Becky G returns to her rap roots on new album "Baraja Bendita"

Becky G has spent close to two decades in music, and on her fifth studio album, Baraja Bendita (Spanish for "Blessed Deck of Cards"), she is circling back to where she started. "My urban roots are, like, a part of me," the 29 year old singer, songwriter and actress told NPR's Morning Edition. "It is how I got signed. It is how I got discovered. It is one of my first loves." She had first opened up about the record earlier this year.

That pull toward rap runs through the album track "Epa" and its video, filmed at the well known El Mercadito market in Los Angeles. One scene shows Becky G smashing a large block of ice before the shot breaks into dancing. She said the song's urgent, alarm-like chords came first, and that writing it got her thinking about how fortunate she is to have a safe space to create at a time when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids sit at the center of national politics.

"We need to keep creating," she said. "That's also part of our resistance." She traced that idea directly to the ice-breaking scene in the video, describing what follows the ice cracking apart as "this really beautiful, almost like euphoric joy that comes through," with everyone dancing together once the block is gone.

Baraja Bendita is out now, one of this week's new Latin releases, tracked on the release calendar alongside new music from Katseye and Ravyn Lenae. It follows Becky G's recent collaboration with Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco on "Te Olvido (La La)." She did not detail touring plans behind the new record in the NPR conversation, so what comes next beyond the album itself remains unannounced.