How Tito Double P Went From ‘Peso Pluma’s Cousin’ To Star In His Own Right

When Tito Double P was deciding on a name for his debut album, he remembered a comment about him that had gone viral on social media.

“Tito se ve incómodo,” someone wrote, pointing out that Tito looked “uncomfortable” in a photo where he appeared in the background with other artists, including his superstar cousin, Peso Pluma.

“As a songwriter, a lot of artists would invite me to hang, and eventually, they would ask me for a song during those hangouts,” the 27-year-old musician explains with a smirk on his face. “But I was always in the background, looking very serious in photos and videos, and someone left that comment — I don’t remember if it was on TikTok or Instagram — and it got a bunch of likes. And from then on, whenever I uploaded a photo on social media, even if I looked happy, everyone would comment, ‘Se ve incómodo.’ It became a thing and I thought, ‘That’s what we should name the album — it will give people something to talk about.’ ”

Today, Tito Double P seems anything but incómodo. Last summer, his set of the same name shot to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart, dethroning Peso’s Éxodo, and earlier this year, Tito embarked on an arena and amphitheater tour — his first trek in the United States — for which his training included doing vocal and breathing exercises with a voice coach over the phone. With his No. 1 album and sold-out tour, Tito, who only just launched his career as an artist last year, has gone from songwriter to superstar-in-the-making.

“There’s no manual for that, and it’s not an easy process to go from songwriter to singer,” the Sinaloa, Mexico-born artist reflects. “At first, it was always ‘Peso Pluma’s cousin’ or ‘That guy writes for Peso.’ Eventually, I finally became Tito Double P.”

Tito (born Roberto Laija) penned some of Peso’s early hits, including “El Belicon,” “Siempre Pendientes,” “PRC” and “AMG,” all of which catapulted onto the Hot Latin Songs chart in 2022 and helped usher in a global era for corridos and regional Mexican music in general. They also helped Tito become the genre’s most in-demand songwriter, which in turn laid the groundwork for his evolving career. He could have kept to songwriting, but Tito wondered what would happen if he released his own music on indie label Double P Records, which Peso and his manager/business partner, George Prajin, co-founded.

“First I said, ‘Let me release one song,’ because I kind of thought nothing would happen. But then it became a hit, so I released another one and then another,” he says. “The team asked me if I was going to be a singer or a songwriter and I said, ‘Let me record an album and see what happens.’ I also remember thinking that I wouldn’t tour, I’d just release music. But after performing onstage, now I don’t want to get off. I never thought this would happen to me.

“I went from songwriter to singer to artist in less than a year,” he explains, still sounding somewhat awed by his rapid ascent.

With his charming boy-next door personality, hoarse vocals, in-your-face delivery and unique writing style — which he compares to writing rap songs because he adds “too many words” and records in double-time — Tito stands out among música mexicana’s ever-growing field of emerging artists. He scored his debut Billboard chart entry as an artist with “Dembow Bélico,” a collaboration with Joel De La P and Luis R. Conriquez that hit No. 35 on Hot Latin Songs in July 2023. His first top 10 arrived a little less than a year later with the Joel De La P and Peso collaboration “La People II.” Overall, Tito has seven career entries on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 and 23 career entries on Hot Latin Songs; Incómodo — which ruled Top Latin Albums for nine nonconsecutive weeks — reached No. 11 on the Billboard 200 last October. Tito closed 2024 at No. 15 on the year-end Top Latin Artists list, with 1.7 billion on-demand official streams in the United States, according to Luminate.

Tito says Peso is proud of his accomplishments — even if they’ve dethroned him on the charts. “He was proud and like, ‘¿Qué onda?’ [What’s going on?], at the same time,” he recalls with a gentle, almost timid smile as he remembers Peso’s reaction to Incómodo hitting No. 1 on Top Latin Albums. “It’s never a competition between us. To be honest, he was like, ‘Better you than anyone else to take me out.’ ”

That reflects the ethos at Double P Records, whose roster also includes Deorro, Dareyes de la Sierra and Jasiel Nuñez.

“The artists on the label get together in the studio to show each other what we’re working on and get feedback like, ‘That idea is great,’ or ‘I like the lyrics but not the tune.’ We share everything, from the producers we’re working with to writing together and collaborating. We’re like a family,” Tito says. “And we also get to be our own bosses. There’s no set timeline of when I have to release a song. We have so much freedom.”

Tito is gearing up for future projects to maintain his momentum, including “tons of new music” with which he plans to shift from corridos singer to writing and recording songs about desamor (heartbreak). He also has an upcoming joint EP with Peso: “We have a lot of songs, but we’re still working on it because I was on tour and he had his own projects — but something big is coming with [Peso],” he teases of the project, which has no set release date.

Tito’s life has changed so much over the last year — but there’s still one moment in particular that reminds him of his growth. “One time, when Peso was just starting, he asked me to go do an interview with him because he didn’t want to go alone,” he recalls. “Literally no one knew who I was at the time, and I just sat there next to him, didn’t say a word, until the interviewer asked me, ‘And who are you?’ And I quickly responded, ‘Oh, no, I’m just his cousin.’ Today, I’m much more loose, more comfortable. Like, it’s still me but just more mature, motivated and grateful for everything that has happened and for what is coming.”

This story appears in the June 7, 2025, issue of Billboard.