Tivi Gunz, born Stivi Randy Álvarez in Cristo Rey, is a Dominican rapper and songwriter. He moves between trap, rap and hip hop without settling in any of them, and he has been given a second name — Tinta de Oro — for how his verses are put together rather than for how they are delivered.

Cristo Rey

I Love U was the first thing he put out. Tinta de Oro was the first album, and the phrase stuck to him afterwards.

He came up through the same capital street circuit that produces most Dominican rap, and he has told the story of establishing himself in la 42, in Capotillo, at length and more than once. That is not a metaphor for a career — in Dominican urban music a street with a scene attached is a market, and taking one is the whole first act.

Pícala

In 2018 he cut Pícala with Tokischa. It was her first release, and it went past a million views in its first week. Whatever else he has done, that record is a hinge in Dominican music, and he is on the other side of it.

The credits since run across the field and out of it: Químico Ultra Mega, Don Miguelo, Yailin La Más Viral, Treintisiete and Onguito Wa at home; Ozuna on El Bloke; Casper Mágico and Nio García on the Selena remix; Justin Quiles, Tito El Bambino, Slayter and Trappa elsewhere.

The year of the weekly single

In 2023 he released a song every week for the whole year. Gass Pure, Zuculento, Kick Con El Bajo, Como Ella Baila Así, Lokisla, Pá La 42, Soga and Que La Gualle are the ones that stuck.

Zuculento took urban collaboration of the year at the Glamour Music Awards. He performed at the Monitor Latino Awards in Santa Marta and at Premios Juventud, made his first tours of Europe and the United States, and headlined the thirty-fourth Gran Parada Dominicana del Bronx on the Grand Concourse.

A weekly release schedule is a strategy, not a flourish: it treats the catalogue as something to be fed rather than curated, which is how a rapper stays on a platform’s algorithm without a label paying for him. That he could sustain it for fifty-two weeks says something about the writing.

Selena and after

Selena, Chuky 2, Coronao, Therian, Rubberz, Mentiras and Culpable are more recent. The freestyles keep coming too, which is where the Tinta de Oro name was earned in the first place.