Bad Bunny, Patron Musical Saint of Puerto Rico
DeBEMOS TeNER MáS ARTISTaS CoMO BENiTO
This isn’t another review of Bad Bunny’s stellar DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, which was released on January 5th. Yes, DtMF is a sociopolitical album. Yes, it’s a love letter to Borinquen. Yes, it’s an homage to the island’s beautiful homegrown genres such as salsa, plena, reggaeton and bomba. Pundits and, more importantly, the people have already heralded this album a classic. We’re 17 days into 2025, and I personally can’t stop playing it.
Yet, lets look at his press tour. It’s nothing short of genius. Big props to Sujeylee, Rimas and, of course, Benito.
Un Regalo: First the album was released a day before El Dia de los Reyes, a holiday celebrated in PR. He dressed up as a rey and displayed a gift for the niños—a vinyl copy of DtMF.
Benito x Jimmy: Pretty early on, The Tonight Show understood the draw and value of Bunny. In an effort to keep things interesting, Benito co-hosted with Jimmy Fallon. AND they treated NYC subway straphangers to a once in a lifetime performance.
Viva Puerto Rico: While other superstars announce residencies at Las Vegas, Benito is taking over his isle’s historic Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot aka El Choli for 30 dates.
Anchorman: He guest co-hosted NotiCentro al Amanecer, a Puerto Rican morning show on WAPA TV. Your favorite pop star would never.
The Gray Lady: For the New York Times podcast, “POPCAST,” Benito gave an insightful interview. When asked by the podcast’s non-Latino co-hosts, if he’s concerned that some of his fans aren’t Spanish fluent and might not fully understand his songs. He responded with a laugh, “I doooooon’ttttt caaaaaaaare.” Amazing. Think about how often our stars had to sing in English to become a success in the States.
Now, we have THE star not caring to conform but making his own rules.
Benito The Director: If you don’t understand his lyrics, it’s time to learn Spanish. But his short film for DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS gives you a visual translation of the album. It’s a vignette into what’s happening to his country. It’s what’s been happening to almost every single Latin American country since Teddy Roosevelt’s Roosevelt Corollary. It gave the U.S. the ability to intervene in the economies of unstable Latin American countries. Yet, no other country has had a global music star shed light on its perils and erasure of its culture at the hands of gringos. And this isn’t just a passing trend. Benito has been present at protests on the island throughout the years.
Lastly, as a born and bred Nuevayorkino (shoutout to Djali), who was raised alongside boris y domis, I appreciate almost every detail DtMF was trying to convey. I’m positive it hits different for Puerto Ricans, as it should. This is your homegrown star. As non-boricuas we admire it, and as Latinos we celebrate it.
The one aspect I hope other Latinx artists (non-boricua in particular) take from DtMF is to dig into your own culture’s musical history for inspiration. You see it in Ryan Castro, who just released one of the best cumbias (“El Chucu Chucu” ft. Juanes) in recent years. But we need more.
It’s the mentality of the conquered. We always look abroad for inspiration when it’s squarely staring at us in our African and indigenous faces.
Gracias, Benito.
I have also been playing this nonstop. Every listen brings up something new, it has so many layers. I'm excited to see more artists evolve their artistry and weave more original storytelling and inclusion like this one does. There's something particularly latine about music that can be shared with our elders, tias, children etc.
Thanks for sharing.