Leo RD is a Dominican record producer and one of the central figures in dembow. Born Leonardo Felipe Yasmil Garcés in Los Guandules, Santo Domingo, on 28 March 1985, he built his first studio in a bathroom and has since produced a large share of the genre’s hits, among them "Linda", the 2021 record by Tokischa and Rosalía. He is signed to Roc Nation and still keeps his studio in the neighbourhood where he grew up.

Los Guandules

Garcés came to music at nineteen. His first recording room was a bathroom in Los Guandules, soundproofed with egg cartons. For years he worked as an orderly at a gynaecology and obstetrics clinic and recorded around the shift — out of the studio at six in the morning, at the clinic by eight. He charged five hundred or a thousand pesos a session, and often nothing at all, because the artists he was recording had no money either. His first hit was "991", with J Fran; it took over the street and earned nothing.

The room in the neighbourhood

The turn came when the records began to hold. "Dejen su loquera", "La gallina", "Curuleca" and "La pámpara" kept him on the street continuously, and when he counted more than ten songs charting at once he left the clinic. Most of dembow’s names passed through the Los Guandules room on the way up, among them Rochy RD, El Mayor Clásico, Kiko el Crazy, Chimbala, Yomel el Meloso, El Cherry Scom, Haraca Kiko and Tivi Gunz. He has kept the studio there rather than move it.

Linda

In October 2020 he produced "Desacato Escolar" for Tokischa and Yomel el Meloso; YouTube pulled it over the lyrics, which sent people looking for it. The following year he produced "Linda", Tokischa’s record with Rosalía, shot in Santo Domingo and performed at the Billboard Latin Music Awards that September. He has since worked with J Balvin, Ozuna, Anuel AA, Myke Towers, De La Ghetto and Jowell y Randy, and his credits include "Corre Corre", "Alta Gama", "Pikilao", "La Cuarentena", "Rumba" and "La Máxima".

Legacy

Leo RD is among the producers who gave dembow the sound it now exports. He works by preference with new artists, which is why a large part of the genre’s roster made its first recordings in a room in Los Guandules rather than in a commercial studio.