Daddy Yankee celebrates his 50th birthday this Tuesday, a time in which he became known as ‘The Boss’ of reggaeton, with the worldwide hits ‘Gasolina’ and ‘Despacito’, to recently leave the urban genre and move to Christian music with songs like ‘Sonríele a la vida’.
“I reach my 50th with health, with life and with a more authentic heart. Not perfect… but conscious,” wrote today on his Instagram account the singer, who added that life “doesn’t form you in comfort, it forms you in the process, in the falls, in the doubts, in the moments where you choose not to give up.”
Ramón Ayala Rodríguez, the artist’s given name, grew up in the Villa Kennedy public housing project in the San Juan sector of Santurce and Las Lomas, also in San Juan, along with his parents and siblings.
Daddy Yankee: Creator of the word regueton
It was at Villa Kennedy where his musical tastes in salsa and American hip-hop germinated, especially Big Daddy Kane, from whom he got part of his artistic name.
There, as a curious teenager looking to expose his talent, he met DJ Playero, who in those days was dedicated to producing cassettes or ‘mixtapes’, which synthesized hip-hop and reggae dancehall rhythms in Spanish, and gave the young singer his first professional opportunity.
That happened in the first production ‘Playero 34’, where for the first time the word reguetón or reggaeton was heard, as Daddy Yankee recounted in 2019, during the first edition of the Premios Tu Música Urbano.
“That was in the living room of Playero’s house. Using the augmentative of reggaeton, something different, but with the influence of Panama and the Jamaican matrix. Then we went little by little with salsa, vallenato, merengue, among others,” he said at the time.
In this musical event, Daddy Yankee affirmed that he always had the vision that the urban genre, of which he proclaims himself ‘The Boss’, was going to conquer the whole world.
“I had a glimpse of it, I had the vision and we always dreamed of it. We always had that hunch that it was going to the whole world. It is a culture that came from here, but united from all Latinos,” he said.
DJ Playero featured Daddy Yankee in his next productions, from ‘Playero 35’ to ‘Playero 40’ and, at the same time, the renowned artist began to release his own albums, the first being ‘No Mercy’ and ‘El Cartel de Yankee’.
Gasoline’ propelled the genre for good
Daddy Yankee later teamed up in a duet with Nicky Jam, releasing his album, ‘Haciendo Escante’ and when they separated, he released in 2004 his album ‘Barrio Fino’, which included the famous track ‘Gasolina’.
This song, listened to and danced to all over the world, boosted the career of the legendary reguetonero, who continued working on his own albums, including ‘El Cartel: The Big Boss’, ‘Mundial’ and ‘Prestige’.
At the end of 2017, he released alongside Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Luis Fonsi the video for ‘Despacito’, which at one point became the most viewed video in YouTube history and surpassed 8.9 billion views.
However, after more than thirty years in urban music, in December 2023 he announced his conversion to Christianity, closing his career in reggaeton to dedicate himself to “transform lives” through his faith, as he announced at the end of a concert tour at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico.
“My faith in Jesus has been my anchor. He held me up when I felt weak, gave me hope when I didn’t see clearly and taught me to walk with purpose,” the artist said today in his message on social networks.
Daddy Yankee himself had to transform his life when he announced a little over a year ago his divorce from Mireddys González, after almost three decades of marriage.
The divorce also led to a lawsuit over control of the corporations El Cartel Records and Los Cangris, Inc. amid allegations that Gonzalez had destroyed files and transferred millions of dollars to his personal accounts, reported Agencia EFE.
Find out more at ‘QueOnnda.com’.
