Daddy Yankee (February 3, 1977) reggaeton singer, actor, record producer, radio broadcaster and businessman. His birth name is Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He grew up in an environment full of musicians. His father was a salsa percussionist who played bongo, his mother’s family also had several musicians, Daddy was attracted to improvisation from a very young age. When he was a teenager he listened to Hip-hop in Spanish, his idol was Vico C, what he was most passionate about were his lyrics with a conscious message. He rimmed and improvised with his neighborhood friends. Daddy Yankee was invited to be part of DJ Playero’s first studio album in 1992.At 18, Daddy Yankee made his first official project, No Mercy (1995), with the support of DJ Playero, who became a great friend and one of the promoters of his career. At the beginning of the new millennium, Yankee entered as producer; El cartel: los untocables (1997) and El cartel II: los Cangris (2001). His lyrics were inspired by the conflictive environments of his neighborhood, Rio Piedras, a former municipality annexed to the capital, San Juan de Puerto Rico. Really, he was never a young man applied and devoted to school, before wanting to be a singer he wanted to devote himself to baseball. In his free time he danced break dance.With DJ Playero he learned to mix reggae and hip hop rhythms in the studio. DJ Playero knew that Daddy had great rap skills, home recordings were very popular among young people on the island. A song performed by the young debutante was titled Persígueme, no te detengas. At that time he was married to Mireddys González, and from this union his first son was born. He had a problem in his neighborhood and was wounded with a bullet in his femur, he was in recovery for a year. As a consequence, he could no longer think about being a baseball player. He met Nico Canada, a producer, who managed to boost his career. From this moment he signed as Daddy Yankee.Then he began to incline for other sounds, leaving aside a little Hip Hop and rap. So he became a pioneer in the reggaeton, until he became one of its most outstanding performers. His second solo album was El Cangri.com (2002); by that time he had begun his international projection: he began to play on Latin radio stations in the United States, his songs began to expand throughout the island. One of the most popular singles was El gran robo, with the exceptional collaboration of rapper Lito MC Cassidy. He made a promotional tour of concerts in the United States entitled Reggaeton Tour.He gave concerts in Philadelphia, Springfield and Boston. The following year he released Los Homerun-es (2003), which was re-released two years later. A compilation in which, along with new songs, his songs scattered in previous recordings were collected. But it was in 2004 when the fame of this young Puerto Rican became a reality thanks to his new album with a very urban name: Barrio Fino. It didn’t take many months for two million copies and a multitude of recognitions to be sold: he won the Lo Nuestro and Latin Billboard awards, and the successful single Gasolina was nominated for Grammy and MTV awards.Daddy Yankee taking advantage of his fame and how entrenched he was in this genre decided to try new rhythms, so he approached hip hop and rap and even, in some songs, salsa, a genre that unlike his father was weak, but was very fond of this music. Barrio Fino was presented in various parts of the world: America and Europe, the album even became popular in the best-selling lists of Japan. Now, in 2006, Time magazine included Daddy Yankee in its list of the 100 most influential personalities in the world.This artist has been characterized by being open to receive other trends, interested in the evolution of his music. For example, with El Cartel: The Big Boss (2007) he made several hip hop mixes. Daddy Yankee surpassed the most multitudinous artists of the traditional Latin genres in relation to the attendance to their concerts, they were really multitudinous. She was contacted to be the protagonist of the film Talento de Barrio (2008), not only acted, but also composed the soundtrack of the same name. The film reflects the harsh living conditions of the Puerto Rican slums in which Yankee himself grew up.He released an album called Mundial (2010), in which he approached a very popular genre in his country, merengue. With Prestige’s tour (2012) he reaffirmed his position in the world of reggaeton and reaffirmed his colleagues and reggaeton fans because he is the Daddy or the Cangry as many called him. The aforementioned album was a gold record, some of his songs reached the top of the Billboard charts, such as Lovumba, nominated Latin Grammy and Limbo. In 2015 the release of King Daddy II took place, here the urban genre predominated.Daddy Yankee has played in some of his lyrics social reality but also many of his lyrics speak of women, sex, cars and easy money, an issue that has been widely criticized in society. We must also mention that their lyrics are very catchy and generate people dance in erotic and very sensual ways. The truth is that Daddy Yankee has affirmed that his lyrics are an accurate portrait of many aspects of the daily lives of Puerto Rican youth; criticism of the establishment, marginalization, street violence or sex are themes by which young people feel identified.As a mature reggaetonero, he has not hesitated to defend this genre against those who associated it with delinquency. Daddy Yankee has developed several altruistic initiatives such as the Corazón Guerrero Foundation, dedicated to the reinsertion of prisoners. In the course of his career he has been named in many ways and all aim to exalt his position in this relatively new genre. Known as the “King of Improvisation” for his creative ability, he has won the Street Jam Reggae Awards for five consecutive years.Currently, Daddy Yankee’s career has been very successful and has achieved collaborations with important singers such as Luis Fonsi, with whom he launched the song Despacito, received several awards. One of them was presented at the 2018 Latin Billboard Awards; Song of the Year, Airway Song of the Year and Digital Song of the Year were some of the awards they received. Another of the most popular songs at the moment is Dura. It has been a worldwide sensation.
Discography
1995: No Mercy
2002: El Cangri.com
2004: Barrio fino (album Reggaeton dell’anno 2005
2007: El cartel: The Big Boss
2010: Mundial
2012: Prestige
2013: King Daddy
2018: El Disco Duro
