The Tao of RaiNao

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It’s safe to say that Naomi Ramírez, a.k.a.RaiNao, has had one of the most blessed career arcs of her generation.

Bad Bunny himself called the singer-songwriter “my favorite artist from Puerto Rico” back in 2022, when she was still an up-and-coming indie promise.By 2025, she earned a feature on his Grammy-winning album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” — and elicited the screams of thousands when they sang their song “Perfumito Nuevo” together onstage during his San Juan residency shows later that summer.

RaiNao’s music straddles the mystical and the commercial.Her alt-reggaeton is tinged with lyrical flourishes that oscillate between poetic and salacious in the same bar; which she occasionally follows up with jazzy asides from her tenor saxophone.Released May 25 via Rimas Entertainment, RaiNao’s sophomore LP, “Marcriá,” arrived two years after her previous effort “Capicú.” In her latest offering, the 32-year-old pivots from the darker sound of her debut, moving toward a meditative approach (in the very literal sense) to the music that colors life in the Caribbean.

The name “Marcriá” is a play on the word “malcriada” — which translates to “poorly raised woman,” but is also used to refer to women who don’t stay silent, who defiantly talk back and don’t submit.(And, in the stylized spelling she uses, it also means “raised by the sea.”)In an interview with De Los, RaiNao talks about her very personal inspiration for “Marcriá,” the joy of collaborating with her musical heroes and her biggest lesson learned in these riveting last two years.Once you share an album with the world, what happens after?Well, “Capicú” was my first project.

Obviously I had a lot of love for it, but that was also a time in my life when, as a human being, I was quite lost and angry.So when I released it, I felt like I shed it and [afterward] I didn’t...