Arguably one of the most well know Reggaeton artists in the world Daddy Yankee has release platinum albums, signed endorsement deals with the likes of Pesi and Reebok and help pioneer the genre from it’s grassroots begins in his native Puerto Rico to become a world wide phenomenon. Even with this great success Daddy Yankee has remained humble while constantly crafting club shaking hit after hit. A blend of Puerto Rican underground rap music, elements of Reggae and Latin rhythms since Daddy Yankee’s 2002 release of El Cangri.com Reggaeton music has dominated American Radio to the point of securing major commercial radio stations dedicated to the genre in cities like Miami and New York. Daddy Yankee has now unleashed his talents on the silver screen with the completion of the film “Talento de Barrio” and it’s soundtrack featuring the already buzzing Reggaeton single “Somos De Calle”. Read as Daddy Yankee breaks down what he has been up to.
Rap Interviews: A lot of people in the United States have become familiar with reggaeton music but some fans are still ignorant when it comes to the roots and origins of reggaeton. For those that don’t know, can you speak on the fusion of elements that make up reggaeton and the tradition that the music comes from?
Daddy Yankee: The inspiration for reggaeton comes from the Hip-Hop environment, the dancehall movement and also all of the Caribbean elements that we incorporate. Some of the influences that are present in reggaeton music come from Cuba, salsa music, dancehall from Jamaica and the Hip-Hop and reggae that the Panamanians were making in the ‘90’s. We incorporate all of those elements into one music and that’s reggaeton. Rap Interviews: You’ve enjoyed a great deal of success in recent years and perhaps as a result of that some people actually think that you’re a new artist, which is not the case. You’ve been doing this for a long time; can you speak on that? Daddy Yankee: Exactly, a lot of people think [I haven’t been around that long], that I’m a new artist. Which is sometimes really good because it’s going to give you more time in your career; but I’ve been doing this for the last fifteen years starting from the underground environment. If you look at reggaeton history I’ve been one of the pioneers since day one. I started rapping in the ‘hood and I’ve been representing reggaeton music [for a long time]. It was originally an underground scene and a lot of people are ignorant about that. They don’t know that story. We were flying to Dominican Republic; we were flying to Central America in the ‘90’s, so the music became popular because of the underground movement that was growing in South America, Central American and the Dominican Republic. Once New York City really embraced the music, that was the bridge for reggaeton to explode all over the world.
” My cousin, she lives in New York, so when she would fly to Puerto Rico for vacation she would bring me all the music from New York; Rakim, Public Enemy, Kool G Rap, King Sun, KRS One, all of them”
Rap Interviews: Growing up near San Juan, who were some of your early musical influences; what artists were you a fan of prior to when you decided to pursue a career in music? Daddy Yankee: Back in the days man, there was a lot of people whose careers I was following. People like Rakim, he was one of my favorites back in the day when I was in Puerto Rico. My cousin, she lives in New York, so when she would fly to Puerto Rico for vacation she would bring me all the music from New York; Rakim, Public Enemy, Kool G Rap, King Sun, KRS One, all of them. We also had another music [in Puerto Rico] that started becoming real popular in the ‘hood in the 90’s, and that was the dancehall movement. At that time the movement was being led by Supercat, Cutty Ranks [as well as other artists], they were real popular on the island in the early ‘90’s. Rap Interviews: You are starring in the soon to be released film Talento de Barrio, which is said to somewhat parallel your own personal life. In addition to starring in the movie you will also be releasing the film’s soundtrack. Can you talk about the project and what fans can expect? Daddy Yankee: Number one, I want to clear up that the film is not my biography, but still, it is a real story about all the situations and the struggle everybody goes through in the barrio. So once you see it, people who don’t even speak Spanish will identify with it because the scenarios in the barrio and all other ‘hoods is the same. It’s the same struggle that we go through every day. One good thing about the movie is it’s the first time a Spanish movie was actually filmed in the barrio. So people are going to be able to see the real stuff that happens and goes on in the ‘hood and how we handle things. As far as the soundtrack, it’s the new Daddy Yankee album, we got fifteen new tracks and it’s real hot. I know in the American market a lot of artists have done this before, but for the Latin market [releasing a movie soundtrack] is a completely new thing. So I’m opening the doors for everybody in the Latin market with the vision that people here in the Latin market can go to a movie and also buy a soundtrack and really understand the concept. This is an urban movement; it’s different than boleros and the rest of the music genres. So right now we’re educating the people about our [Latin] urban movement and people are starting to understand it more and more. Rap Interviews: Besides being an entertainer you are very active with social work as well as contributing to various charities and working with the youth in Puerto Rico as well as abroad. What kind of community related projects are you currently involved in? Daddy Yankee: I am [involved] with several charities and I have my foundation Corazón Guerrero and we work hand to hand with people in jail. Two weeks ago we donated a couple of scholarships for people about to graduate from schools in jail. So when they go back into society they are going to really have an opportunity to change their lives. Also I’m working in the Dominican Republic with an orphanage to help out all the orphaned kids over there. Then I got another project that’s called Putting Diamonds To School that I’m working on in Puerto Rico, Columbia, Bolivia and Guetemala. We take the schools that really need to fix their infrastructure and we go there and fix the school. So right now under my foundation we got a lot of of projects where we are working directly with education.
“The first thing in life is real life, so you have to have a real life and be the best that you can. And that’s the way I’ve been succesful”
Rap Interviews: Over the last few years you’ve signed endorsement deals with several large corporations, Reebok and Pepsi included. As you are closely involved with your community do you ever question the intent of some of the corporations that may approach you, where you think – well, maybe these guys are just trying to use me to sell their product in the Latin market – have you ever rejected or reconsidered offers when you felt that may have been the case? Daddy Yankee: Sometimes it happens, it is a business. But for me it’s beyond just doing business. I’m looking for a way to really have a win win sitation among me as well as the people. With RBK [Reebok], and right now I also have a gel on the market, it’s called Urban Gel, and I will be launching a new fragrance in September – but with all of them, they give a percentage to my foundation [because] I want to really give back to the community. I’m always looking for a good situation from both sides, with business as well as giving back to the people. I think then it’s fair that way. Rap Interviews: What do you think has helped you in being so successful in music as well as in inspiring and helping to uplift others? You have fans all over the world and your recent tour broke attendance records in Ecuador and Bolivia. What would you say has been the key to your success? Daddy Yankee: I’ve been successful with music and my works by being an honest person and being the best person that I could be, because, first of all, if you’re not a good human being it’s impossible that you can be a great artist. The first thing in life is real life, so you have to have a real life and be the best that you can. And that’s the way I’ve been successful and that’s the way I’m trying to inspire all these millions of people that follow Daddy Yankee. Because I was a rebel kid in my past, you know what I’m saying, I was a troublemaker, I ain’t a saint but I learned thanks to all the things that happened in my life. [I realized] that being the best human beings that you can, you are going to have great fruits in your future. And people have seen that side of me, and I think that’s really the most important thing about people embracing me, because they see sincere words every time that I’m speaking. Rap Interviews: With reggaeton growing so much in popularity, where do you feel the music is going? Daddy Yankee: The direction that reggaeton is taking right now is real cool ‘cause right now it’s really becoming an urban movement. Right now under the [umbrella] of the urban Latin movement we got reggaeton, we got Spanish Hip-Hop, we got dancehall, we got reggae; so we got a lot of genres. Reggaeton, I think, is the most well known genre that we got under our urban movement but right now Latinos are more excepting of other fusions of music besides reggaeton, which is a really cool development because that gives us a lot of other options where we can make all different kinds of music. So it’s about reggaeton and all of the other genres of music and fusion that we’re making right now. The direction that we’re taking is definitely an interesting one. Rap Interviews: For the people who know about Daddy Yankee but aren’t completely aware of who you are as an artist and what you represent, what’s the one thing you would want them to know? Daddy Yankee: One thing I would say is, when you listen to Daddy Yankee, just buy the album and you’re going to see the reason why Daddy Yankee is so successful. You’re going to find a lot of music in my album, not just reggaeton. Reggaeton is one of my sides but once you listen to the whole album you’ll see it’s more than that, it’s about music. And that’s the reason that I got plenty of fans all over the world, because I’m feeding all types of music mentalities. For more news and info on Daddy Yankee stay tuned to www.DaddyYankee.com source: riotsound.com
