Bad Bunny
photo: toglenn · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio grew up in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, absorbing his father's salsa and merengue records and his mother's ballads alongside the reggaetón and rap blaring from island radio. Uploading tracks to SoundCloud while working as a supermarket bagger, he broke out in the late 2010s to become reggaetón and Latin trap's defining global voice of the 2020s, folding dembow, bolero, and dance-pop into music that stays rooted in Puerto Rican identity and politics.
Bad Bunny grew up on Daddy Yankee's perreo-ready dembow, and that same clipped, insistent rhythmic pocket still underlies his own club tracks.
listen forCue up Daddy Yankee's 'Gasolina' and then Bad Bunny's 'Safaera' back to back — the same boom-ch-boom-chick dembow snap drives the low end of both, just filtered through a different generation's studio sheen.
Bad Bunny has said his earliest musical memory was receiving Vico C's 'Aquel Que Había Muerto' as a Christmas gift at age five, and Vico C's dense, socially conscious Spanish-language storytelling rap set the template Bad Bunny reaches for in his most pointed songs.
listen forHear the narrative, moralizing rap DNA of Vico C's 'Aquel Que Había Muerto' echo in Bad Bunny's 'El Apagón,' where he trades hooks for pointed commentary on gentrification and Puerto Rico's power grid.
Bad Bunny has named Héctor Lavoe among the artists who shaped him growing up, and salsa's melodic phrasing and dramatic vocal runs surface in the more musical, live-instrumentation corners of his catalog.
listen forPut on Héctor Lavoe's 'El Cantante' and then Bad Bunny's 'Yo No Soy Celoso' — listen for the same romantic salsa lilt and horn-driven warmth underneath Bad Bunny's reggaetón delivery.