Papi Sánchez — Robert José de León Sánchez, born in Santo Domingo in 1975 — is a Dominican rapper and merengue singer. He came out of the first generation of Dominican hip hop and ended up with a record that went gold in France and Belgium.

MC Connection

He began in the late 1980s in the group MC Connection, part of the underground movement that started Dominican hip hop. That scene had no labels, no radio and no press, and the people in it are the reason the country has an urban music at all.

He moved from there into radio, first as a host and then as programme director of stations in Santo Domingo — which is a different kind of power in Dominican music, and one he held before he had a hit of his own.

Enamórame

In 2002 he decided to record. Enamórame, which he wrote with Levitt Policalpe and produced himself, came out the following year.

It reached number two in France and number two in Wallonia, and it charted across Flanders, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany. It was certified gold in both France and Belgium. In the francophone market it became one of the most successful Dominican records ever made.

The album behind it, Yeah Baby!, came out in September 2003 and charted in Belgium and France. He was nominated at the Billboard Latin Music Awards, won the summer hit award in Belgium, and took best new artist at the 2004 Soberano awards. Belgium named him international artist of the year in 2005.

There is something particular about the route it took. Dominican records normally travel through New York and Miami. This one went to Europe first, on a dance floor, and came back.

The albums after

He covered Nelly’s Dilemma in 2004. Welcome to the Paradise followed in 2005, carrying Mano Pa Arriba, which reached the top ten of Billboard’s Tropical Airplay chart, and Suave Mami charted in Belgium.

He took best international group at the 2006 Soberano awards, then made Made in Dominican Republic in 2007 — an album entirely of merengue, and titled so nobody could miss the point. El Rey de la República followed in 2008, Invicto in 2010 and Séptimo Soltero in 2015.

Enamórame had a second life in 2014 as Enamórame (Oui Bébé), cut with the French producer DJ Assad and Luyanna for the Tropical Family project, and charted again in Belgium.

What he has said about it

Getting out of his record contract, he told Diario Libre in 2016, cost him his family’s money.

He has also been blunt about the generation that followed him, saying there are urban artists who do not know hip hop culture — the complaint of a man who was in the room when the Dominican version of it was being built.