Calacote — Camilo Marichal — is a Dominican urban artist working in dembow, perreo and rap. He was born on the east coast of the United States, spent part of his youth in France, and built his audience in the Dominican Republic, which is where the career actually began.

Three places in one name

The stage name comes from the years in France, and so does a good part of the sound: French rap sitting alongside dembow and the tropical rhythms he grew up around. Intercambio carries the subtitle Comment allez-vous, which is about as direct a statement of that as a title can make.

He is clear about where the centre of it is. Put a Dominican on a reggaetón track, he has said, and what comes out is a Dominican song, because of the delivery — the accent and the timing, not the rhythm underneath.

Alkatraks

In 2019 and 2020 he worked independently in the Dominican Republic as a rapper and dembow artist and built a local following. In January 2021 Maffio founded the label Alkatraks Music Group, and Calacote became the first artist signed to it.

Azafata, cut with Maffio, was the debut single that August, and Telemundo introduced him that same month. Bruja followed in October with Kiko el Crazy.

The collaborations

Most of the catalogue is shared. Chapiar brought in PJ Sin Suela alongside Maffio; La Estaca was made with El Chombo and Maffio; La Receta with Jeancarlos Canela; Ven Aki with Natoxie. Vino Tinto is his own.

He has sung with Maffio and Big Time Rush at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City — an unusual room for a Dominican dembow artist to end up in, and a fair summary of a career built across three countries.