After moving away from El Paso in 2015, Krystall Poppin lived in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Nashville, New Orleans and Houston. But when she was spending time in Fort Worth, she linked with Lorenzo “Smoothvega” Zenteno, who helped take Krystall Poppin’s career to the next level. Her latest album, Morningside Heights, is her most Texan album yet, as she taps into those Latino roots, while bringing it home with Texas legends like Paul Wall and Chris Perez.
On Morningside Heights, Krystall Poppin got guest features from the likes of Paul Wall, Project Pat, B-Real and more.
AB Gonzalez
Krystall Poppin makes it a point to thank Smoothvega for helping orchestrate these collaborations and booking her for several stages over the past few years. These are connections she’ll value for the rest of her life.
“Always treat people right in this industry, no matter if you're barely coming into the game or if you've been in the game for a while,” says Krystall Poppin.
“Because there's a lot of egos in this industry, and people like to see you where you are at the moment, and people treat you like you’re less than them just because they feel they're bigger. You never know when that person might pass you, and you're going to have to be reaching your hand out to them one day.”
Right now, Krystall Poppin is back to being a full-time El Pasoan. She kicked off the year with a bang as the City of El Paso officially declared her birthday — Jan. 27 — Krystall Poppin Day. Having been grinding for over a decade, she says this honor feels like a full-circle moment.
“They say that your city is the last to support you,” says Krystall Poppin. “I hear that a lot in the industry, but I feel like I've been lucky enough to have the support of my city for a while now. These past two years, especially, a lot has been coming my way, in which the city is starting to recognize me and my presence in this music industry. They put me in the El Paso Museum of History of Musicians of El Paso, and that was a really cool honor. Anytime there's a festival here, they usually ask me to perform. Things like that count in a big way to me and my career.”
And Krystall Poppin has returned that love to her city tenfold, especially after her time in Dallas-Fort Worth made her miss her hometown. She finds herself ordering from El Paso taco institution Chico’s Tacos at least once a week — “People try to replicate it, but they can never duplicate it.” You can also catch her shopping at Sunland Park over Northpark. And to celebrate the album release, she’ll probably be out at Western Playland as opposed to Six Flags Over Texas.
“Yeah, Six Flags is cool, it's bigger, it has the glitz and the glam. But I feel like Western Playland, to me, has the nostalgia,” says Krystall Poppin. “I feel like a little kid when I'm there. I remember all the visits I ever had. And I just did a show yesterday in Sunland Park, actually, And when the sun went down, Paul Wall was on stage, and I was on stage with him, and when I looked up, I could see the ferris wheel from Western Playland in the foreground as he was performing, and it was really cool moment.”
As Krystall Poppin’s list of coveted features suggests — Paul Wall, Perez, B-Real, Project Pat and Frankie J — fans can expect a mix of pure hip-hop tracks and rhythmic collaborations on Morningside Heights. But Krystall Poppin also shows a more raw, personal side of herself on this album.
On a standout track, “Rain,” Krystall Poppin details a wake-up call she received after living recklessly. “I did the work and turned my life around / I did the most,” she raps over an ominous dirty south beat, recalling the early work of Three 6 Mafia. The song, which contains a gorgeous chorus from up-and-coming Fort Worth singer Myracle Jae, details a haunting overdose she experienced during a more hedonistic time in her life.
“There was a moment in my life where I was doing a lot of ecstasy,” says Krystall Poppin. “I stopped doing it, and then I decided to go to a rave again. I was going through things, and I was like, ‘You know what? I'm gonna pop another pill.’ I remember throwing up and blacking out. I was surrounded by a bunch of people, and I heard this ringing in my ears. It was really scary, and I went through it for the next, like, 24 to 48 hours. I was shaken by that whole experience, and that was a turning point in my life. And I decided never to do that again.”
When taking these moments to the booth, she has several different approaches. Some days, she’s an “iPhone notes girly,” and others, she freestyles. But her favorite way to go about her craft is a process she calls “brain-dumping.” When brain-dumping, she writes down whatever thoughts come to her head — no structure, no order, just free thinking. “Once I do that, it usually inspires something for a song.”
Once she organizes these thoughts, she is very intentional about her craft. One of the reasons it took so long for her to record a song in Spanish, despite much fan demand, was that she was determined to get it right.
She realized this vision in Los Angeles when she recorded “Sin Ti” with producer Alvaro “Cricket” Venegas. Driven by guitar, accordion and horns, this forlorn ballad reimagines the music she grew up with. She was determined to create music that honored her roots and was not a modernization of the art.
“I didn't want to just rip some beat off the internet and try to write a Spanish song. I wanted to do it right,” says Krystall Poppin. “And this felt right. When I talked to [Cricket] about making a record, he was like, ‘Well, what kind of record you want to make? Because we can make trap, we can make a Spanish song.’ And I told him, ‘No, no, no. Me and you need to make Spanish music. So let's go.’ And he was down. In our first session, we created ‘Sin Ti,’ and I just love how it came out, because it also feels authentic to the genre.”
Though some songs come naturally and quickly to her, others take time. Such was the case for Morningside Heights’ title track, which serves as the album’s closer. The Perez collaboration is an autobiographical track detailing overcoming demons, battling addictions and making the positive changes needed to expand beyond the album’s namesake neighborhood. Upon listening, fans can visualize Krystall’s journey through her vivid words and tangible imagery.
But there was so much more that she wanted to say.
“It was hard to condense my life into two verses and a hook,” says Krystall Poppin. “I actually overwrote for that song, so I had to cut it down in order to fit. A lot of structuring had to be done. I also knew it was going to be the last song, so I had to think, ‘How can I end this album with a bang?’” Having put in the work and earned the respect of several Latin and dirty south vets, Krystall Poppin finally has her seat at the table among the greats. And as evidenced by her work ethic, as well as her affinity for “big boys,” she’s ready to eat.
In one Instagram video promoting her single “Biggie,” she lays down her rules for dating: “If he ain’t got a pansa, he ain’t got a chansa.”
“I'm always eating, I'm always cooking, and I love to feed people,” says Krystall Poppin. “And I feel like big boys get that. And I just feel we relate in that way. So whenever I'm hanging out with a big boy, I already know he wants to go eat. So I already know I can pig out. And I don't got to be shy.”
Fans can look forward to seeing her perform at Fair Park on Saturday, July 26. After a run of performance and tour dates this summer, Krystall Poppin is going with the flow and seeing where life takes her next.
“Trust your intuition and listen to your heart,” Krystall Poppin advises her fellow artists. “Listen to that more than all the other noise in this industry, and what people online are going to say to you. I definitely had to learn to grow thick skin, to not care what people think, and to always trust what I'm doing. Especially because I believe in it so much.”
