Nick Rivera Caminero, popularly known in the music world as Nicky Jam, is an American singer and composer of urban music. He was born on March 17, 1981 in Boston, Massachusetts; he is of Puerto Rican descent on his father’s side and Dominican on his mother’s side. Since the age of 10, he has shown an interest in urban music, performing raps and improvisations with his friends. Some time later, he moved with all his family to Cataño, Puerto Rico, where Nicky began to work as a packer in a supermarket, to help financially in his house. In 1992, while he was working he began to rap and improvise, capturing the attention of the clients that were in the supermarket, among the clients was the wife of a record director from Puerto Rico, who was surprised with his attitude for singing and decided to take Nicky to her husband. The young man gave his best rhymes in front of the impresario, who was surprised by Nicky Jam’s excellent performance, and offered to sign a recording contract with him. The singer recorded his first rap and reggae album titled “Distinto a los demás”, which was not very successful in the market, but made several DJ’s consider it as an opening act for some musical events. At that time, a passerby called him “Nicky Jam” as a joke, and from there the singer took his stage name.
In the mid-1990s, Nicky Jam met Reggaetoner Daddy Yankee, for whom he had a lot of respect and admiration; Yankee offered to work with him as a hype man in a concert he would perform in the Dominican Republic. After that concert and thanks to the excellent performance, Daddy Yankee and Nicky Jam formed the duo “Los Cangris”, recording songs like “En la cama” and “Guayando”. In the year 2001, one of Nicky’s songs was part of Daddy Yankee’s album “El Cartel II”, with the song “Tu cuerpo en la cama”. A few months later, Yankee discovered that Nicky was using drugs and alcohol, he tried to help him, but after not getting positive results and receiving a song from Nicky Jam, in the year 2004 they separated.
By the end of 2004, Nicky Jam released his debut reggaeton album entitled “Vida Escante”, which was a huge success in the urban genre with the songs “Me estoy muriendo”, “Me voy pa’l party”, “No soy tu esposo” and “Chambonea”, reaching the fourth position in the Top Tropical Albums and the 23rd in the Top Latin Albums, by Billboard and important positions in the Latin Tropical Airplay. That same year, his album was overshadowed by the release of several hits by his former partner Daddy Yankee, so Nicky Jam stopped recording songs, falling back into addiction and absolute depression.In December 2007, the urban singer took up the music again with the release of his album “The Black Carpet”, with which he reached the 24th position of the Top Latin Albums in the United States. The album was a regular success, however, Nicky Jam continued to work on urban music throughout the 2000’s, with very little success or recognition, so much so that the singer said:”A lot of fame came to me at a young age and I didn’t take advantage of it… a lot of irresponsibility.”After a difficult time in music, Nicky Jam persisted and sought to start his career again, so he traveled in 2007 to Medellin, Colombia, where he gave several concerts, also presented in other Colombian cities between 2007 and 2010, where he had a great reception, motivating him to continue on the road to success. Nicky Jam’s new mentality influenced him to leave behind his past problems with Daddy Yankee, with whom he recorded the song “El party me llama” in 2012.In 2013, the singer released his single “Voy a Beber,” with which he became very popular in Latin America and reached the top of several Billboard magazine charts. A year later, he released the song “Travesuras”, with which he continued to position himself and gain more fame in reggaeton, also reaching number four on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs list.By February 2015, Nicky Jam signed a contract with Sony Music Latin and SESAC Latina, and released the song “El Perdón”, which also had a remix in collaboration with Enrique Iglesias. The song became a worldwide hit, so much so that it reached the top of several charts in Spain, France, Portugal, the Netherlands and Switzerland. In countries like Bulgaria and Belgium it reached the second position in several music lists, the 4th position in Sweden, the 8th in Germany and the 9th in Austria. In the United States, it reached 65th place on the Billboard Hot 100 and 82nd place on the Canadian Hot 100.The song “El Perdón” was the second song with the most weeks in the number 1 position of Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs, after remaining at the top of the list for 30 weeks; in addition, the single was chosen as the 12th best song of the year 2015 by Billboard.Nicky Jam won the 2015 Grammy Award in the Best Urban Performance category for his song “El Perdón” and was nominated for Best Urban Music Album for Greatest Hits Volume 1.On January 20, 2017, Nicky Jam released his album Fénix, which is the singer’s seventh studio album.On September 15, 2017, the song and video for “Cásate conmigo” (Marry me), a song by Colombian vallenato singer Silvestre Dangond, was released, where the Puerto Rican collaborated by giving his urban touch. That same year, he collaborated on the song “Bella y sensual” by singer Romeo Santos, with the participation of Daddy Yankee.
Discography
1994 – Distinto a los demas
2001 – Haciendo escante
2003 – Salón de la fama
2004 – Vida escante
2005 – Vida escante: Special Edition
2007 – The Black Carpet
2017 – Fénix
2019 – Íntimo
