Nico Clínico — Alberto Nicolás Aponte Castillo, born on 29 December 1985 in the Ensanche Altagracia in Herrera — is a Dominican producer, singer, actor and dancer. He is called the maestro of the urban genre at home, and the claim is easier to defend from the credits than from his own records.

Thirteen years old

He turned professional in 1999, at thirteen, forming a group. He became known as a member of the Latin pop outfit JN3 before the urban music he is now identified with existed as an industry in the country.

Starting that young and in pop rather than in rap is unusual for a producer in this field, and it shows in what he makes: the records are built rather than assembled.

The credits

He produced Atento a Mí 10 for Lápiz Conciente and Clara de Huevo for Monkey Black — two records from the years when Dominican rap was establishing what it sounded like.

Since then he has worked for most of the names that carry the genre: Mozart La Para, El Alfa, Shelow Shaq, Sensato del Patio and Black Point among them. A producer with that spread is shaping the sound of a whole scene rather than one artist’s catalogue.

Beyond the desk

He performs and writes as well, and works as an actor. More recently he has gone into ventures outside music — among them a Dominican-made video game — which puts him in the small group of Dominican urban figures who have turned a music career into something wider.