Daddy Yankee

About Daddy Yankee

The Grammy-award winning superstar Daddy Yankee has attained a folk-hero level of popularity in his native San Juan, while also single-handedly introducing the hyperactive genre of reggaeton to the music mainstream. To the casual music listener, Daddy Yankee may be most famous for his raunchy crossover hit "Gasolina"; in 2004, the single was unavoidable! But Daddy Yankee has been pioneering the underground genre of reggaeton since 1992, and "Gasolina" was just one of his many infectious hits. Born Raymon Ayala, Daddy Yankee grew up in one of San Juan's poor neighborhoods where music was everywhere. American rap and hip hop were just crossing over to Puerto Rico, and young aspiring stars were mixing elements of that new sound with their local club music beats. Daddy Yankee originally dreamed of making it big as a professional baseball player, but at 17 he was caught in the crossfire of a local gang battle, leaving him with a permanent limp and dashing his dreams off the MLB. This also forced Daddy Yankee to turn his attention back to the local music scene. The scene was getting hotter every day, and it wasn't long before Daddy Yankee released his first independent solo album, No Mercy. The album was a commercial disappointment, but listening closely you can hear the beginnings of reggaeton. Daddy Yankee sang and rapped about street life in urban San Juan, all over a bouncing off-beat dance track. After No Mercy Daddy Yankee hooked up with fellow reggaeton artist Nicky Jam, and the two would go on to release the must-have mix-tape albums El Cartel and El Cartel II. 2002 was a big year for Daddy Yankee and reggaeton, with his El Cangri.com album selling well in the taste-making American cities of New York and Miami. Suddenly, it seemed like reggaeton was crossing back and influencing hip hop. In 2004, Daddy Yankee released his most mature album to date, Barrio Fino. The record lived up to its massive hype, and genre-bending singles like the salsa-inflected "Melao" helped to show critics that Daddy Yankee could do more than just the reggaeton beat.