Los Mina

José Rafael Arias, known as El Fother, was born on February 27, 1992, in Los Mina, Santo Domingo Este, one of the historical cradles of Dominican hip hop. He began rapping in the late 2000s and crossed paths with a fellow Los Mina rapper, Cirujano Nocturno, through a collaboration on the track «Un Muerto en tu Tinaco».

The duo with Cirujano Nocturno

The two formed an unofficial but tightly identified duo that became one of the defining acts of Dominican street rap, with singles including «6 Kilos», «4 Kilos y 2 Muertos», «Bienvenidos», «Tamo en Malo Coro» and «Un Muerto en tu Tinaco» (featuring Lápiz Conciente, Big K and Blacky RD). Cirujano Nocturno, born Lisauris Alexander Morel Polanco, died on November 13, 2010, at 22, of a stroke, ending the partnership at its height.

Solo career and acting

El Fother returned the following year with «Freestyle 2011», a tribute to his partner produced by Chucky El Cibernético, and continued as a solo artist through the 2010s, releasing the albums «Verdaderas Vivencias» (2013), «Desde el Ghetto» (2015) and «Musical» (2016) alongside a long run of singles with figures including Lápiz Conciente, Kiko el Crazy, Mandrake El Malocorita and Black Point. He also appeared as himself in the 2010 film «4 Kilos y 2 Muertos», named for the duo's own single.

Into dembow

As dembow displaced hardcore rap at the center of Dominican urban music, El Fother adapted rather than faded, building a working partnership with the producer Luigui Bleand and mentoring newer names such as El Fecho RD. In 2023 that adaptability paid off directly: he featured alongside Yomel el Meloso on El Alfa's «Te Llenaste», a single that has drawn more than fourteen million YouTube views and put a rapper from the 2009 street-rap generation on one of the genre's biggest current stages.

Legacy

More than fifteen years after «6 Kilos», El Fother remains one of the clearest links between the raw, unofficial rap duos of 2000s Los Mina and the commercial dembow that grew out of them, and he has kept working rather than settling into legacy status: his channel has released material continuously through 2026, and his audience today, well over a million followers between Instagram and YouTube, is larger than at any point in the Cirujano Nocturno years.