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Bad Bunny (aka Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) is one of the biggest ambassadors of reggaeton and trap music, and has helped widen the spectrum of audience of these two genres since the start of his career. Over the years, his urban music style has also incorporated undertones of rock, punk, and soul music.
Bad Bunny started his career by posting his tunes on SoundCloud and getting spotted by Puerto Rican music producer, DJ Luian when his song Diles went viral in 2016.
The singer to a recording label called Hear This Music. Immediately, his song Soy Peor peaked at #19 on the Hot Latin Songs Chart. Thereafter, Bad Bunny released many singles and collaborated with juggernauts of the industry, including Cardi B, Drake, and others.
Bad Bunny's rise to fame with reggaeton and trap music, explained
Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio changing his name to Bad Bunny has an interesting anecdote attached to it. As a child, the singer shared a photo of himself in a bunny suit and looking very cranky. The name and the photo started going viral and becoming associated with him after he opened a Twitter (now X) account and started sharing his work online.
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Bad Bunny took audiovisual communication classes at the University of Puerto Rico during the day, and worked on his music at night. He finally got his break in 2016 when he started posting his songs on SoundCloud and famous Puerto Rican music producer DJ Luian signed him for his label Hear This Music the same year.
The 30-year-old mostly excelled in the genres of reggaeton and trap music. Reggaeton is a type of music where Spanish rappers rap to the tune of Jamaican reggae.
On the other hand, trap music deals with whatever keeps a person trapped in his life, and twists the negative energy in a positive hue with snare drums and cymbals to produce fast-paced beats. Some of the major buzzwords in trap music include guns, violence, drugs, addiction, etc.
Bad Bunny's collaborations with American artists pushed him to an unprecedented height in his career. In 2018, the singer worked with J. Balvin and Cardi B on I Like It. The song blew up instantly and peaked at #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 list. It also made the wider audience in the United States aware of the Puerto Rican singing icon.
The same year, he collaborated with Drizzy to release Mia, and reached the top ten of Billboard's Hot 100 list for the second time that year, peaking at #5. The soaring popularity of the singer encouraged him to release his first solo album, X100PRE, in 2018, which contained fifteen songs including Mia. The album was a concoction of a wide spectrum of genres, including hip-hop, punk, dembow, and electro.
The Puerto Rican singer released an album called Oasis with Balvin in 2019, and it was a blend of different genres and types of music like Latin American, Spanish, Jamaican, and many other beats.
2020 earned Bad Bunny his first Grammy. In February 2020, Bad Bunny released another album called YHLQMDLG (an abbreviation for Yo hago lo que me da la gana, or “I do whatever I want”) and earned his first Grammy for Best Latin Pop of Urban Album. It was also in February that he entered the list of the coveted artists who have performed at the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
The second Grammy for Bad Bunny came from his late 2020 album, l último tour del mundo or The Last World Tour. It was the first album to debut at the top of the Billboard 200 chart and also won Best Urban Music Album at the Grammys. His last two albums were Un Verano Sin Ti and Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana and both debuted at the top of Billboard 200 Albums Chart.
The Puerto Rican singer has also co-chaired the Met Gala in 2024, alongside stars like Zendaya, Chris Hemsworth, and Jennifer Lopez. He has been known for his finesse on the red carpet at various events.
