“Tamales and masa, their cornmeal base, may not have the street cred of drugs, but Chingo Bling has tried to do for them what Tony Montana did for cocaine.”
- The New York Times

ABOUT THE SHOW

  • MASA & THE POWER is a premium comedy web series set in 1972, featuring artist “Chingo Bling” as the kingpin of an illicit tamale empire, just trying to build his version of the American Dream.
  • Creator Jesus Beltran is a Sundance and SXSW filmmaker, and a Stanford-trained engineer who holds over ten design patents at Apple. He recently founded Silicon Valley-based DESMADRE.com to produce authentic, culturally relevant content missing in the mainstream.
  • Pedro “Chingo Bling” Herrera III is a comedian, rapper, and social commentator whose videos total over 25M views on YouTube. His first major album "They Can't Deport Us All"  (Asylum Records) debuted at #11 on the rap charts, and served as a flashpoint for the U.S. immigration debate.
  • With fluid Spanish-English dialogue, creative subtitling, and deadpan humor, MASA & THE POWER Season 1 generated 250K views built on 5 short episodes, and raised more than $30K in crowdfunding as an official Sundance and Kickstarter Staff Pick.
  • Season 2 consists of 8 episodes and will premiere on April 13, 2015 at DESMADRE.com and youtube.com/DESMADREdotCOM.

SELECT PRESS

  • "The show channels pop-cultural narratives into a tale of struggle, sacrifice, and late-night munchies."  -Remezcla.com
  • "A series that’s going to subvert your expectations. MASA & THE POWER switches seamlessly between Spanish and English in telling a story that’s both ludicrous and stupidly insightful."  -VideoInk.com
  • "Taking inspiration from some writers of yesteryear like Hunter S. Thompson, Oscar Zeta Acosta, and Charles Bukowski"  -MEXandtheCITY
  • “Desmadre.com is where Funny-or-Die meets Vice for a cross-cultural audience. MASA & THE POWER is side-splitting stuff and completely worth your time.”  -ReferralCandy.com

 CHINGO BLING SELECT PRESS

  •  “Chingo Bling’s career has been full of clever ripostes and unexpected turns, from his rhymes about the immigrant experience, to his tamale business, to his Weird Al Yankovic-style reworkings of popular songs.”  -The New York Times
  •  “Complicates the stereotypes by amplifying them, casting a satirical eye on his own upbringing." -The Los Angeles Times
  • “A brilliant, inspired work of parodic agit-prop.” – Society for U.S. Intellectual History 

Hi-res images may be downloaded here: Masa & The Power S2 Still Images

For press or business inquiries please contact: amy@desmadre.com