Niko Eme — Héctor A. Calvo — is a Dominican Christian artist working in reggaetón and rap. He appears on other people’s records as often as on his own, which is how his name travelled before his own catalogue did.

The producer first

He came into the industry as a producer rather than as a singer, building tracks for established urban artists, and only afterwards put out a catalogue under his own name. That order explains the shape of his work: he is comfortable as the person behind the record, and most of his output is still built around somebody else’s voice sharing the track.

He bills what he does now as worship urbano — the reggaetón and rap apparatus pointed at worship rather than at the club.

The features

He is on Redimi2’s work alongside Ander Bock and MR. Yeison — a line-up that is effectively the roster of Dominican Christian urban music. He also turns up on the Puerto Rican rapper Funky’s album, beside Almighty, Musiko and Manny Montes, which is the crossing point between the Dominican and Puerto Rican Christian scenes.

On the secular side he has recorded with Ada Betsabé, on Lottery and Way Too Many and on Madiel Lara’s Uno Cinco.

Reggaetón Cristiano

The album, made with Diamnd El Científico, is ten tracks and almost entirely collaborative: Daffy El Audio, Ross, Dimemoii, El Leo Pa’, ElikeMusic, DesXa, Liaz and Madiel Lara each take a song. Salmos 23 closes that run, and Llegaste Tú closes the record.

Putting Reggaetón Cristiano on the cover of an album is a statement before it is a title: the argument that the rhythm itself is not the problem, made by setting the two words together and daring anyone to object.