Concerts

Eladio Carrión: Tiny Desk Concert

By Isabella Gomez Sarmiento

Published October 7, 2024 at 10:07 AM CDT

This Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, NPR Music celebrates artists from all corners of Latinidad with an 'El Tiny' takeover.

English language hip-hop and Latin trap exist in two separate dimensions; Kansas-born, Puerto Rico-raised Eladio Carrión embodies both and neither at once.

That’s perhaps a poetic reflection of a childhood spent as a military brat, moving from state to state across the country that colonized his family’s island before settling back in Humacao. At the Tiny Desk, Carrión wasted no time putting that multicultural flow on full blast.

He kicked things off with a victory lap on “Gladiador,” leading straight into a keys-heavy arrangement of “Air France” and then the delightful staccato of “Tata” off his 2021 album Monarca. As if “Where my lil mamas at today?” wasn’t a perfect enough line to warm up the crowd, he carried on with the bilingual bars of “Hey Lil Mama,” seamlessly transitioning into a glorious trap-rock rendition of his 2022 hit “Mbappe.”

Carrión’s studio collaborators include some of the biggest names in rap and reggaeton, but his only guest at El Tiny, rising Spanish singer Lia Kali, brought a new level of magnetism to the performance, demonstrating how the uncategorizable Carrión can’t help but keep us on our toes with his every move.

SET LIST

“Gladiador”
“Air France”
“Tata”
“Hey Lil Mama”
“Mbappe”
“Me Muero” (with Lia Kali)
“Luchas Mentales”
“Mama's Boy”

MUSICIANS

Eladio Carrión: lead vocals
Lia Kali: vocals
Diamond Johnson: drums
Damien “Dammo” Farmer: bass
Jason Tayler: keys
Corey Isaiah Cooper: keys
LaMar “MyGuyMars” Edwards: guitar
Larrance “Rance 1500” Dopson: percussion
Devin Velez: background vocals
Alexandria Dopson: background vocals
Tayler Green: background vocals
Faahz: beat box

TINY DESK TEAM

Producer: Anamaria Sayre
Director/Editor: Kara Frame
Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Videographers: Kara Frame, Joshua Bryant, Sofia Seidel, Zayrha Rodriguez
Audio Engineer: Josephine Nyounai
Production Assistant: Elle Mannion
Photographer: Keren Carrion
Tiny Desk Team: Maia Stern, Hazel Cills
Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins

Corrected: October 7, 2024 at 11:12 AM CDT

An original version of this page incorrectly identified LaMar Edwards as guitarist and Corey Isaiah Cooper as keyboardist. It has also been updated to change Jason Taylor's last name.