Ryan Castro
photo: andrelovanegas · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Bryan David Castro Sosa, born in 1994 and raised in the working-class Pedregal neighborhood of Medellin, came up singing on public buses and street corners before turning professional in 2017 with the single "Morena," building a following on SoundCloud and YouTube under the nickname "El Cantante del Ghetto." A teenage stint in Curacao steeped him in Caribbean dancehall, reggae, and carnival rhythms, a palette he fuses with reggaeton and afrobeats across breakout hits like "Jordan," "Mujeriego," and "Quema." He has said the biopics of rappers like Eminem and 50 Cent first convinced him that music could be a way out, and credits Medellin's reggaeton wave with clearing a path for a new generation of Colombian artists.
Castro credits the Medellin reggaeton wave, and Balvin above all, with making a path for new Colombian artists, telling Rolling Stone that the world now knows they come from the same land as Balvin. That inheritance is audible in his more melodic, unhurried paisa reggaeton, where the vocal glides over a sparse dembow rather than crowding it.
listen forPut on Balvin's "Ginza" and then Castro's "Mujeriego" and listen for the same laid-back, half-sung hook floating over a rubbery, near-empty dembow, the melody carrying the song while the beat leaves space around it.
Press and Castro alike frame his strongest lane as classic, early-2000s reggaeton, and "Quema" was built as an old-school-inspired track. The blueprint for that sound, the insistent boom-ch dembow and the shouted, percussive hook, was codified by Daddy Yankee, and it drives Castro's more traditionalist club singles.
listen forDrop Daddy Yankee's "Gasolina" next to Castro's "Quema" and hear the same relentless dembow kick pattern and gang-shouted, call-and-response chorus engineered to detonate a dancefloor.
Castro has repeatedly said dancehall and reggae are core to who he is, telling interviewers that longtime fans know him more for dancehall and that his Curacao years soaked him in Caribbean riddims. That melodic, sing-jay dancehall was carried into the pop mainstream by Sean Paul, whose patois-inflected hooks over a skipping riddim are echoed in Castro's afro-dancehall singles.
listen forPlay Sean Paul's "Temperature" and then Castro's "Jordan" and notice the same bouncing, syncopated dancehall riddim and the loose, melodic sing-jay flow riding just behind the beat.