Música mexicana has long been an industry powerhouse, bringing robustly orchestrated romances and cinematic outlaw tales to the masses at home and across the U.S. border. But in the late 2010s, a new trend began to emerge: corridos tumbados—a more introspective and genre-adventurous approach to Mexican down-home storytelling. Perhaps the beating heart of the entire movement is Junior H. His 2019 debut, Mi Vida En un Cigarro, captured candid confessions of teenage uncertainty and vulnerable masculinity contrasting with the genre's rollicking cowboy roots and resonating with a new age of corridos fans. The Cerano, Guanajuato-born artist who moved with his family to Utah as a teenager, eventually began studying musical instruments via online videos and honing his songwriting and performance skills on the side until one day, on a whim, he uploaded a cache of songs to the internet. After he discovered that “No He Cambiado” had been streamed over two million times, he scrambled to release Mi Vida En un Cigarro a few short weeks before turning 18. “No He Cambiado” spoke to kids who related to the trials and tribulations of immigration as well as the long, complex process of adapting to a new homeland while holding on to their roots. Transition and hustle are recurring themes throughout the album, like on “A Los 19,” where Junior H describes his family's cross-country search for opportunities and how his father's focused business acumen taught him to nurture and grow his own brand. There are also callbacks to classic corrido narratives, notably in the highway vistas of “El de la Chevy” and the autobiographical “El Güero en Placas,” which harkens back to the artist's once-risky dealings on the streets of Chicago. Upon its release, Mi Vida En un Cigarro was a sign of the times, as “El Choro” and the title track aligned with the growing 4/20 corridos wave. But the album, and Junior H with it, would become harbingers of a new era in Mexican roots music; broadening the sonic palette with sparse bajo sexto grooves and lo-fi production, and harnessing a social media-savvy language that made the artist the drawling voice of his generation.