r/Reggaeton

J Balvin Special Guest Paris

Eu AMO brasileiros! (me perdoem) Alegria e humor contagiante e um dos meus maiores sonhos é um dia dar um concerto no Brasil e sentir toda a energia de vocês sem me sentir julgado.

Para quem quiser escutar um pouco do que eu faço: https://open.spotify.com/track/7DwhlsSwZH40N4Vcr5w39S?si=VgqLrBtmT\_G6AK7A9ywBDA

E quem fizer algum tipo de arte ou for produtor por favor podem falar comigo, adoraria investir em produtores raiz

Hello guys. I am an event organizer. Why do some ‘PEOPLE’ feel the need to leave racial remarks about Puerto Ricans / Hispanics / White people on an event page to promote a local Latin music festival?

If I say something back about black people then I am a “raysiss”. I am so fatigued with their shit.

The love they’ve given to the genre over the years they deserve our support if you been watching the games.

Most of the reggaeton I listened to in 2002-2006 was whatever they played on the radio in Orlando and Miami. I DL’d this album and man it takes me back to the early days. Don’t know how I slept on this for 24 years.

There is this track I can't name and that I've only heard once, but I know it's melody. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

Reggaeton Versus VI Maluma vs Alberto Stylee, Old School vs Modern School... Who is the better Pretty Boy Reggaetonero?

Case for Maluma: Maluma is an international superstar who has been going on 15+ years strong. Although he did have it better than most being discovered by music magnate, Walter Kolm and developed by him since Maluma's earlierst days. Maluma is the first artist who ever started in Reggaeton but made his bones with the Pop audience instead. He doesn't write, but most Pop acts don't. But he is a solid performer and vocalist. Maluma seems as if he came from some imaginary Ricky Martin Pop School for future megastars and graduated magna cum laude. His catalogue has been criticized by some as lackluster (I am one of them) but he knows how to perform those songs well and on occasion, some of those tracks are actually good. Maluma is like the prototype of what a Pop Reggaetonero should be and many feel he took the Pretty Boy style of Reggaeton to the next level.

Case for Alberto Stylee: I will start this rather unflattering. The few of you here who are familiar with Alberto Stylee might have gotten to know him in his 2010's Colombia era when he and Nicky Jam went to Colombia to resurrect their careers and help out new talent, like Maluma. But that Stylee was not his best, and if that is the only Alberto you know, I cannot fault you for placing Maluma above him. Unlike Nicky, Alberto did not have an artistic makeover. He scored some big hits in Colombia, notably "Te Imagino" but Alberto's best days were in the 1990's and early 2000's. Sadly that era of Alberto was at most, only seen by a few thousand while in Maluma it is hundreds of millions who saw his rise. But why the comparison? Many see Alberto as the first Pop Reggaeton star and the first "Pretty Boy" selling more of a Chayanne/Ricky Martin image instead of a tough street guy. He had one of the first international crossover Reggaeton hits in 1997's "Vengo Acabando". And his runs from 1995-1998, his comeback in 2002 releasing two platinum albums in 2002 and 2004 respectively, were all pretty legendary. He had plenty of down years too but always rose back to the top. He could do it again. Alberto Stylee was one of Reggaeton's first successful crooners and the original Pretty Boy.

Result: Alberto Stylee. This one is closer than most Old School fans would think. Maluma did a lot more to gain international recognition during Alberto's peak worldwide fame years in Colombia from 2010-2014. I dare say that musically post Colombia, Maluma and Stylee are pretty much even so had it just been those years, Maluma would have won due to his fame. Alberto never came close to the heights Maluma reached and 99.8% of Shakira fans have no idea who he is much less his influence on commercial Pop Reggaeton but they all know who Maluma is. But Alberto Stylee came out at a time when you had to be more street and had to be clever in finding a way to appeal to the underground and the first crossover audiences mainly from the tropical music scene. Alberto was originally going to be in a duo with legendary underground EMCEE Blanco Flake, before Blanco got locked up. Alberto did more than most artists in history and though he had a couple of down years from 1999-2001 due to losing his battle with Falo The Leader, he was still making great music even forming a temporary duo with Rey Pirin and they had so many good songs together like in Grayskull, La Conspiracion 1 and La Mision 2. Then Alberto made one of the greatest comebacks in history releasing a platinum album in "Los Dueños De La Disco" when most thought his career was over. That album is now viewed as a classic by those who know it. I know Alberto post Colombia was hit and miss, but he would have been a legend just for 1995-2002 alone. Without Alberto Stylee there might have never been a Maluma as he opened the first doors for Pop Reggaeton to become commercially viable. RKM & Ken-Y was probably more of a direct influence on Maluma, but it was Alberto Stylee who first opened those doors to begin with.

I’m looking for Reggaetón recs with interesting production. Here are some of my favs rn. I have a preference for electronic influences in the production. Any recs similar to these or ones you’ll think I might enjoy :) thanks

First AI music video. I like how it came out overall, but some parts have lip sync issues. Any advice on how to fix this? I used Openart to create it. Thanks!

https://youtu.be/pX69iXQKDdM

6.28.2026 | Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - London, UK (DTMF World Tour)

Ranking Every Daddy Yankee Album

S tier (Elite) – El Cartel De Yankee 1 Los Intocables (1997) & Barrio Fino (2004)

great – El Cartel De Yankee II Los Cangris (2001), ElCangri..com (2002), Los Homerun-Es De Yankee (2003), Barrio Fino En Directo (2005),  El Cartel The Big Boss (2007), Talento De Barrio (2008), King Daddy (2013)

listenable -  No Mercy (1995). Mundial (2010), Prestige (2012), Legendaddy (2022) & Lamento En Baile (2025)

meh – Ahora Le Toca Al Cangri Live (2005)

dogshit –

Analysis:  El Cartel 1 and Barrio Fino in my honest opinion are the only masterpieces in Daddy Yankee’s catalogue.  I don’t recommend El Cartel 1 to those of you new school listeners who hate electro Reggaeton and/or the 90’s flow, especially the post Playero era when people started copying less from the Jamaicans.  Only people who love 90’s Reggaeton are capable of understanding El Cartel 1 and why it’s so great. 

“Barrio Fino” on the other hand is DY’s commercial magnum opus.  Most people, even old school fans feel it is superior to El Cartel 1, I disagree but undeniably it is one of the best produced albums in Urbano music history and the beats are certainly more well composed than El Cartel 1.  The great thing about “Barrio Fino” is that it could reach Nach fans and Shakira fans as much as the Reggaeton core base.  It was an album designed for all tastes and that is pretty rare to find.

The great tier I think will be inarguable for most.  I know some will think ElCangri..com belongs in the S tier but I think that album is too dumbed down.  It has some great songs, but the Rap songs are just alright and this is Reggaeton Sex DY which was cool, but his songs on various artists albums of the day like 9 Plagas 2, La Conspiracion 1 and Gargolas 3 was better than everything on ElCangri.com.  The best song was “Son Las Doce” but that song hasn’t aged well because of it’s near misogynistic lyrics which can be perceived that way by feminists and the sort… “El Gistro, El Gistro”… but Reggaeton parties really do get that wild so...

The album I almost left out from the great section was “El Cartel II Los Cangris”.  It’s good, but not great, yet I kept it in the great tier because the stand out songs are better than most stuff ever made.  The Karel y Voltio malianteo is God Mode for malianteo songs.  Daddy Yankee & Nicky’s tracks for “Ritmo De La Calle” and “Tu Cuerpo En La Cama” are underground classics.  MC Ceja’s “Nigga What What” is one of the greatest Spanish Rap songs in history.  What’s good here outweighs the forgettable such as Memo y Vale’s disappointing “Striptease” which is just an average song.  Some people like “69” by Las Guanabanas but I always felt it was just ok.  But what’s good in El Cartel II far outshines the mediocre thus I included it, although it almost made the “listenable” tier.

“Los Home-runes” remakes are not as good as their originals but are still very good remakes.  People who never heard the original versions from the 90’s think it’s one of the best Reggaeton albums ever.  And the new songs including collabs with Don Omar, Nicky Jam and Voltio are quite good.  “El Cartel The Big Boss” would be on the listenable for many, but I just think it’s a preference from people of the time and how your life was going.  Some expected “El Cartel The Big Boss” to be the end all of Reggaeton, and they were greatly disappointed when it wasn’t that. "The Big Boss" album has probably the most negative reviews of DY’s entire career.  But a new generation appears to be warming up to it, but the sound on “…The Big Boss” is more akin to the blog era of Reggaeton (2009-2015) rather than the Mas Flow era (2002-2008) which is what I think turns most people off.

“Talento De Barrio” was like “Barrio Fino” in its universal appeal with commercial Vallenato-Pop Reggaeton, Soca with Pop and it’s a very Pop album overall.  But it’s also very Reggaetony and street enough to not turn off hardcore Reggaeton fans.  It’s the album Plan B fans and Shakira people can equally enjoy.  It’s just not nearly as good as “Barrio Fino”.

I want to add an interesting note that as few may know, “Talento De Barrio” was originally supposed to be a various artists type album.  Yankee was still going to be all over the production but there were leaks including a Yaga y Mackie collaboration and a song by Arcangel, De La Ghetto & Randy, “Corazon a la Calle” without DY as well as the collaboration “Talento De Barrio” which were kept off the final tracklist.  Angel & Khriz supposedly recorded for it and in the movie you can hear a Trebol Clan song which no one has heard anywhere else.  “El Cartel The Big Boss” was also originally going to be “El Cartel III” until Interscope said no to the idea because Jimmy Iovine wanted a solo Daddy Yankee project instead.  There was promotional material for El Cartel III and it was announced until Interscope said no.

I am of the unpopular opinion that “King Daddy” is DY’s 3rd or 4 best album in his career. People wanted him to do a real Reggaeton album which he did with this one after going uber Pop on “Prestige”.  But the album was poorly promoted by Capitol who did not believe in it and had 0 big hits, scoring only a minor one with “La Nueva y La Ex”.  “King Daddy” was originally supposed to be part of the Musicologo & Menes “Imperio Nazza” series of albums, but Capitol upon hearing of the idea, chose to keep it for themselves.  It might have done better as an “Imperio Nazza” album.  Musicologo & Menes still did about 80% of the beats and are credited as "Los De La Nazza".

I don’t think that Daddy Yankee has a single album that could be considered “Meh” or “Dogshit”.  The closest however is “No Mercy” which is Daddy Yankee’s weakest album, my personal rating is 6/10.  I know the legendary publication “In The House Magazine” posted an image on their website listing classic Reggaeton albums including “No Mercy”.  But I believe the editor made a mistake and confused the album.  There are several notable errors in that list.  And one of the Daddy Yankee songs mentioned isn’t even on “No Mercy”.  So I think either the editor remembered wrong or posted the wrong album. 

But the universal opinion has always been that “No Mercy” is Daddy Yankee’s worst album.  It was a flop even for its day, only selling 6 thousand units which even for 1995 was bad numbers for someone of Daddy Yankee’s status.  DY was already a superstar in Puerto Rico because of his appearances on Playero’s albums where he had the biggest hits from volumes 37-39.  Even Elias White Lion who executively produced “No Mercy” said the album was a disappointment in sales and not DY’s best work compared with what he later did.  But apparently things were so cheap back then, Elias claims he broke even with only selling 6 thousand units.

“Mundial” failed in its day because of Daddy Yankee’s desperate attempt to crossover.  It only sold 100,000 units in its day.  The album was marketed as a soundtrack to the World Cup but DY’s song wasn’t even selected at the end as FIFA wisely went with Shakira’s “Waka Waka” instead.  Apparently some FIFA officials made DY think his song was being chosen which is what led to the album’s terrible marketing plan.

But over time, “Mundial” has done incredibly well on streaming thanks to the singles “Descontrol” and “La Despedida” doing incredible numbers.  It actually isn’t bad in retrospect but it was definitely an overt attempt at DY going Pop which annoyed many people, me included.  But as bad as that was, I feel “Prestige” was worst.

“Prestige” yielded one of Daddy Yankee’s biggest hits in “Limbo” which it appears he knew would be a ginormous song because of how his then young daughter loved the track.  I always hated “Limbo”.  The song isn’t terrible but to me it sounds like one of those corny songs El General did at the end of his run on top like “Jingle Bele Bele”.  “El Funkete” was in the same vein, but at least it was catchy and I personally liked it.  But “Jingle Belele” killed El General’s career and he never fully recovered.

I think “Limbo” would have done the same had Yankee not lucked out and managed a partnership with Zumba which became very big around this time.  That was the main reason “Limbo” was such a big hit because it’s as corny as “Grito Mundial”, DY’s rejected World Cup single.  The song is ok, but well below his best standards, I feel.

But the rest of “Prestige” was pretty disappointing too I felt.  This was during the blog era of Reggaeton.  During that time only Pop Urbano tracks were getting mainstream exposure and real Reggaeton went back to the underground.  Because of this, the underground Reggaeton being made at the time became real street and dirty again since there was no major labels telling artists what they could and could not do.  Daddy Yankee was fully aware of this wave and though he released songs like “Pose” and “Limbo” for the mainstream crowd, he was doing dirty Perreos and street collabs with the likes of Kendo Kaponi and Benny Benni in the underground.

“Prestige” tries to balance the “Limbo” side of Daddy Yankee with his “Imperio Nazza” side and I found it a let down.  At least “Mundial” was intentionally commercial but with “Prestige” he tried to please everyone and I think that’s why it disappointed.  The album wasn’t bad (7/10) and there are several good songs on it but I think DY not finding a steady direction and being pulled in several instead of one clear direction leads to the album being an overall artistic failure despite being very successful commercially.

I don’t hate “Legendaddy” (7/10) but I did feel that this was half assed Daddy Yankee riding off into the sunset on his high horse.  He was basically telling us he was just here to cash a check, and he doesn’t give a damn what anyone thinks about it.  And that has been pretty much his M.O post Barrio Fino.  The Daddy Yankee who wanted to be the best Latin Rapper on earth hasn’t existed for about 2 decades.  And “Legendaddy” was just a pitiful reminder of that.

“Lamento En Baile” (7/10) sounds like it was half AI.  There is literally a song that sounds like it was Don Omar but replaced with Daddy Yankee AI vocals. Don might have co-written and not received credit though.  I think it was the second track.  Some of the messages were good, but Christian DY is too inorganic overall to be good for a long listen.  There are some brilliant songs and a couple that I felt were DY’s best in years.  But he could have included those songs on “Legendaddy” and given a better full product I feel.  There is no reason why DY couldn’t have made a regular album and balance them with socially conscious themes or Christian material like Tito El Bambino sometimes does.  Unless it somehow conflicts with his personal religious beliefs, he would have better served listeners that way.  A whole Christian album was kind of a force though.

Editor’s Note:  I remembered “Ahora Le Toca Al Cangri” which was DY’s first show as a headliner in El Coliseo Roberto Clemente which happened in 2003.  It was during that weird phase where DY and Nicky Jam were no longer on speaking terms, but it was unknown among the public at this time.  Yankee’s show disappointed many, including attendees.

There was plenty of things wrong with “Ahora Le Toca Al Cangri”.  First off, DY used the same live band Hector & Tito and Don Omar used for their live albums/shows.  But for some reason the live band concept failed with DY.  Probably because prior to Barrio Fino, DY’s songs had little melody and no orchestra arrangement unlike Don and Hector & Tito’s songs.  The live band was pretty much pointless and took away from the music instead of adding to it.

Also, DY had possibly gotten too used to Nicky Jam performing with him and seemed to be having a hard time doing a live show without Nicky.  Around this time, Daddy Yankee was using Guelo Star as his hype man.  And though you can hear Guelo Star doing choruses in the background, it was probably a mistake not having him up front as he was very good at motivating the crowd. 

DY would improve his live show without Nicky tenfold over the next year as by the time “En Directo” drops he was one of the best live shows in all of Latin Music.  “Barrio Fino En Directo” and “Ahora Le Toca Al Cangri Live” is night and day different with “En Directo” being vastly superior.  Daddy Yankee also did an American MTV live special in 2006 which showed how much better he had gotten performing.  It was most likely the absence of Nicky Jam and a useless live band which caused “Ahora Le Toca Al Cangri Live” to fail.

The album also failed sales wise.  Only selling about 100,000 units of the DVD and CD combined which were sold separately at the time.  It was due to the poor reviews.  Originally VI Music had shelved the album because they knew how bad the performance was.  But since “Barrio Fino” became so huge and CEO Juan Vidal was angry that DY left VI Music for Interscope, they released the album without DY’s permission and paid him 0 royalties.  DY was pissed but moreso because he knew how bad the performance was and did not want people to see it.

Thanks for reading!

Every Reggaeton Editorial Written by Reggaeton Party Mane 1 & Reggaeton Party Mane P (Updated July 2026))

For context I listened to this Album from April to June 2026. I listened to DTMF, UVST and NSLQVAAPM on Q1 from February to March - in reverse being x100pre last.

I just want to say for someone who doesn’t speak and understand Spanish and discovering reggaeton this year, thank you so much Bad Bunny I never knew I would listen to your entire discography and with no skips, all of the tracks are on my playlist.

I will remember all the happiness, sadness, disappointments, joy in my life when I listen to this again in the far future. I am jealous of other people who haven’t heard these albums I wish I could relive that again but Im happy where I am now.

Thanks Bad Bunny for the great memories, now I don’t know what to do, I need more. Ask me anything if you want. I really want to share how I discovered Bad Bunny but it’s getting long now. It’s funny how half this 2026 I listened to Bad Bunny.

Bad bunny, the weeknd, drake, balvin, kanye, olivia rodrigo ,mac miller ,miachel jackson ,feid, oliver tree