Abraham Ismael Perales didn't know that the music he was intuitively mixing in his home studio was so popular until he started listening to his tracks in the cars of people in his neighborhood.

“We said, 'Wow, there's something here, we can do something more,'” he said. “And that's how I came up with the idea of ??forming the group and adding elements of dance, music, and choreography.” And so, eight years ago, Kings del Wepa was born, a group of guys from Monclova, in the Mexican state of Coahuila, who perform and dance the wepa, a style that Abraham didn't invent, but did popularize, he said, and which is a branch of cumbia that combines with rap, reggaeton, and other modern sounds. What began as a hobby became a trend overnight. But what really boosted the project was the integration of the girls because they, with their dancing, were the ones who added the “feeling” to the band, Abraham said. At first, while Kings del Wepa were looking for their niche on social media, they started doing comedy sketches, music, and other things that would allow them to connect with a wider audience. But the results weren't what they expected. But then they had the idea to start uploading short videos of their live performances where the girls showcased their skills on the dance floor, and that's where things changed. After analyzing what they had worked, the Kings began organizing challenges with their own songs and choreographies. “That way we started to see that people started to replicate it and share it, and they started to like [the wepa] more,” Abraham said. “More followers started coming in, and from there we took off, we didn't let up, and it was our way of starting to distribute our music, our genre, and obviously also our show, the dance.” Now they were about to start a tour of several cities in the country. Meanwhile, they are focused on promoting their new music. A week ago they released the single “Cumbia dos pasitos,” which to date has more than 20,000 views on YouTube. They haven't released an album in a long time because singles are more successful, the artist said. However, Abraham is planning to release an album with romantic, wepa-style songs; it's something they've never done before,but their leader has a hunch they'll do well if they venture into that direction. The tone will be popular and streetwise, like everything in the wepa style, Abraham said. "We come from working-class neighborhoods; to this day, we still live in working-class neighborhoods," he said. "We carry the culture deep in our essence; we don't want to pretend, the style is within us and that's what we express."