Legado 7 keeps it blunt on this 4/20 with 'Los Mensajes del Whatsapp'

On Monday, a date best known for its cannabis-oriented celebrations, Legado 7 released its new single, “Los Mensajes del Whatsapp” — at precisely 4:20 p.m. The norteño track, led by vocalist Alexander Guerra alongside accordionist Ramón Ruiz, keeps relationship matters blunt. It doesn’t matter if one gets caught cheating on WhatsApp, a womanizer has plenty of space for multiple lovers. “We get high and fill each other with joy, she wants me to leave you and I don’t want to do that,” the lyrics state. Infused with strains of classic hip-hop, the norteño song pays tribute to the trailblazing Cartel de Santa — a group formed in 1996 best known for popularizing the genre across the border. Cartel de Santa released the original “Los Mensajes del Whatsapp” in 2014. Coincidentally, that is the same year that Legado 7 formed. Like Cartel de Santa — which influenced Mexico’s hip-hop movement in the late 1990s and early 2000s — Legado 7 helped pioneer corridos verdes, a subgenre in musica Mexicana that celebrates cannabis. Their breakthrough 2015 hit, “El Afro” — a corrido dedicated to a blazed, curly-fro friend who enjoys getting high with others — caught the attention of Rancho Humilde, which signed the group in 2017. By 2021, the band would leave the Downey-based label. Throughout its 12-year career, the duo has delivered signature weed-corridos, including “De Periódico Un Gallito,” a song about the public’s expectations of a pothead; “El Chinito,” a light ballad about indulging in the marijuana lifestyle; and “Olor a Kush,” a track that opens with sounds of a deep bubbling bong puff. As música Mexicana continues to reach new heights under popular acts like Fuerza Regida — which Ruiz discovered and signed under Lumbre Music and Rancho Humilde in 2018 — and Peso Pluma, who invited the duo on stage at their Anaheim performance last month, it is impossible to detach the impact Legado 7’s bud-laced songs have had on the current corrido movement.