The King of Reggaetón A long time ago, before he started draping himself in huge diamond medallions, before flocks of teenage girls began trailing him nearly everywhere, before he had a staff of 15 working day and night on the maintenance of his image, Daddy Yankee had a regular name, which was Raymond Ayala. When [...]

Reggaetón igniting This new multiculti musical mix of Latino salsa, reggae dancehall and hip-hop is “not a fad,” says a hitmaker, “it’s a subculture.” From the Lambada to “Livin’ la Vida Loca,” American pop music is dotted with hotly hyped Latin crossover successes that were supposed to remake the mainstream in their multicultural image… Is [...]

Busy reggaeton stars offer some new, some old In the past 18 months, reggaeton has become so popular and grown so fast that the leading artists have had trouble keeping up with demand. New releases by Daddy Yankee, Ivy Queen and Don Omar could all be described as stopgap measures — and yet they all [...]

For San Juan Youth, Reggaetón Rules the Night Backstage at La Feria, a local fair on the outskirts of San Juan across the street from the massive Plaza Las Americas shopping mall, Karelys Rodríguez, a 15-year-old wearing a tiny pair of denim cut-off shorts that would make Daisy Duke blush, was rehearsing her dance moves [...]

Bimbo Interview While Latin hip-hop and rap has been the causeway to a considerable flow of both industry and consumer dollars over the past five years, it’s reggaeton that has provided a fresh face on the contemporary Latin music scene. One such innovator and now one of reggaeton’s larger than life stars is Puerto Rico’s [...]

The reputed rebel of reggaeton Even with rumors of a career decline, Tego Calderon is keeping up his bad-boy reputation. Puerto Rico’s Tego Calderon appeared to be doing his best last week during a tour swing through Southern California to live up to his reputation as the rebellious rapper of reggaeton. He did so by [...]

Daddy Yankee: En Directo It is November 25th, 2005, the day after Megaton, the self-proclaimed “biggest reggaeton concert in the world”, and Daddy Yankee is hanging around his room in Midtown Manhattan’s Parker Meridian hotel. He is visibly exhausted, and with good reason.

Don Omar brings rap, reggae blend Reggaeton is an imperialistic kingdom, and Don Omar proudly sits on the throne. The spicy fusion of reggae and rap is becoming an increasingly popular musical genre, hopping off the Caribbean Islands and surfacing on the mainland. Puerto Rico native Omar leads the reggaeton revolution, and his latest album [...]