Albert Hype and Dillon Francis Launch Latin Music’s First Major Pop-Punk Project

As a teenager growing up in Miami, Albert Hype would often walk through school and go to house parties that featured the bustling sounds of reggaeton icons like Wisin y Yandel, Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, Arcangel, and more. But, once he got home, he'd blast albums from Blink-182, My Chemical Romance, and Rancid, learning how to play their songs on his guitar.

Fast-forward to 2025, and Hype is now known as one of NEON 16's key producers and songwriters, with credits under artists like Shakira, Kali Uchis, Alvaro Diaz, Bad Bunny, and Ivan Cornejo. Having made quite the name for himself behind the scenes, he seems ready to break out with some original music in the form of Sorry My Love, a Latin-based pop-punk project that he's begun with DJ and producer Dillon Francis.

The inclusion of Francis may feel a bit random, considering that he's known for hits like "Get Low" with DJ Snake and is more likely to be spotted at DAER than a Latin or rock club. Still, he has collaborated with artists like Brendon Urie and the aforementioned Arcangel.

Hype, Francis, and the New Times are sitting in the NEON16 studio compound in Miami when the two start discussing their various influences for this project. These include The Strokes, Morrissey, Bad Bunny, and Blink-182, the latter of which was a significant inspiration for the duo.

"That's exactly what I try to explain to people. Many people only know Blink-182 on a surface level and think, 'Oh, they're just that joke band.' And yeah, they had jokes — they joked around a lot on stage, they had silly songs — but if you listen to the music, listen to what they're saying, there's so much more there", says Hype. His appreciation for the California band is evident in his frequent use of Blink-182 guitar replicas across numerous projects.

The duo's latest drop is "Hate Me," a collaboration with emo rap multi-instrumentalist Nothing, nowhere, blends electronic and alternative rock elements to create a brightly depressing track about someone mentally checked out of a relationship. According to Francis, this beautiful mix of angst and heartache underneath some UK garage-style drums has been in the vault for almost five years and was one of the first tracks made for this project.

Before dropping "Hate Me," the duo released "Bendito," which feels like the heart of this project. It brings rap rocker Iann Dior, Puerto Rican rapper Leebrian, and Argentinian rapper Khea together on one track that is as Latin as pop-punk.

The riffs will take you back to the era when Simple Plan was still on MTV, but the flows are straight-up 2016 Latin trap vibes, so meshing the two seemed like a complex challenge, but came naturally to Hype and Francis. "The way they all approached it was just like how they normally do their thing — trap, mainly. And I think that blend works. That's kind of the whole idea behind the project," points out Hype, as he continues giving us more insights: "Reggaeton, melodically speaking, isn't that far off from pop-punk. If you break it down, look at Bad Bunny, for example. If you take some of his songs and throw a guitar behind them, they sound like emo pop-punk tracks. It's still really niche, and only a few people are exploring it, but the potential is there", says Hype.


The track is also the first time Iann has sung in Spanish for any project. "I think he teased something a few years ago, but it never came out. It wasn't rock, it was more like Spanish stuff. So when I showed him the song, he said, 'Bro, I want to sing in Spanish.' And I was like, 'Sure.' Then he goes, 'You know I'm Puerto Rican, right?' I was like, 'Wait, what?' And he said, 'Yeah, my mom's Puerto Rican, I can do Spanish," recalls Hype.

The duo has plans to collaborate with a range of artists when the album drops later this year, including Alvaro Diaz, Michael Clifford, Meet Me at the Altar, and EKKSTACY, who's rumored to deliver an acoustic solo on one of the tracks. From the snippets we got to preview, the project is a high-energy blend of pop-punk, electronic, and Latin influences. It pulls the best from each genre, whiny melodies, punchy hooks, and the occasional beat drop, into a sound that feels familiar and fresh.

"The amazing thing about this project is that we've never hit a rough patch — there hasn't been a moment where one of us dug in and said, 'No, it has to be this way.' We keep the communication wide-open: if something doesn't sound right or the vibe is off, we just say so," explains Francis. "Over time, we've dialed in what it's supposed to sound like; how each song should be presented and the overall sonic world of Sorry My Love. It's surprisingly cohesive, especially compared to my usual Dillon Francis stuff, which is pretty all over the place."

While he declares that his Spanish is "mas o menos", Francis has worked on songs with Archangel and Residente, taking us back with stories of filming in Colombia with Residente or when he was in the hood in upstate New York while shooting with Archangel. It seems that Francis has a genuine appreciation for Latin culture, we even had to pause at one point so that he could show us some Luis Miguel deep cuts that he liked while telling us about how he and Alvaro Diaz almost did a track together inspired by the Mexican legend.

Now the grand question lies ahead: Will this album succeed or change how we listen to pop-punk and Latin music? Hype thinks that the answer is yes. "That song 'Hablamos Manana' is such a great example. People don't always realize this, but Bunny's a fan of that sound. Many of these artists are fans of the genre, even if it's not obvious initially. I remember Tainy hitting me like, 'Bro, Benito wants to do a rock part at the end of this.' And I was like, 'Alright, say less.' We locked in and made it happen. That moment motivated me, it made me think, if I'm gonna do this producer-artist thing, this kind of sound will be a part of it. Because it just feels natural."

The duo also assured that the project had been made out of pure love for the genres and artists they worked with. While they have been working on it for years, there has never been any pressure to release anything or appeal to social media tactics.

They both tell the New Times that they work on music whenever Hype is in L.A. or Francis is in Miami, never forcing themselves to do anything unconventional or when they're not in the same room.