Combining romantic, lo-fi bedroom pop with charm, wit, and Spanish lyrics, Cuco won a fervent fan base with the release of his 2016 debut mixtape, Wannabewithu. A native of Hawthorne, California, Omar Banos developed his musical abilities early, listening to Chicano rappers like MC Magic and Baby Bash, and experimenting with digital recording. Under the name Cuco, he recorded Wannabewithu while still in high school and quickly developed a regional following, particularly among young Latinos. A follow-up mixtape, Songs4u, arrived in 2017 as Cuco made the move from playing SoCal house concerts to proper clubs, selling out his first two venues. Singing in both English and Spanish over woozy track beds of synths and drum machines, he continued releasing new material, including the 2018 singles "Sunnyside" and "CR-V," both of which appeared on his EP Chiquito in May of that year. The standalone single "Fix Me" with Dillon Francis arrived in 2019. These placeholder songs paved the way for Cuco's debut studio album, Para Mi, which arrived in the summer of 2019 on Interscope Records.