Flow 28 — Carlos Flores, born in 2004 in Santo Domingo — is a Dominican dembow artist from the Herrera neighbourhood who broke through as a teenager with a song built out of a TikTok comment.

Discovered at a competition

He had been making music since he was small when a manager known as Gotera spotted him at a local competition and approached him to meet the next day in Cristo Rey; by early 2023 the two had been working together about a year. Flow has credited his mother and brother, who backed him from before he was known at all, with keeping him on track.

«Po po po»

He filmed a video with the producer Talvia and posted it to TikTok, where it took off; within days Bulin 47 commented on it, telling him he had a hit coming and that the year was his. That contact led their managers to put the two together on «Po po po», the song that became Flow’s breakthrough — released when he was eighteen —.

After the hit

The songs that followed included «Se comenta», «Cuba», «Tambora» and «Lo rafaguié», with Kiko el Crazy, along with «Gugle», with DJ Adoni, «El punto», with Ceky Viciny, and «No saben», with the Puerto Rican artists De La Ghetto and Chris Lebrón. In 2023 he picked up two nominations at the first Premios Núcleo Urbano RD.

Legacy

Flow 28 belongs to the group that Papaa Tyga has named as the centre of the current dembow scene, alongside Bulin 47, Ceky Viciny, Yaisel and Jey One — a run of young Santo Domingo artists who took the genre from the street clip that first got him noticed to a viral catalogue of his own.