Chris Conde & El Dusty Drop 'Summertime Heat'

A couple of short months ago, ATX-based queer conscious rapper Chris Conde dropped the "revelatory" (Austin Monthly) album Engulfed In The Marvelous Decay, a record that would land at #12 on Bandcamp and grab 9/10 Star reviews (Sun Burns Out, France) and a declaration of one of the best albums of the year (Ghettoblaster).

And on Friday, July 23rd, in time for the summer party season, Conde drops "Summertime Heat," a collaboration with Grammy-nominated Corpus Christi electro-cumbia king El Dusty and it's a banger. Stream it below.

While the song is a fun party jam about Conde's "love for all things Tex-Mex, like spending summers in the Rio Grande Valley with my cousins, eating raspas and my tía's awesome food," explains Conde, "It's also about being LGBTQIA+ and Mexican American- something that has it's own set of challenges, having grown up with a very machismo culture that doesn't support being queer."

Considered to be the creator of cumbia electronica, producer El Dusty is also a longtime member of the beloved Latin dance party DJ crew, Peligrosa and the collab came together naturally.

"Last year I hit up El Dusty and asked him if he'd be down to make a gay ass Cumbia track," Conde says. "He wrote back and was down and sent along the beginnings of what would be 'Summertime Heat.' I jumped in the studio and knocked the song out and sent it back within a few days." Soon after, El Dusty sent back the final mix and history was made. "I've been a fan of Chris for a long time," Dusty raves. "(They) really killed this track and it's perfect timing for summer!"

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