Mediopicky: Dance Music For Trying Times
Santo Domingo’s Pablo Alcántara, better known as mediopicky, has always been driven by curiosity. Growing up with influences from around the world flooding into the island, he began exploring sound at a young age, drawn to the magic in the merging of genres. Today, that exploration manifests in his bold, definition-defying electronic music, where Dominican rhythms meet global club beats, and bass-heavy production carries the heart of the Caribbean across the dancefloor.
From merengue and cumbia to trap and rock, mediopicky’s music never settles. It’s movement-driven, but emotionally rich; designed to make you dance first and think later. “If I can move your foot, even just one, that’s enough,” he says. But beneath the rhythm, there’s always more going on. His latest project, Forma de cer, plays with contrast; summer-ready beats layered with a dark emotional undercurrent, inspired by the unsettling warmth of films like Midsommar.
Known for constantly reinventing his sound, mediopicky is driven by a fear of creative stagnation. “I always reinvent myself so I don’t get bored,” he says. Still, despite his international reach, mediopicky remains deeply rooted in his Dominican identity. “As Caribbean people, we’re naturally curious. We mix styles not just because we want to, but because it’s in our blood,” he says. For him, it’s not about fitting a mold; it’s about showing the world that artists from the Caribbean and Latin America are just as capable, inventive, and complex as anyone else.
Even with a growing family, he’s a new father, music remains a constant force in his life. “Ideas just come. I’m always singing, always making something. It’s fun. It’s just there.” Whether it’s a track inspired by the news, a lullaby for his daughter, or a beat built for the club, mediopicky creates with one goal: make people feel something…and move.
Check out an excerpt from his interview with La Molly plus a playlist full of his best dancefloor hits below.
La Molly: Now you’ve gained quite a bit of international recognition, but you still have managed to stay really tied to local influences. How do you see your role in reshaping how the world hears Caribbean and Latin American club music?
Mediopicky: Yes, I’m trying to show that we’re basically as capable as anybody in the world. We as a people, as Latino or people from the Caribbean, people tend to categorize us. Or think of us in a certain way, like we’re always eating fruit and it’s not true. So I’m always trying to communicate that we’re capable of anything. It doesn’t matter what it is. So that’s another worry. Myself as well as I’m trying to make you move, I’m trying to show different ways and approach to music from a Latino and Caribbean person.
LM: It feels like you’re kind of constantly putting out projects and as a listener I love that, right? But how do you not only find the time, but also the continued inspiration to keep putting out new and also such varied work?
MP: I don’t know. I think it’s really just really fun for me. I just had a baby. I mean, not just had a baby. I have a one year old girl. So I thought that I wouldn’t have time, but even though I’m really present on raising her. I still find time to make music. I think it’s because ideas like just come really fast in my head and I just find a way to put it in the computer as fast as I can and I’m always making songs in my head, like if I’m cooking something, I’m making a song, I’m always singing random songs to my daughter. If something happens on the news, I’m gonna sing it. You know, I’m always singing. So I think I will always be. Hopefully I will always be able to create new material and create new things because it’s just, it’s there. It’s always there. There’s always something that you can make a song about.
Check out La Molly’s Mediopicky Playlist here.