“Hey My Song”; Listen to my song. Latinos, Puerto Ricans in particular, have been affirming this for years. Trying that anyone who wants to listen to listen to his music: Reggaeton. A mix of Spanish rap style lyrics over a fast reggae drum beat. Many people in the US tried reggaeton for the first time with “Hey My Song” in the summer of 2004. In fact, Reggaeton was developed 30 years ago in Panama when Jamaican immigrants were brought in during the construction of the Panama Canal. With them they brought Reggae music.
In 1985, rapper Vico C from Puerto Rico produced the first Hip-Hop album in Spanish. Thus, the two main influences of the genre were present, as well as the two main producing countries. In the mid-1990s, Puerto Ricans were making their own material, with hip-hop influences, and recording what are considered the first Reggaeton songs. Today, music is flourishing in both Puerto Rico and Panama. And now it looks like it’s headed to the US.
The music is very similar to Jamaican reggae or ragga. The same rhythm is used and the voices tend to be reggae-style, although hip-hop-style voices are becoming extremely popular. The lyrics are often about love, cheating, street life, passion, and misunderstandings. Although there are many artists who have incorporated obscene lyrics, they have nothing to do with sex.
Today’s reggaeton has grown in size in recent years; evidenced by the clue mentioned at the beginning of this article. “Hey My Song” It was released in the summer of 2004 by rapper Noreaga with a well known reggaeton artist named Daddy Yankee and also with GemStar, Big Mato and Nina Sky. This song appeared on the Billboard charts and had a great rotation on radio stations around the world. Everyone, including Noreaga, believed they had come across something new. But recently Puerto Rican artists (possibly producing the most popular reggaeton artists) have emerged to be popular outside of the island of Enchantment: Tego Calderon, Don Omar, Winsin and Yandel, Hector and Tito, Daddy Yankee, Baby Rasta and Gringo and Ivy Queen. These are the most popular artists from Puerto Rico and most of Latin America. They are credited with bringing him mainstream, amassing a huge following in areas like New York, Florida, Boston, and Chicago.
Big companies are taking notice, too. Last year, Roc-A-Fella Records, best known to rappers Jay Z, Beanie Sigel and Foxy Brown, created an extension of the label for Latino artists known as Roc-La-Familia. Bad Boy mogul Sean “P Diddy” Combs has also started Bad Boy Latino. The genre that was once punished begins to flourish. Reggaeton seems to be what hip-hop was in the early 80s. A “fad” that is here to stay.
Another example of big music companies taking notice is Tego Calderon’s signing with Atlantic Records through a worldwide deal involving Calderon’s own record label, Jiggiri Records. More Daddy Yankee kicked off his US tour “Who’s Your Daddy” at Madison Square Garden in New York on August 27, 2005.