Ivy Queen
Martha Ivelisse Pesante Rodríguez, known as Ivy Queen, is a Puerto Rican rapper and singer who broke into reggaeton's formative underground scene as the lone woman in the all-male collective The Noise before going solo. Dubbed "La Reina del Reggaeton," her 2003 anthem "Quiero Bailar" turned a blunt statement about bodily autonomy on the dance floor into one of the genre's defining feminist statements.
Ivy Queen has repeatedly named Celia Cruz as her single biggest influence, pointing to her voice, image and joyous stage presence as proof that a woman's singular personality could carry an entire genre — a lesson Ivy Queen applied directly to reggaeton.
listen forPlay Celia Cruz's 'Quimbara' next to Ivy Queen's 'Te He Querido, Te He Llorado' — listen for the shared sense of total vocal command, a performer who owns the room the moment she opens her mouth.
El General is widely credited as one of the fathers of reggae en español, fusing Jamaican dancehall toasting with Spanish lyrics in Panama years before Puerto Rico's underground scene — the foundation Ivy Queen and her Noise-era peers built reggaeton's dembow backbone on top of.
listen forPlay El General's 'Tu Pum Pum' next to Ivy Queen's 'Quiero Bailar' — listen for the shared skipping dembow riddim underneath very different vocal attitudes.
Ivy Queen came up alongside foundational figures like Vico C during reggaeton's underground rap-en-español years, and her earliest recorded work — freestyling with The Noise crew — sits in the same plainspoken, rhyme-forward Spanish-rap tradition he pioneered.
listen forCue Vico C's 'La Recta Final' before Ivy Queen's first recorded verse on 'Somos Raperos Pero No Delincuentes' — listen for the same unhurried, syllable-packed Spanish rapping over a stripped-down beat.