Gordo is intrinsically linked to EDM and house music—genres often associated with wild festivals and exotic venues. And yet, as he prepares to drop his new album—the first since retiring his previous alias, DJ Carnage—he uses an interesting phrase to describe what he’s getting ready to release: “home music.”
“It's far from boring, but it's music that you could put on when you’re [watching] a show,” Gordo told Complex. “When you’re smoking one, chilling with your girl.”
As DJ Carnage, Gordo mastered making outside music. Over the last 10 years, he’s released two studio solo albums, a collaborative EP with Young Thug in 2017, and a flurry of tracks with artists like Lil Yachty, Migos, Lil Uzi Vert, and the late great Mac Miller. Since rebranding as Gordo in 2021, the producer has been releasing songs that weave Latin music with house. As a Nicaraguan-American, he notices the amount of fans from Latin countries who have conflicted thoughts about this fusion and his success.
“Imagine you're a Hispanic person growing up in Peru, Columbia, Argentina, Chile, and you grow up listening to Latin music your whole life,” Gordo said. “And then finally you find a community where you get away from that music and you find dance music and it's a different world and then here comes this guy bringing Latin music back into this world that you ran away from. So it's like they don't like that sh*t.”
Being polarizing sometimes doesn’t seem to bother the producer and DJ. “Gordo got me on the wave,” Drake famously rapped on “Sticky” off of 2022’s Honestly, Nevermind. Drake’s seventh studio album was met with mixed reviews because most fans did not expect the rapper to shock-drop a project that was 90 percent dance and house music. Gordo played a pivotal role in producing several tracks on that album, including the aforementioned “Sticky,” “Massive,” “Currents,” and “Calling My Name.” The two have known each other for over a decade, and as the house-inspired album nears its second anniversary, Gordo believes it’s aged better than anyone expected. But he still doesn’t want Drake to make a sequel.
“I want him to evolve, but if you go back, he had songs with Black Coffee back in the day and he's been doing House vibes for a long time,” he said. “But Honestly, Nevermind 2? I don't know, I don't want him to do that. Personally, I don't want to do that.”
Even if hopes for a Drake house album sequel are on ice (for now) he and Gordo still might be cooking something up for this summer. Last month, the producer posted a picture of the two of them together with the caption
“summer vibes,”and Drake used the same verbiage in his Instagram Story that implied that he had more music coming. When asked about the messages, Gordo was coy.
“You got to ask The Boy,” Gordo said. “He's begging me to get on my album, but I haven't decided yet.”
Complex talked to Gordo about his latest single “Cafecito,” why he believes Honestly, Nevermind will be viewed like 808s & Heartbreaks in a few years, and more.
You’re getting ready to release your third studio album, but first project as Gordo. What has the process been like putting it together?
The first album was the [DJ] Carnage album and that had a lot of classics we grew up on. It was a bit of rap and then a lot of EDM stuff. And then the second album came out, Battered Bruised and Bloody, was more of me saying, “f*ck the drama, f*ck the bullsh*t, I'm just going to make rap music.” Now, it's the Gordo’s turn, and it's a different vibe. I've grown up. I'm 33 years old and when I started I was 21. And obviously things change every couple weeks, every couple months—imagine 12, 13 years? So when people ask me, “Why are you not making the same music as your first album or go back to your old sh*t?” It's like, “Would you go back to your ex?”
Well, some would.
Some would, but I’m not that desperate [Laughs]. I sit down and look at the sunset every day. I've grown up, I'm not as wild and making obnoxious music just for mosh piss and just crazy stuff. I'm more relaxed and this album is my best work yet because I've actually had four years to spend on it and really figure it out. I've changed it a couple times and it's the best work I've ever done production-wise.
How did “Cafecito”with Nicki Nicole and Sech come together?
My album is home music. It's far from boring, but it's music that you could put on when you’re leaving a [concert], when you’re smoking one, chilling with your girl.. It's that type of vibe, and “Cafecito” is the prime example. I had that record for the longest time and I didn't know what to do with it. And then one day I got in the studio with Sech and we made that song, and I had that song for damn near a year just with his hook. I had been touring a lot in Argentina and Nicki Nicole is a goddess out there. All her team and her managers, we connected while we were down there and they had came to my show and was like, “Yo, we got to do this because it just makes sense” and we did it.
We interviewed you last year as Latin music was really exploding, and you said that you didn’t want to see it get any bigger because you were worried about it becoming oversaturated. Do you still have those concerns?
Everything becomes oversaturated when it's popular. In America, you never hear people being upset that there's Latin music mixed with dance music. But if you go to South America, it's frowned upon. This is the type of stuff people don't know about. Imagine you're a Hispanic person growing up in Peru, Columbia, Argentina, Chile, and you grow up listening to Latin music your whole life. And then finally you find a community where you get away from that music and you find dance music and it's a different world and then here comes this guy bringing Latin music back into this world that you ran away from. So it's like they don't like that sh*t. But it's the same for Brazil, where Brazilian funk is really big. The people who like dance music in Brazil, they don't ever want to hear funk remixes in Brazil.
We know your album is coming in the summertime, but you’ve also been teasing “summer vibes” with Drake on Instagram. Do you two have a project coming?
I am being completely honest, I went over to his house just because I ran out of milk, so I went and got his because his fridge is like 2%, whole, Goat milk. He has everything. It's crazy. So I went over there, got some stuff, and then I got out of there and I just took that photo just to f*ck with people [Laughs].
Is there any Drake project that you’ll be involved with?
You got to ask him. You got to ask The Boy. He's begging me to get on my album, but I haven't decided yet.
The anniversary of Honestly, Nevermind is coming up. What comes to mind when you think back to that time when you and Drake worked on it?
I say this in the most unbiased way possible, because I'm a fan of music and I grew up listening to Drake—we all did. And obviously everyone has their own taste. I don't know how many people in here listen to house music, but there are a couple people who don't like house music and they're like, “This album's trash,” and I get it, if you don't like house music, you're going to think it's trash.Majority of the people that were open-minded all realized after the fact that that album was a great piece of work. You could run the album from the front to the end and it was one of the most cohesive albums he's dropped. It all sounded [like] one vibe, if you think about it. Obviously Views and Scorpion all had their own vibes, but you heard little different things from him.
At around this time of the year, everyone comes up [to me] and be like, “Damn, that album's actually really good when it's sunny outside.” You got to think about it, at that time when we made that album, I was living with him and I was also traveling a lot and he traveled. He went to Ibiza, and that's the thing, people be like, “This album is for if you were in Ibiza on a yacht,” and yeah a hundred percent. That's the type of vibe we was on, and a lot of people don't realize that because they don't ever experience that. But it's such a good album.
How do you think it’s aged over these last two years?
House music is bigger than it's ever been. Every single person has somewhat dropped an electronic record in the last two years. Think about it, after “Sticky” came out I remember everyone's like, “Why he ain't working with somebody from [Philadelphia] or [New] Jersey?” I'm like, I worked with somebody from Maryland. I grew up listening to Baltimore club classics, so I have all the right to make that stuff. But when “Sticky” came out, what happened after that? Everyone started dropping the Jersey Club songs, Baltimore Club songs, their bounce songs. What happened after that? You had [Lil Uzi Vert’s] “I Wanna Rock,” but everyone was like, “Yo, what is this?”
We all know that when Drake does something, everyone follows. Kanye does something, everyone follows. There's a couple people who when they do something, everyone follows. And that album, I feel like everyone ended up following, and people who don't know house music and don't know that type of vibe, especially the Afro-House vibe that was on that album, is the most popular sh*t out right now. We were way early on it and now I think people are going to appreciate it like 808s and Heartbreaks. People didn't get that when it first came out, and now they look back and it's like, “Wow, it started a whole wave.”
How have you and Drake’s creative process changed over the years? Is it true that his sleep schedule is all messed up?
Yeah, he doesn't sleep. I haven't slept. I was at his house and I had to leave in the morning and come here, and I haven't slept because he's a real night owl. He wakes up in the late afternoon and is just up until the morning. So it's the best time though. We just sit in the kitchen and we just talk and go over sounds and music.
Is Honestly, Nevermind 2 possible one day?
No, I don't think so because it's his own thing. I don't want him to do that again. I want him to evolve, but if you go back, he had songs with Black Coffee back in the day and he's been doing House vibes for a long time. But Honestly, Nevermind 2? I don't know, I don't want him to do that. Me personally, I don't want to do that. But if he wants to do it, that's on him.
What were your thoughts when Kendrick and Baby Keem used Drake’s “Sticky” flow and kind of interpolated the beat on the “Hillbillies”? Keem called the song a “Sticky Dub” when he shared it on Twitter.
It was just them paying homage. I try to take from other vibes and energies and make it my own, and they did that. They didn't sound anything like “Sticky,” it was just their version of a Jersey Club record and yeah, nothing more serious than that.
Did you see the clip of a DJ getting kicked out of club in Toronto for playing “Not Like Us?” As a DJ who plays for massive audiences, do you see yourself including that song into one of your sets?
I don't really play rap music at sets, so you probably wouldn’t hear it. Was that clip real? That's insane. Playing that song in Toronto, you're insane.
You’ve obviously known Drake for over a decade. If he tapped you for a beat for one of the disses, what would your response have been?
I'm not involved in any of that, but if he gives me a call, that’s my brother. I’ll answer it and I'll get him on the wave. And that's what people do. There's a lot of snakes out there, a lot of people who have just been waiting for the opportunity to say something, and when you cut the grass, you see the snakes. We saw a lot of that, and that's just how it is. That's how life is. I deal with it every day. He deals with it, everyone else deals with it. We just got to keep it pushing and create distance.
What does success look like to you?
I'm 33, and I've been doing this for 13, 14 years. I think that's it. Me still being around is a blessing and I'm just so grateful. Success looks like happiness. Success looks like hard work. Success looks like being able to come and do Complex. I think that is success in any way. Success could be personal success or business success, creating a business. If you have a brand that you created and people are buying it, that's success. There's just so many different types of success, but I think success to me looks like perseverance and happiness and doing a song with Sech and Nicki Nicole.
