Natanael Cano has returned to the sound and the topics that made him famous and to the controversy that has followed it.
The Mexican star's new album, Natanael Cano, Vol. 1, mixes romantic ballads with songs about armed men, criminal organizations, and characters connected, directly or indirectly, to some of Mexico's best-known drug-trafficking groups. One of its most striking lyrics openly invokes Los Salazar, a criminal organization operating primarily in Sonora and Chihuahua that has been linked to the Sinaloa Cartel.
The album comes out after months of a cross-border effort to to curb "narcocorridos". In the U.S., the Trump administration has used immigration powers to penalize Mexican performers associated with music or imagery seen as glorifying drug cartels. The State Department revoked the work and tourist visas of Los Alegres del Barranco after the group projected images of CJNG leader Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera Cervantes during a March 2025 concert in Jalisco, with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau saying the U.S. did not need to welcome people who "extol criminals and terrorists."
Other regional Mexican acts subsequently faced visa problems that disrupted U.S. performances, including Grupo Firme and Julión Álvarez. Mexico, meanwhile, has stopped short of imposing a federal ban. President Claudia Sheinbaum has argued that prohibition could be counterproductive, instead promoting alternatives such as the government-backed "México Canta" initiative and encouraging music that does not glorify violence, drugs, or misogyny. At the state and municipal level, however, authorities have gone much further, withurisdictions across Mexico have prohibited or restricted narcocorridos at public events, with some imposing hefty fines and other penalties on performers who violate the rules.
However, Cano's new work defies it all. Released August 28 through Rancho Humilde and Los CT Records, with distribution by Sony Music Latin, the 15-track album marks Cano's return to corridos after the urban experiments of his 2025 project Porque La Demora. That album moved through trap, reggaetón, and Afrobeats. This time, guitars, the tuba, and the narrative structure of traditional corridos dominate the production.
Apple Music describes the record as a "return to form" that places Cano back at the center of the música mexicana movement he helped transform. The platform specifically notes that the singer gets into his "narcos bag" on "Apelativo," one of several songs featuring underworld imagery on the album's official track list.
The reference to Los Salazar
The album's most direct apparent reference to Los Salazar arrives in "La Boina," Cano's collaboration with Andrés Vázquez.
"A la orden del señor que no ocupo ni mencionar," Cano sings before the song identifies the group more openly: "Somos Salazar."
The language appears designed to be understood by listeners familiar with the codes of Mexican corridos while avoiding the full name of the person giving the orders. El País described the lyric as a possible reference to the powerful Salazar family associated with the Sinaloa Cartel.
Los Salazar have been identified in Mexican reporting as a family-based criminal organization founded by Adán Salazar Zamorano, known as "Don Adán," and his brother José Crispín Salazar Zamorano. The group has long operated in Sonora and Chihuahua, controlling territory and drug-trafficking routes toward the United States.
The lyric is particularly notable because Cano, a native of Hermosillo, was named in a threatening banner found in the Sonora capital in January 2025.
The message, attributed to a group called Los Mata Salas, accused Cano and other regional Mexican performers of financially supporting Los Salazar. It warned the artists to concentrate on music and stay away from illegal activities. The accusation was never substantiated, and the banner itself stated that the threat was not based simply on recording corridos.
Cano responded dismissively, posting a photograph of blankets bearing his face and joking that those were the only "mantas" that interested him.
Previous songs associated with Cano, including "Viejo Lobo" and "AFS," had already been interpreted as references to people connected to Los Salazar. Cano has also mentioned the organization from the stage, although a video that resurfaced after the 2025 threat had been recorded months earlier and was not a direct response to the banner, as Infobae reported.
More criminal figures inside the album
"La Boina" is not the only track raising questions.
On "Apelativo," featuring Crecer Germán, the singers describe a figure called "Chiquilín" as an armed operative working for "the company," a term frequently used in corridos as a coded reference to a criminal organization.
"La Cherokee," featuring Gabito Ballesteros, contains what has been interpreted as an indirect reference to Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, the former leader of the Beltrán Leyva Organization. The song requests "la del barbita cerrada," apparently invoking "El Barba Cerrada," a corrido associated with Beltrán Leyva.
Other tracks, including "En Vela," "Nos Vamos de Dance" and "No Soy Amigo de Todos," rely on familiar corrido imagery involving weapons, loyalty, surveillance, luxury and the constant possibility of betrayal. Not every unnamed protagonist can be reliably tied to a real person, however, and the album's creators have not provided official explanations identifying its characters.
The criminal narratives are balanced by a surprisingly romantic side. Cano transforms Cristian Castro's "Por Amarte Así" and Jeanette's "Frente a Frente" into corridos, continuing his practice of remaking Latin pop classics with sierreño arrangements. "Mar Azul" also moves away from the underworld stories and into heartbreak.
At 25, Cano calls Vol. 1 a new beginning rather than a retrospective. "I feel like my career is starting," he said during an Apple Music conversation, predicting that "the strong corridos" would return and give música mexicana another push.
That revival arrives as several Mexican states restrict performances of songs considered to glorify organized crime. Cano has previously said that promoters submit his concert set lists to local authorities, who determine which songs he cannot perform.
The restrictions have not silenced his recordings. With Natanael Cano, Vol. 1, Cano has produced one of his most traditional albums while walking directly back into the narcocorrido debate, this time with the Salazar name embedded in the music.
