“How’s Bad Bunny gonna be the king of pop?” Bad Bunny asks in Spanish in the genre-bending opener ‘Nuevayol’ from his new album ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’ (which translates to ‘I Should Have Taken More Photos’). “With reggaeton and dembow!” he asserts. The song’s title is a phonetic representation of how a Puerto Rican person would say ‘New York’, a proud reflection of his roots, evident throughout the global phenom’s most daring LP yet. As the superstar extends his Spanish-language reign over pop, he’s pushing back on the colonisation of his homeland by bringing its folk music to the forefront.
Whereas 2022’s ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’ highlighted the music of the Caribbean, Bad Bunny’s latest LP is a love letter to Puerto Rico that celebrates the island and its música jíbara, or folk music from the countryside. The most defiant song on the album is the ‘Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii’, in which música jíbara, a rooster’s crow and haunting synth-pop collide. Here, Benito calls out the gentrification Puerto Rico is facing and advocates for the island’s independence: “Don’t let go of the flag nor forget the ‘lelolai’ because I don’t want them to do to you what they did to Hawaii.”
Tellingly, ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’ comes on the heels of a particularly political year for the superstar. When he wasn’t filming a Happy Gilmore sequel with Adam Sandler or shooting an action flick with Austin Butler, Benito was campaigning against the establishment in Puerto Rico’s gubernatorial election. He helped push the third-party candidate that advocated for the island’s independence to the runner-up position in the race. In ‘Una Velita’, a precursor to the album, Bad Bunny also reflected on the neglect of the island following the 2017 Hurricane Maria disaster.
Bad Bunny masterfully channels his pride for Puerto Rico into a diverse collection of songs that meld sounds of his childhood with where he stands now as Latin music’s most dynamic artist. After rallying his people with the colorful plena anthem ‘Café Con Ron’, he doubles down on his allegiance to the island in the fiery salsa ‘La Mudanza’: “No one will kick me out of here / I’m not going anywhere.” He breaks free of the monotony that plagued 2023’s ‘Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va A Pasar Mañana’, by plunging into deeper emotional depths in the heartbreaking bolero ‘Tourist’ and the nostalgic ‘Dtmf.’
Following the Latin trap detour of his 2023 LP, Bad Bunny also makes a triumphant return to reggaeton. He revisits gritty perreo of the 2000s with Tainy, an architect of the sound from that era, in the explosive ‘Eoo’. The pair push the genre into the future in the electronica-infused ‘Perfumito Nuevo’, featuring alternative artist RaiNao. The alluring ‘Veldá’ with Dei V and Omar Courtz, both rising artists from the island, is further proof that Bad Bunny is always ahead of the curve when it comes to crafting reggaeton bangers.
Bad Bunny’s cross-generational ear is best exemplified in the transcendental ‘El Clúb’, which breathes new life into bomba and plena with house music. He knows how to draw from the past to keep Latin music fresh and progressive. On ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’, Benito revolutionizes Puerto Rico’s folk music and reclaims his reggaeton throne with game-changing fusions that are authentic to him and what he believes in.
