54 Ultra is John Anthony Rodriguez, a New Jersey artist who got into music sideways — an internship at a local recording studio taught him guitar, and from there he built a sound out of Blood Orange, Steve Lacy, and Kali Uchis records rather than anything he grew up playing himself. His Puerto Rican and Dominican heritage shows up directly in the music: bilingual lyrics laced with a specific kind of nostalgia that doesn't feel dated.
'Heaven Knows,' a retro-soul single, went viral in 2024 and led to his 2025 debut EP, First Works. Since then, 'Turnaround' and 'I'm Hooked' have shown the two sides of what he does — one funky and Latin-soul-leaning, the other synth-heavy pop — without settling into just one lane.