Miguel Ángel Valerio Lebrón, who records as Don Miguelo, is a Dominican rapper, singer and producer from San Francisco de Macorís. He has been working since 2001 and produces much of his own material, which is less common in the genre than it sounds.

Before the music

He was born in 1981 in San Francisco de Macorís, in the province of Duarte. Before he made a living from music he worked as a tailor, as a cabinetmaker and as a radio disc jockey — the last of those being the job that put him closest to the thing he ended up doing.

La Cola de Motora

His first album, Contra el Tiempo, carried Que Tú Quieres, which everybody calls La Cola de Motora. He produced it himself, and he has said since that its success surprised him as much as anyone. It won him the Casandra award for revelation of the year in 2006.

The record was mixed and made in the Dominican Republic, and the people on it say something about how Dominican urban music was made before it had an industry of its own: alongside the producer Rafy Mercenario it carries work by Frank Reyes and Monchy & Alexandra, a bachata singer and a bachata duo on an urban record.

Como Yo Le Doy

The catalogue after that is long and stays inside the same register: Como Yo Le Doy, Y Que Fue?, Con Don Miguelo, Pa Que Me Dan De Eso, Nota de Pasión, Adicción al Contacto, and El Mario de Tu Mujer with the Dominican-American rapper Sensato.

He has worked across the scene rather than beside it. Lo Vibro was made with Bulin 47, and he shared the urban segment of the Premios Soberano with Chimbala and others in 2018.

Hijo distinguido

He performed at the opening of the Casandra awards in 2012 and won the urban artist category that night. The mayor of San Francisco de Macorís gave him a plaque as a distinguished son of the city on the strength of that second award, which is the kind of recognition Dominican urban artists were not getting at the time.

In 2018 he recorded a remix of Sufriendo de Amor with the Puerto Ricans Papi Wilo and Ñejo, and he later released EMDP, subtitled The Last Album, which carries La 5 70, Mandarte al Diablo, Me Empute and No Te Lo Metí.