Was Bad Bunny a grocery bagger? Rapper once opened up about hating school and failing most of his exams as a child

Bad Bunny is one of the most-streamed Spotify artists over the last five years and has multiple Grammys and other awards to show for his talent. This makes it even more difficult to imagine that the Latin trap sensation was a grocery bagger who hated school and failed in most of his courses just a few short years ago.

Born to a school teacher and a truck driver, Bad Bunny (aka Benito Martínez Ocasio) has opened up about his harsh childhood many times in several interviews. In a November 2021 appearance on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Bad Bunny gave a glimpse of what he had achieved in such a short period.

In the show it was revealed that Bad Bunny was bagging groceries for a living in 2016, the same year in which he released Diles. The singer also came up with a very humble and sensible response when Trevor Noah asked him about his journey from a grocery bagger to one of the biggest musical sensations in modern times. He explained,

“Sometimes, I can’t believe it yet, you know? But I work for it. And I’m so grateful with the life I’ve got. It’s crazy for me, being here, living my dream. But it’s what I wanted.”

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Bad Bunny was a 'shy' teenager who hated school and just 'wanted to be an artist'

CinemaCon 2022 - Source: Getty (Photo by Greg Doherty/Getty Images)

In a May 2022 interview with GQ, Bad Bunny opened up about life in high school and university. In school, he had to be threatened by his parents to send him to school. He recalled,

“I always tell the story of when I was in school: If I was feeling lazy and I didn’t want to get up, they’d threaten me with not being allowed to listen to Tego Calderón. Man, I’d get up so fast and get dressed. I’d be ready. ‘You’re not going to listen to Tego’s song!’ And I’d say, ‘Okay, Mami, fine. I’m ready!’ ”

Bad Bunny studied at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo where he chose a major in Visual Communications. However, he failed all his courses except for the major ones and dropped out of college soon after. The 30-year-old revealed that all he wanted, was to be an artist and create songs for a living.

65th GRAMMY Awards - Show - Source: Getty (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy )

“I always made rhythms, tracks, beats. I was clear that I wanted to be an artist, but I wanted it to be serious...It’s not like I’m here trying to do crazy things. That’s why I didn’t upload songs until I felt as prepared as possible, at the flow level, at the rhythm level, at the lyric level,” explained the 30-year-old.

However, life became very difficult after dropping out of college as Bad Bunny had to pick up jobs like grocery bagging and cleaning computers, to fetch for himself.

In an interview with People CHICA (published by People in 2018), the Latin trap singer described his life working as a grocery bagger. He also narrated that it was extremely motivating for him and pushed him to work harder. He elaborated,

“All I wanted was for my shift to end so I could go home. It was really motivating….because you never really want to be doing that. All you want is to reach your dreams and earn money doing what you like."

He further narrated how he would write songs while working his job.

"There were also a lot of songs that I started creating while working [at the supermarket.] I would write songs outside or in my mind and then I would sing them multiple times throughout my shift to just remember the lyrics."

Around that time in 2014, he met Ormani Pérez, who influenced the Grammy winner to upload his songs on SoundCloud. After that, his musical numbers started gaining worldwide attention and he never had to look back in life ever again.

The singer's humble beginnings were portrayed quite effectively in an Apple Music documentary called Up Next: Bad Bunny which focuses on the Puerto Rican rapper's journey from a child who hated school in his native island, to a three-time Grammy-winning artist.