by JOKESTA
The Puerto Rican ambassador is back with a serving of what he describes as Barrio music in his latest offering coming in the form of a movie and major soundtrack tentatively titled "Talento de Barrio."
Multi platinum selling artist Daddy Yankee has sold well over 2 million copies of his album Barrio Fino in the U.S. Is certified 2x platinum with his last album, 2007's El Carterl: The Big Boss. He has a $20 million record contract with Interscope and a lucrative endorsement deal with Pepsi. He's won a bevy of awards for his ground breaking work, has graced the cover of countless magazines, and now the kid from the barrio sits down with Defsounds for it's first international feature and discusses what he has in store for us with Talento De Barrio which features Yankee as the main character in a gritty tale of his [the characters] rise to fame.
If you didn't know Yankee before, you're about to get familiar.
Defsounds: I know you wanted to play in the MLB when you were younger but couldn't chase that goal after an incident. What happened?
Daddy Yankee: Yeah, I wanted to play in the MLB but unfortunately I got shot at the age of 17. I was always into music but back then there wasn't much money in it, but there was big money in sports--there still is. So I went that route but ended up in the hospital.
Defsounds: So did you seek music as an alternative or did you naturally just fall in line with it?
Daddy Yankee: I was always into music, but like I said there wasn't much money in music..after getting shot I started getting more serious with it.
Defsounds: So you're sort of the Latin 50 Cent, not because you've been shot or anything, but because you're also known as one of the first Latin Hip Hop artists to hit the mixtape scene heavy starting with El Cartel, what made you decide to do that?
Daddy Yankee: Marketing, I've always done this little compilation albums like mixtapes--I still do, gotta show love to the people. I love putting my music out there for the people, they love it, I love it, I still work with underground artists
Defsounds: Are you going to put out a mixtape to amp up the release of the movie and the album?
Daddy Yankee: Yeah we're working on something now with some big djs, can't name any names yet but it's definitely coming.
Defsounds: What do you think of the Reggaeton explosion that happened a few years ago?...What do you think is the situation now was Reggaeton a fad in the states or do you think it has legit longevity?
Daddy Yankee: I thought it was great, but I knew it would never hit mainstream in a long term kind of thing because people didn't really understand the music.
Reggaeton isn't mainstream, it was never meant to be mainstream, Reggaeton is the underground sound from our Barrios, our calles[Streets]. The problem it had in the US is the same problem Hip Hop has out here and other Latin countries, Hip hop is big but it isn't as big as Reggaeton because they can't understand the words and lyrics.
People like Nore and others definitely helped bring it to a mainstream level but I knew it wasn't going to much further...people thought there were gonna be more Daddy Yankees who can keep hitting hard but that wasn't the case.
Defsounds: I'm glad you brought Nore up, many people says he exploited the Genre when it first blew up because he backed away so quickly after it calmed down, do you agree with that?
Daddy Yankee: Nah, what Nore did was show support and I got alotta love for him. Nore is a hip hop artist and for him to do Reggaeton with us, it was a big thing, it was nothing but love.
Defsounds: In 2006 you were named one of the 100 most influential people by Times Magazine, how big an honor was that to you?
Daddy Yankee: I think to this day that is my biggest honor, of all the people out there to be named amongst 100--it was just a great feeling, I do this for my people and that just felt amazing.
Defsounds: You went back to your hip hop roots with El Cartel: The Big Boss, working with Will.I.Am, Scott Storch, Akon, and Nicole Scherzinger to name a few, are you taking the same approach with your next album?
Daddy Yankee: Well the next album will be released with the movie..it'll be the soundtrack. It was going to be just a soundtrack but then people kept asking for another Yankee album so it'll be a fusion of Latin and hip hop, the hip hop element is always there because that's what I do, I'm a lyricist above everything else, reggaeton is for the ladies, but I'm a lyricist.
Defsounds: So What's Talento De Barrio, The film's more or less the story of your upbringings, was that a conscious decision to go that way or was it just coincidence?
Daddy Yankee: Nah, the movie doesn't have much to do with my life--that's just some Internet rumor. It's about the struggle that everyone faces.
Defsounds: How will the release work? is it going world wide?
Daddy Yankee: It'll be released to select theaters in major cities then it'll go to DVD. The album will be released world wide at the same time.
Defsounds: So after this soundtrack, what's next for Daddy Yankee?
Daddy Yankee: After the soundtrack and the movie, I'll be working on my next album--it'll be an all English album released through Interscope, me and Jimmy [Iovine] have been talking about it. I want to work with everyone for it.
Defsounds: Who are you guys looking to work with?
Daddy Yankee: Definitely Scott [Storch], I think Scott's great and I love working with him. Will I Am and Pharrell have also been in talks. The production will be handled by them as well as others hopefully.
Defsounds: Any Collabos or is this just gonna be straight Yankee?
Daddy Yankee: Of course!, I Love collabos--as a kid listening to KRS One and those collabos back in the day, I love them..artists working together is a great thing, the album will definitely feature some good ones but I can't name any names yet!
***defsounds***
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