Featured Playlist
- Invasion of Privacy · 2018
- MIA (feat. Drake) - Single · 2018
- Vete - Single · 2019
- UN DIA (ONE DAY) - Single · 2020
- Yonaguni - Single · 2021
- MALA SANTA · 2017
- OASIS · 2019
- I Like It (Dillon Francis Remix) - Single · 2018
- OASIS · 2019
- Volví - Single · 2021
Essential Albums
- As if being two of the biggest and busiest artists working today wasn’t enough to make an album-length team-up between J Balvin and Bad Bunny a tricky project to pull off, there’s also the difference in the stars’ lifestyles. “I wake up at five in the morning,” Balvin tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, “and he goes to sleep at five in the morning. I’m ready to go to the gym and he’s ready to go to bed.” They are the odd couple of urban Latin music: Balvin, an experienced Colombian reggaetón singer who spent the last decade honouring and advancing the genre’s legacy; and Bunny, the flamboyant punk upstart who quickly made his name as one of the more unique acts in the trap en español scene. First teased on Ebro Darden’s Beats 1 show in 2018, the surprise joint album builds on the breakthrough moment of their contributions to Cardi B’s megahit “I Like It”, pushed along by a healthy dose of mutual admiration. “It was like, ‘We have to do something,’” Bad Bunny says of the urgency in the wake of the chart-topping bilingual smash. “A project hasn’t been done in the Latin market from two huge artists with two different styles.” Their parallel lives in the tight-knit urbano scene initially brought them together, and while some of this material dates back to before they blew up, most of the album was completed before they both performed at Coachella in April 2019. As Balvin and Bunny originate from some of the most vibrant locales for Spanish-language music today—and with both representing their homelands proudly in their work—their union here on OASIS shines a brighter and deserving light on the flourishing urban Latin sound. The natural chemistry the pair shared on “I Like It” and 2017’s one-off single “Si Tu Novio Te Deja Sola” proves even more potent over the course of these eight new tracks. On “QUE PRETENDES”, Balvin slinks around the taut reggaetón groove as Bunny’s sung bars, by contrast, bounce against its structure. For the retro-nodding “MOJAITA”, their divergent flirty techniques merge into a gratifying mix that highlights the individuality of their personal and popular appeals. Emotions run high across the pointed verses traded on “ODIO”, buoyed by a breezy beat. “YO LE LLEGO” presents trap dosed with a piquant salsa tincture, while the booze-soaked “LA CANCIÓN” mingles jazzy touches around a muted dembow. Deviating from genre conventions has been crucial to both artists' come-ups, and that approach extends to OASIS. Veteran Argentinian heroes Los Enanitos Verdes add rock flair to “UN PESO”, while the Mr Eazi collaboration “COMO UN BEBÉ” bridges urbano with Afrobeats. As far as Bad Bunny is concerned, the project is about more than merely blending musical styles. “There’s a message here that goes beyond,” Bunny says. “It’s not like me and someone else from Puerto Rico. It’s something bigger.” Adds Balvin, “We just wanted to elevate our culture, you know? If I win, they win. If we win, we all win.”
Albums
- 2019
Artist Playlists
- The Puerto Rican rapper’s rise to global phenomenon never seemed in doubt.
- Always risqué, sly and magnetic.
- From hits to deep cuts, breaking down the samples that have inspired one of music’s most vital artists.
- Reggaetón, trap and more shape the singer's style.
- 2021
- 2021
- 2021
- Benny Benni, Pacho & Pusho
- Cosculluela
- Enrique Iglesias
- Enrique Iglesias
More To Hear
- Roddy Ricch on "Late At Night" and a chat with Calvin Harris.
- The artist on his song "100 MILLONES" with Luar La L.
- The artist speaks to El Guru about 'EL ÚLTIMO TOUR DEL MUNDO.'
- The artist talks 'EL ÚLTIMO TOUR DEL MUNDO.'
More To See
About Bad Bunny
Two years before he was named Artist of the Year at the 2022 Apple Music Awards, Bad Bunny spoke to Apple Music about his then-new album YHLQMDLG. His debut, X 100PRE, had helped bring Latin trap to a global audience without diluting its regional spirit—no small feat. Did he feel like he had to do even better the second time out? “I’ll be honest with you,” he said. “No.” No? “On the contrary, I wanted it to be different.” Like his collaborator J Balvin, El Conejo Malo has become a symbol of Latinx culture’s migration into the global mainstream, reshaping the look, sound and feel of modern pop just by following his own idiosyncratic muse. YHLQMDLG: Yo hago lo que me da la gana—I do whatever I want. Part of doing whatever he wants meant putting out three projects that year, including the forward-thinking fusion album EL ÚLTIMO TOUR DEL MUNDO and a set of collaboration-heavy tracks from the vault, LAS QUE NO IBAN A SALIR. It also meant taking time to plan his next move. “I like to prepare myself and prepare the surroundings to work my music,” he says about his process. “But when I get a good idea that I want to work on in the future, I hold it until that moment.” That moment came with 2022’s Un Verano Sin Ti. Though the LP’s title might suggest a shift into sad-boy mode, it instead revealed a different conceptual aim as his ultimate summer playlist. “It's a good vibe,” he says. “I think it's the happiest album of my career.” As a kid growing up Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, in the mid-’90s (he was born Benito Martínez Ocasio in 1994), Bunny fell in love with a broad spectrum of Latin music—reggaetón, merengue, salsa—before discovering American hip-hop. His best tracks don't just blend tradition and futurism, Latin and global, but stake out new thematic territory for male Latinx artists, including personal vulnerability (“Vete”) and sexual violence against women (“Yo Perreo Sola”, “Bellacoso”), making him both a role model and an ally for LGBTQ+ communities and socially progressive values.
- HOMETOWN
- San Juan, Puerto Rico, United States
- BORN
- 10 марта 1994 г.
- GENRE
- Latin Urban