There’s a moment in Rubí’s new track “la de arca” where everything freezes. The beat slows, her voice thins into near-whisper, and then, Arcángel’s voice drops like a stone: “No sigas a tu corazón, porque tu corazón no te va a llevar a ningún lado.” It’s the kind of punch that rewires the whole song. One minute you’re swaying to a late-night trap lullaby, the next you’re staring at your ceiling thinking about every time you ignored your gut. That’s Rubí’s magic. She doesn’t offer closure. She offers clarity.
In an interview with CREMA, the Puerto Rican singer-songwriter shared what led her to this moment—emotionally, creatively, and spiritually. Her answer, like her music, begins quietly and unfolds slowly. “Music was always there,” she said, “but that love for art was kept as something very personal.”
Before she was Rubí, she was a biology student hiding poems. Her grandmother, a poet herself, wrote one about her before Rubí had shown anyone her work. “She wrote: ‘She has a muse inside that is eager to come out, I hope to see her someday to make peace with herself.’ And here we are.”
1Rubí doesn’t package Puerto Rican identity into something palatable. She lets it live in the corners of her voice and the slang in her lyrics. She explained that her sound comes from growing up surrounded by música urbana. “I loved it. I even listened to it hidden because my parents didn’t like it,” she said.
Even though she blends R&B, pop, and Latin trap, there’s always something rooted in where she comes from. “The slang, how I write, how I speak… Some things are very much from here and they always filter into my music, even if it’s unconscious.” At the same time, Rubí is still expanding her voice. “I feel that I still have more intimate or vulnerable parts of my identity to explore… because PR is not just that.”
If “la de arca” feels like a heartbreak you’ve already survived, that’s because Rubí lived it over and over. “I’ve lived that heartbreak experience and stopped caring more times than I want to admit,” she said. “It feels exactly like in the song, almost like ripping a band-aid off, and so far it’s all cool.”
The Arcángel voice note wasn’t a gimmick. It was instinct. “I’ve always been a super fan of Arcangel… especially listening to him talk, his interviews, how transparent he is with what he says,” she explained. “Since I heard that audio, I knew I was going to make him part of it.”
The song is stripped down but layered emotionally, creating a contradiction she leans into. “I always describe my music as something very contradictory,” she said. “I love music that people can chill with, that is danceable… but when I write, I am very conscious of my lyrics. Even if the melody is lightheaded, I put a lot of thought into what I say.”
2Rubí doesn’t just write songs. She writes confessions dressed in hi-hats and reverb. It makes sense. “You’ve said you’re a poet before anything else,” we asked. “How does that discipline of language show up differently in music versus poetry?”
Her response was direct: “With poetry, for me, the creative process starts with a feeling, with something to say. It’s more stripped down.” In music, the melody leads her. “From the moment we put together a melody or I hear a melody, it generates a feeling… I don’t need to be living or feeling something, just flowing with the track.”
That range (emotional yet detached, poetic yet rhythm-aware) is what makes her voice stand out in Latin R&B and urban music. “There’s something deeply feminine (and deeply tired) about ‘la de arca,’” we noted. “How do you explore softness and exhaustion as a Latina in a genre that often demands hardness?”
Rubí doesn’t perform toughness. “I don’t give much thought to what this genre demands,” she replied. “My lyrics are sometimes a little strong because that’s how I express myself… but I love softness and vulnerability, a sweet sound. I feel it doesn’t tire my ear.”
3Rubí exists within a powerful cohort of genre-bending Latino artists—think TORRRES, Anubiis, Jotaerre—but she’s not trying to blend in. She’s building her catalog with intention. “Although my music may be light-hearted,” she told CREMA, “I am trying never to make music without any meaning… not to fall into just making music for trends or numbers.”
Still, the movement around her inspires her. “There is a wave of super-talented artists on the island developing now. It’s super cool to be part of it and to be able to grow together.” And she sees herself growing right along with them, through collaborations, through long nights in the studio, through every new poem she reshapes into a beat.
When asked what she thinks is still missing from the Latin music landscape, she didn’t hesitate. “First of all, female voices,” she said. “There has to be room for more women in the genre.”
4Many people ask artists what’s next. Rubí isn’t concerned with that. She’s more focused on what lingers, what her songs make you feel. “The truth is I’m satisfied with just making them feel: whether it’s bad, happy, sensual, whatever,” she said. “That’s what I always try to do… there’s a lot of music coming out and that’s the best way to connect with an audience that wants to stay.”
And they will. With over 400,000 organic streams, a growing fanbase, and support from OD Entertainment, Rubí isn’t the next version of anything. She’s writing her own genre in real time.
