Banda MS, Ice Cube’s New Song Asks ‘What if Americans Had To Cross’ the Mexican Border?

This is not a drill—Banda MS and Ice Cube are dropping a song together titled “Cúales Fronteras?” on Cinco de Mayo, and let’s just say, our ears are ready.

The Sinaloan banda and California rapper already released a live preview of the track. The banda starts singing, “We toast to those who fell, the ones who stayed and couldn’t get here. We’ll remember them… No one knows how hard it is.”

Meanwhile, Ice Cube raps, “You can shed the blood, but you can’t stop the love, you can lock me up, but that is not enough.” And while the song is a surefire banger, it actually has a deeper meaning than many would expect.

In a behind-the-scenes video for “Cúales Fronteras?” Ice Cube explained that the song imagines if “Americans had to cross the border” instead of Latinos. Describing how “They always talk about people crossing the border this way. What if Americans had to cross the border the other way?”

Everything we know so far about Banda MS and Ice Cube’s upcoming collaboration

You can tell from the song’s live preview that this jam will be music to our ears this summer— and surely be a radio hit.

Still, Ice Cube’s explanation of its meaning makes it even more powerful. In fact, he described how the track has a lot to do with wondering, “What if there’s a crisis in America and we have to cross the Mexican border?”

The “Check Yo Self” rapper offered sage advice by adding, “You should be cool to people…on your way up, because you never know who you’re going to see on your way back down. That’s what this [music] video is really breaking down. What if the roles were reversed and we had to go the other way?”

The filmmaker also urged people to be “nicer” to those “trying to get into the country” and “not treat them like animals. That’s what it’s all about.”

Meanwhile, Banda MS’s musical director Pavel Josué Ocampo Quintero added, “Basically our audience is from Mexico and Latin America… and we believe that we’re going to connect with our audience and [Ice Cube’s] audience… because the song has a meaningful theme… It’s a breakthrough in music in general.”

Ice Cube continued, “It’s going to do a lot to heal people’s spirits, keep people thinking as one, in unity.”

Just as an IG user put it, he’s “Hielo Cubo” to us now!

How social media is reacting to Banda MS and Ice Cube’s new song drop

On Twitter, people hardly believe the new collab. One person said it definitely wasn’t on their 2023 bingo card:

Similarly, another questioned if they were dreaming—or experiencing a mirage— upon seeing the band and rapper singing in the middle of what looks like Joshua Tree National Park:

Others simply had to say the song “ate”—and left no crumbs:

This user is all of us because we, too, are very hyped for Cinco de Mayo now:

Who else remembers Nelly and Tim McGraw’s “Over and Over” absolute bop from 2004? Although this Twitter user doesn’t seem to be a fan of either song, we have to admit it does give us similar ~vibes~:

Not to sound like a Hallmark card, but crazy ideas are sometimes the best ones:

And if you, like many of us, were startled by seeing Ice Cube rapping on a Banda MS track over on TikTok, you didn’t imagine it: