing a second eight-date tour that will take Codiciado coast to coast in September and October.

“He’s hitting the young corridos kids (with) this new generation sound,” Den Uijl says. “He has a big fan base of regional Mexican fans who show up with cowboy hats on and come up to him and say things like, ‘You got me through my hardest times.’ Grown men cry to him and say, ‘You gave me the strength to keep going when I lost my job to find a new one.’ Stuff like that really hit home for me when I saw it during his first wave of shows.”

Meanwhile, Codiciado has returned to the Billboard charts. He made his solo debut in February 2023 with “VAMC (Vamos Aclarando Muchas Cosas En Vivo)”, which peaked at No. 31 on Hot Latin Songs; the song also reached No. 29 on Regional Mexican Airplay. And “Gabachas” debuted at No. 41 on Latin Airplay and reached No. 9 on Latin Pop Airplay.

“I’m an artist with eight years (of experience). Maybe a lot of them came faster and achieved what I haven’t achieved in less time. But I’m the only one who’s done it this way,” Codiciado says. “Maybe I bring two, three, four hits a year, but they’re hits that stick with people and have a message.”

But now his ambitions extend beyond commercial success. Codiciado’s work with La Fundación UFW, founded by civil rights activist César Chávez, underscores his commitment to the immigrant community at large. “We as a society need to be more noble and have more empathy for people who have nothing,” he says. In April, KNAI (La Campesina 101.9) Phoenix, the radio station Chávez founded in 1983, announced a partnership with Codiciado to deliver hot lunches to local farmworkers. “We need to help people when we have the means,” Codiciado says. “God gave us to give back. The more I have, the more I help.”

And as his influence grows, Codiciado wants to bring about broader change. “I want to change minds. I can’t change everybody, but (artists) have the influence to make big changes, just like a politician,” he says. “Our audience is very big, and revolutionary-wise that’s what I want to be.”

This story appears in BillboardSpecial edition of Rumbazo, dated September 14, 2024.

Billboard Latin Music Week returns to Miami Beach from October 14-18, with confirmed superstars including Gloria Estefan, Alejandro Sanz and Peso Pluma, among many others. For tickets and more details, visit Billboardlatinmusicweek.com.