With his most recent unannounced release, titled Las Que No Iban A Salir (‘The Ones That Were Not Gonna Come Out’), which rapidly surpassed the chart placing of his previous album, YHLQMDLG (2020), he was able to obtain all top three spots on the Billboard Top Latin Albums. With every record, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, most commonly known as Bad Bunny, continues to break records and achieve undeniable success, both within Latin America and globally. While redefining what it means to be a male Latin Trap artist, it has to be asked what exactly is it that makes him stand out, and allows him to climb up from a bagger at a local supermarket to a Grammy-winning sensation?
Due to the attention he was attracting – thanks to his talent and the uniqueness of his art – Bad Bunny swiftly went from releasing his music independently on SoundCloud to being signed to DJ Luian’s record label Hear This Music back in 201.6 . By drawing inspiration from different musical genres that acted as the soundtrack of his youth in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, ranging from salsa to ballads played by his parents to the typical Latin Pop and Hip Hop played on the radio, he skillfully crafted his own sound and made Latin Trap his playground when the genre began its rise into the mainstream.
Much like the artist himself, Latin Trap is a genre that slowly began to gain traction in recent years. During the 2000s, it came to be from an amalgamation of elements from other, more prominent, music genres such as Reggaeton and Hip Hop. “I wanted to do more R&B, more Hip Hop, but for the Spanish crowd,” says De La Ghetto, one of the first personalities that started the movement, moving away from the typical ‘tropical’ sound associated with Latinx artists at the time. From then onwards, it began to take shape and evolve at the hands of rappers such as Ozuna, Myke Towers, Messiah and Anuel AA. These artists turned the genre from something far outside of the mainstream to a legitimized genre that spoke of life on the street and became widely popular in Puerto Rico and across Latin America with its slow and heavy bass and synthesized drums. Songs like De La Ghetto’s ‘La Ocasión’ are often credited with bringing this new rhythm to the Caribbean world and listeners’ loud acclaim helped cement the genre as a new form that was not fading away any time soon.
When it comes to Martínez, his song ‘Soy Peor’ (2016), which is often labeled as his breakthrough hit, became his ticket into the Latin Trap scene, as the song marked the beginning of his climb in the charts. Without a set schedule of releases, El Conejo Malo continued to produce hit after hit, many of which took the form of collaborations with an incredible amount of his fellow Latinx artists. From Karol G and Anuel AA to Nicky Jam and J Balvin, he established himself as a force to be reckoned with in the urban music environment and built a loyal following that was entranced by his combination of singing and his continuous form of rapping, opposite to a staccato flow, all of which is heightened by his particular deep and distinguished baritone.
In 2018, it became impossible to ignore the sheer amount of attention and popularity that Martínez was gaining and, after several chart-topping features with well established American artists such as Cardi B and Drake, he dropped his debut album X100PRE (2018) without any previous announcements on Christmas Eve. It became an immediate favorite for both long time fans and critics, and brought perfect closure to Bad Bunny’s growing international reach and achievements throughout the year, as well as acting as a collection of everything that brought him into the spotlight in the two years prior.
The album is a symbol for what Bad Bunny is capable of, and encompasses the versatility and musical prowess that has made him one of the main figures defining the genre in this new age. It deservingly debuted on the #1 spot on the Billboard Latin Charts, and set the bar high for his future projects, while showcasing the musical experimentation that he is commonly known for. In it, he hops from one style to another, going from the pop-punk sound in ‘Tenemos Que Hablar’, to 80s synth gloom in ‘Otra Noche En Miami,’ all while the well known trap beats remain as a backbone throughout the record. The rapper’s success, and consequent Latin Grammy win, is easily understandable when one sees how well he managed to establish universal sounds that transcended the limited parameters of Latin music, as he created his own set of rules to fit his own vision.
Aside from his musical triumphs, what allows Martínez to trap the gaze of many, is his humble, honest and vocal character, along with his flamboyant appearance. The experimentation and flexibility that is often attributed to his work is, in fact, just another part of his nature, as he explains: “When I became an artist, I had to create my own style to set myself apart… When I get dressed, it’s like freestyling.” By now, the image of Bad Bunny as an individual feels empty and incomplete without his odd mixing of garments with seemingly endless palettes of colors, jewelry, painted nails, and, most importantly, a bright pair of sunglasses resting on his nose. His identity shines through in the way he presents himself to the public, and he is very openly bringing about a new form of masculinity not previously found in the Latin urban scene. While this may not be considered groundbreaking at first glance, especially when looking at male artists such as David Bowie, one must consider the social context in which Martínez and his music reside. Latin American society as a whole has always been plagued by strict and oppressive gender roles. In many ways it still is a highly conservative environment in which men and women are pushed to remain in the boxes that the hegemonic patriarchy enforced as the status quo. This idea of the ‘macho’ male figure is even more prominent in the urban music scene; with its lyrics relating to sex and drugs. A male artist performing within the genre is expected to fit a certain rough and menacing look that matches the sound. This is where Benito Martínez diverges from the norm, putting self-expression first.
He not only defies expectations but remains true to who he is with no shame. He is deeply attached to his home country, and always keeps a strong sense of family and love as his priorities. This is what allows him to be conscious of the impressive turn that his life took, along with the significance of his current position, and he definitely isn’t shy to use the spotlight that has been placed on him to voice his opinions. Born and raised in this Latin American environment, Martínez shows a deep awareness of what exactly is wrong both in his own country and within latinx culture as a whole; the oppression and discrimination of minorities, political injustice and violence against women are just some of the issues that he has never been afraid to discuss and fight against in every aspect of his life. From his Good Bunny Foundation, which aims to help kids living in poverty, to the pausing of his European tour in 2019 to join protests back in Puerto Rico demanding the resignation of governor Ricardo Roselló, Martínez practices what he preaches and doesn’t hesitate to stand up against injustice.
Much like his colorful appearance, his inclusive activism is also deeply intertwined with his music, and he utilizes it as yet another tool in rebelling against the heteronormative and hyper-masculine mandates that have come to be expected from latinx trap artists. For instance, in his music video for ‘Caro’ during the X100PRE era, the screen is filled with bright colors as his persona switches back and forth with a woman throughout the song, together with a scene featuring a fashion show with models of different ages, sizes, races, genders and abilities, it delivers a message against intolerance and senseless hatred. In ‘Solo De Mi’, he crafted a video confronting domestic abuse, a pervasive issue in Latinx society, with lyrics that demand independence and self-love. More recently, for his sophomore album YHLQMDLG (2020), which became the highest-charting all-Spanish-language album of all time on Billboard, he surpassed himself in every way, and sparked a massive conversation following his video for ‘Yo Perreo Sola’. In it, Bad Bunny performs almost exclusively in drag, switching between radically different sets and clothing while rapping in the shoes of women who just want to dance alone and in peace. At the end, the viewer is left with a black screen that reads: “If she doesn’t want to dance with you, respect her, she twerks alone.” The video stands as a counterargument against the objectification of women that lies so deeply ingrained in urban culture, along with a nod at the LGBT+ community. The video received an immense amount of attention and overall positive acclaim, showing not only his massive reach as an artist, but also the fact that he is leading the charge in a long awaited revolution within latinx society as a whole. After expressing public outrage at the misgendering of Alexa Negrón Luciano, a transgender woman who was murdered, this was the next step in the normalization of such forms of expression; he, like many other latinx people, have come to a boiling point when it comes to the utter discrimination and mistreatment of anyone who isn’t a cis white male individual. Martínez, and his form of protest through music and vocal activism, highly resonates with a younger generation of people that want and know that society’s condition must change and he is using his newfound power, influence and global attention to share his microphone with those that can’t be heard. By making people uncomfortable, he’s inspiring a re-evaluation of the rules and expectations that latinx society has enforced and clinged to for way too long and, in the long run, opening the door for queer latinx artists to take the stage and share their talents without any fear.
Bad Bunny has established himself as a man that, above all else, wants to live in peace. He has not only proven to be gifted in a musical sense, bringing Trap to new and unexplored places whilst crossing national boundaries, but he has shown the world that he is here to have an impact and inspire a change that won’t fade away. Time and time again, he has expressed his awareness of the fact that, despite being a cis straight male, the inequality and transgressions that minorities face have an impact on him. He lives with a conscientious ideology of live and let live. When push comes to shove, he will not shy away from truly showing how actions speak louder than words, getting his hands dirty when he needs to for the sake of others. This is only the beginning. As time goes by, there is little doubt in my mind that Benito Martínez will have a profound and lasting impact on the coming generations of Latinx individuals. As he continues to grow, and we continue to strive for a better, more open world, lyrics of his such as: “Why can’t I be like that? What damage do I do to you? I’m just happy,” will continue to ring true and be sung loudly for a long time.
