One year ago, there were no rappers wearing yellow nail polish with high-water tuxedo pants at Premios Juventud, much less canary bike shorts in beachside glamour shots. But in the first half of 2016, the era of Bad Bunny had not yet begun. These days, it’s doubtful that there are many urbano fans unacquainted with the Puerto Rican trap en español singer’s pounding baritone, head of impressive shaved designs, and eclectic designer wardrobe that adds a distinctly “fashion” swerve on the genre’s traditional macho styling. Buoyed by DJ Luian and his powerhouse Puerto Rican label Hear This Music, plus a parade of high-ranking cosigners from Arcángel to J Balvin, Bad Bunny’s saturation of the scene in 2017 is startling for an artist who has yet to announce plans for a debut album.
Most importantly, his particular brand of success is a strong omen of what the next years will bring for the Latin music industry.Bad Bunny’s (aka Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) story ignited last January with a “prende otro phillie bebé.” It was the first line of the 23-year-old vocalist’s track “Diles” which, according to DJ Luian, caught the attention of Hear This Music after it had already garnered a million plays on Ocasio’s SoundCloud page. “Dice que le gusta hacerlo con mis temas de trap,” he croons, an addictive beat cradling husky assertions of his sexual prowess. The DIY track’s success convinced Hear This Music that their young artist’s breakout moment had arrived. They stacked a “Diles” remix with multiple generations of urbano heavyweights — emergent reggaetonero Ozuna alongside established ones like Arcángel, Farruko, and Ñengo Flow.
The broad show of force established Bad Bunny’s versatility; he had the blessing of giants, yet was himself part of el género’s new wave. Listeners fell hard, the lyric video for “Diles” alone racking up over 320 million YouTube views and anointing Bad Bunny as Latin trap’s new featured vocalist of choice.It was the start of a heavy run. Bad Bunny’s cutting, luxe-voiced lyrics — aided no doubt by his artful pout, video charisma, and parade of fanciful wardrobe choices — captured fans’ attention and even inspiredimpersonators. In the year after “Diles,” he’s churned out viral singles featuring a universe of hitmakers from Karol G to Nicky Jam on a near weekly basis.
Bad Bunny currently clocks in at 5.7 million monthly Spotify listeners. He has over a billion views on YouTube, the latter of which has played an important role in distribution for many Puerto Rico’s trap artists, especially ones like Anuel AA, who have found their content banned from the radio for explicit lyrics.Bad Bunny’s second hit “Tu No Vive Así” paired him once again with Arcángel for a trap-slung anthem, which in turn set the stage for Bunny’s first massive solo moment, the pitch-black musing “Soy Peor.” That tale of love gone rancid reads as Bad Bunny’s trapero-player origin story, and helped fuel his reputation for heartfelt if twisted romanticism. It garnered a phalanx of response videos, including the clapback put out by vocalist Lady Lauudy.
She was dubiously identified as Bunny’s ex in a thousand reaching YouTube comments — credit fans’ eager theories to the fact that actual details about Bunny’s personal life are kept on a tight leash.Ocasio grew up in the PR beach community of Vega Baja with his parents and two younger brothers. After receiving a Vico C album for Christmas in one of his earliest memories, he says he started singing, songwriting, and producing at 13, counting among his inspirations Héctor Lavoe and Michael Jordan. Bad Bunny reportedly came up with his artist name from a photo of him as a first grader on Easter, looking malevolent in a pair of bunny ears he had been forced to wear.
The gag, as he told Keiry Narvaez in her En La Intimidad video interview series, is that “bunnies are sweet; I’m sweet.” Ocasio studied communications at the University of Puerto Rico’s Arecibo campus before getting his family’s blessings to focus on music. This pivot paid off — Ocasio reportedly first caught DJ Luian’s eye while he was still performing at small San Juan shows and posting videos of himself singing on Instagram. So fresh is Bad Bunny’s fame, he spent a few moments before performing at this year’s Premios Juventud reminiscing to fans that in 2016, he had to race home from his job at a grocery store to catch the televised awards show.
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