Paulo Londra - Back To The Game (2022) Hi-Res

Argentinian rapper Paulo Londra has dropped his long-awaited (three years to be exact) album “Back to the Game.” Across the 16-song tracklist, the 24-year-old deftly fluctuates between sounds and styles like reggaeton, with Colombian titan Feid, and punk rock with Blink-182’s Travis Barker.

Album opener “Chango” serves as the foundation for the collection and sees Londra demonstrating his flow while describing his fervent return to music and comparing himself to a lion loose from captivity. He also appears beside fellow Argentine rapper and freestyler LIT Killah, who on the song “Necio” introduces a rough-edged trap sound to the set.

Timbaland is credited as a featured artist in “Toc Toc,” while the already-released “A Veces” with Feid melts elements of both Argentina and Colombia’s reggaeton scenes. The bilingual “Noche de Novela” with Ed Sheeran is as close to pop as the record gets, and “Nublado” is a classic punk-rock track sung entirely in Spanish by Londra while Barker handles drums.

Londra, whose career found shape in Argentina’s famed freestyle battles, has collaborated with Sheeran in the past. In 2019 the pair released “Nothing on You,” while Londra also boasts hits with A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Becky G and more.

Londra retired during what was the height of his career in 2020 due to ongoing legal conflicts with the label Big Ligas, which he helped build alongside Karol G’s go-to producer, Daniel Oviedo, also known as Ovy on the Drums, and Cristian Salazar. According to Billboard, the two-year legal battle was between Londra and Oviedo, Salazar and the label over the extension of the budding rapper’s three-year joint venture deal — one Londra did not want to be in. In November of last year, all parties reached an agreement in a Miami court.

The rapper took to Instagram to elaborate on the meaning of his big return writing, “Back to the game…this is from Paulo to those who’ve always been with me, since when I would go to the plaza in Joaco to crossing paths for the second time with Ed Sheeran. As long as one follows their passion, nothing can stop you.”