Gerardo Mejía (born April 16, 1965^[1]), better known by his mononym Gerardo, is an Ecuadorian-born American rapper, singer and actor who later became a recording industry executive, and more recently a pastor.

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Gerardo Mejía was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador. When he was 12 years old, he and his family moved to Glendale, California. Based in Los Angeles, California, Gerardo became known for his bandana, ripped skinny jeans, cowboy boots, and jacket that worn with a shirtless torso. He sometimes refers to himself as the "Latin Elvis", the "Latin Frank Sinatra" or the "Latin Tony Zuzio".

Gerardo's first major appearance in show business was as Ricky in the 1987 film Can't Buy Me Love. He was later cast as Bird in the 1988 film Colors, about gang violence in South Central Los Angeles. This was also the first time his dancing skills were on display, in one of the party scenes; However, he did not sing at any point in the film.

His single "Rico Suave" appeared on his 1991 debut album, Mo' Ritmo. The album peaked at number 36 on the Billboard 200 chart in June 1991; the single had peaked at number 7 in April. This song, as well as some others by Gerardo, includes verses and/or verses in English and Spanish, being the first Latin artist who introduced and popularized Spanglish as part of Latin hip hop culture. Although their next single "We Want the Funk" (a semi-remake of "Give up the funk" by the group Parliament, which rather sampled the song's chorus) reached number 16.

Gerardo released a Spanish and a Spanglish version of Rico Suave. The popularity of "Rico Suave" has made Gerardo known as a one-hit wonder through sources such as MTV, VH1, Synthesis Magazine.

In 2005, the VH1 network voted "Rico Suave" as one of the 100 best songs of the 90's. «Gerardo» and the song «Rico Suave» became an icon of Latin hip hop of what would be the old school and of rap in Spanish, becoming synonymous between them, which is reflected in the intro of the video clip of “We Want The Funk”.

In addition to "Rico Suave" and "We want the funk", other hits from Gerardo's early albums were "Latin till I die", "Ven Michu Michu", "María Elisa", "Arroz con carne" and "When the lights go out". In "Latin till I die" he uses the music and chorus of "Oye como va" from "Tito Puente" as the basis of the track.

In a 2013 appearance on Katie Couric's Katie show, Gerardo spoke about his approach to life as a Christian youth pastor expressed in his album 180°, named for the radical change in his life that he attributes to God. The single from this album was the song "Sueña", which had a music video recorded in Cuenca, Ecuador.

Later, on his album La Iglesia de la Calle, he recorded the song "Raperito" with Puerto Rican rapper Vico C. The album received a nomination at the 2007 Arpa Awards for "Best Urban Album." Later, he participated in Reggaeton Nights, the first Christian urban music event that managed to fill the Coliseum of Puerto Rico that brought together Melvin Ayala, Redimi2, Maso, Tercer Cielo and others.

He has released singles for his production “Luces, Cámaras y Unción” released in 2009, with songs like “No me podrán vencer”, “Busco un país”, "The King" (theme to promote " Suave says") and "Señor Presidente", dedicated to former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa.

At the end of 2014, Gerardo and his family were the stars of a reality show called "Suave Says", that would be broadcast on VH1. It lasted 1 season with 9 episodes.

In 2021 he collaborated with "Sophy Mell", "Santiago The Killa" and "Cotizados Family" for the Latin urban pop song "Arroz Con Huevo".

In 2021, he prepared his return to music with a song titled "Agua Amarga", which he performed with Funky, and "Eres bueno" with Frankie J and Alex Zurdo.

Gerardo is married to Kathy Eicher, a former pageant titleholder who was Miss West Virginia USA 1989, and they have three children: Nadia, Bianca, and Jaden. Nadia is a model who competed in pageants like her mother, and won the title of Miss California USA 2016. ^[2] They also have a granddaughter, Lily. They live in Kentucky.^[3]