From the Dance Floor to the Studio: Perro Negro Is Building Reggaeton’s Next Chapter
What started as a Medellín nightlife destination has grown into a cultural force with ambitions far beyond the club. After earning organic shoutouts from some of reggaeton’s biggest names and developing a reputation for its distinct approach to sound and curation, Perro Negro is taking its influence directly into the music industry. Through a new partnership with Rimas Entertainment and the release of “Dale Volume 1“, the brand is bringing together emerging talent from Colombia, Puerto Rico and beyond to create music made with one place in mind: the dance floor.
We caught up with the team behind Perro Negro to discuss the evolution from club to record label, the cross-border future of reggaeton, and why they believe the genre’s next chapter is only getting started.
FEATURE INTERVIEW:
Perro Negro started as a club and became one of the most influential spaces for reggaeton. At what moment did you realize it had grown into something bigger than just a nightlife venue?
I think there were two early signs that proved we were more than just a club. First, when people started booking our DJs for other parties and talking about the way we played reggaeton. We’ve always been super rigorous with aspects like mixing and curation to make sure our party feels one-of-a-kind. Second, the name-drops in songs. As of today, we’ve been mentioned organically in eight different tracks by artists like J Balvin, Ryan Castro, Feid, Bad Bunny, and more. That combination gave our brand a stamp of validation in spaces and spheres a regular club could never reach. We’ve always envisioned Perro Negro as something legendary.
Launching a record label is a major evolution for a brand built around nightlife. What ultimately convinced you that Perro Negro was ready to become a platform for developing talent?
More than developing talent, it’s about bringing people together and creating the ultimate environment to make new tracks tailored for reggaeton clubs worldwide. That’s specifically what it’s about. Like almost everything we do, the idea came from looking at our surroundings and understanding history. Legendary electronic clubs like Berghain and Ministry of Sound have their own labels. In reggaeton, there’s a clear blueprint for this: The Noise, DJ Negro’s iconic club, which played a pivotal role in the genre’s birth through its legendary multi-artist compilations. So, once Perro Negro started breaking through certain cultural barriers, we realized the natural next step was to fully step into the music industry.
How did the partnership with Rimas Entertainment come about, and what does each side bring to the table that makes this collaboration feel like the right fit?
Throughout the process, we knocked on doors with several major players in the industry, but everything aligned effortlessly with Rimas. They’ve always been on the same page regarding our vision for what we want to release and how we want to do it. Plus, over the last 7 or 8 years, they’ve completely dominated the genre, pushing it toward aesthetics and places we couldn’t have imagined—and that means a lot to us. At the end of the day, it’s a perfect dynamic: they bring all their deep industry expertise, and we bring the core ideas.
The debut release of Dale Volume 1 spotlights a new generation of Colombian and Puerto Rican artists. What were you looking for when choosing who would be part of this first showcase?
Exactly that—we were looking for fresh sounds in reggaeton and connecting with artists who might be new to mainstream media, but are actively building strong underground fanbases. On the production side, we brought in collectives like The Ozakis, Colombian-British producers who worked on Bad Bunny’s “Velda” and produced three tracks on Dale Volume 1. On the vocal side, we have artists like Tommy Blanco, Vei Habache, and Fanta Rosario, who are expanding the genre from their own corners. We also featured Jovaan—who came in from the White Lion house and delivered a heavy reggaeton track for the EP—and from Colombia, acts like Geezydee and Tury, who are going hard in this new generation and are a core part of the release.
Reggaeton lives between these two countries in a very special way. How intentional was it to build the label around that cross-border energy, and what does it represent for the genre’s future?
It represents everything. Reggaeton belongs to every country now—there’s a distinct sound in Chile, Mexico, the DR, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and all the way down the line. Our plan for upcoming EPs is to keep traveling through different countries and continue fueling reggaeton culture as a global, cross-border movement.
Being on the dance floor gives you a unique read on what audiences respond to. How does the experience of running the club shape the way you discover and develop new artists?
We’re pouring all that night-in, night-out experience into every studio session. We want to capture the exact energy, reactions, and physical responses we see on the dance floor when certain rhythms and patterns hit—including elements we draw from other genres. Artists also get it. When they step into a session with Perro Negro, they know the assignment: they’re mentally dialed into making music designed strictly to get people moving, creating tracks that DJs won’t hesitate to drop at 2 AM in any city in the world.
As Perro Negro expands from a physical space into a music brand, how do you make sure the identity and energy of the club stay intact within the label?
Maintaining the energy isn’t the hard part; the real challenge is making people understand the pivot—getting them to realize that we make music now, but driven by the exact same energy under the same name. It’s music crafted for our clubs and for any club out there that wants to spin it. The energy is still 100% Perro Negro.
Beyond Vol. 1, where do you see Perro Negro Label heading, and what role do you want it to play in shaping the next chapter of reggaeton?
We want to help define the sound of the coming years and stay at the absolute forefront of the genre for as long as we can. Reggaeton isn’t going anywhere—it will never die.
Listen to the exclusive Galore playlist curated by Perro Negro here.
TEAM CREDITS:
Editor-in-Chief: Prince Chenoa
Feature Editor: Taylor Winter Wilson (@taylorwinter)
Photography Credits: Perro Negro (@clubperronegro)
