Daddy Yankee rules as "Big Boss" of reggaeton

The pulsating rhythms of reggaeton that has captured Latino young people since the early 1990s, owes much of its global success to "The Big Boss," Puerto Rican superstar Daddy Yankee.

The pulsating rhythms of reggaeton that has captured Latino young people since the early 1990s, owes much of its global success to "The Big Boss," Puerto Rican superstar Daddy Yankee.

Originating in Panama, reggaeton emerged from a savory stew that blended Jamaican reggae and West Indiana dancehall with Latin salsa and merengue, topped off with hip hop, electronica and R&B influences. Rapped or sung almost exclusively in Spanish, reggaeton today is associated most closely with Puerto Rico, home of most of reggaeton's current stars and the place where the genre began its climb to world prominence.

Like hip hop, reggaeton isn't without controversy. It started out as the music of "perreo," a highly sexually suggestive dance in the poor barrios and music clubs of Puerto Rico. Urban Latino youth have embrace reggaeton as their own musical form of "gangsta" or "thug life," with lyrics that praise violence as a way to settle disputes and that lyrics that demean and exploit women. Also like American hip hop, reggaeton has been marked by its own feuds between artists in which singers insult one another through their music. These feuds have begun to simmer down, however, as reggaeton artists such as Don Omar and Daddy Yankee have reconciled amid criticism of the genre's role in urban violence.

Of all of reggaeton's popular artists, Daddy Yankee has played a singular role in gaining mainstream acceptance for what previously was a regional style of music. Daddy Yankee's 2004 megahit, "Gasolina" from his album "Barrio Fino," took the world by storm, capturing fans across Asia, Europe and North America. Thanks to the success of an international tour that visit Russia, Poland, France and most of Latin America, "Barrio Fino" earned six platinum discs, signifying worldwide sales of 60 million copies.

Known as "El Cangri" (translated roughly as "cool cat") and "The Big Boss," Daddy Yankee was born Raymond Ayala on Feb. 3, 1977 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His stage name comes partly from his love of the New York Yankees baseball team (he rarely performs without his official Yankees ball cap) and from his admiration for hip hop artist Big Daddy Kane. When a bullet wound in the leg put an end to his dream of playing professional baseball, Daddy Yankee turned to reggaeton, a career switch that has brought him more fame and fortune than baseball could have.

He debuted in a 1995 compilation of reggaeton music and quickly became a popular solo artist. Today he has become a one-man musical enterprise, performing as a singer, a songwriter, an actor, a video and film producer, composer of film music and broadcaster businessman. His radio show, "Daddy Yankee on Fire," is broadcast for two hours on Saturday night at 20 stations around the United States and Puerto Rico, featuring reggaeton music and commentaries on reggaeton and other urban music genres.

Time Magazine listed Daddy Yankee among the 100 most influential people in the world in 2006. In summer 2009 his concerts in Ecuador and Argentina resulted in a platinum disc for his latest album, "Talento de Barrio," the soundtrack of his 2008 Paramount Pictures movie of the same name.
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