When you think about reggaetón, Bad Bunny, Rauw Alejandro, or Jhay Cortez might be the first artists that come to mind. According to Spotify, in 2020 Bad Bunny was the number-one-streamed artist on the platform and that audience streamed 3.6 billion hours of reggaetón. As reggaetón continues to grow globally, so do the misconceptions. But there are so many nuances to this genre that infiltrated mainstream music — where it began, who created it, who it represents, and who gets to represent it. What about El General, Tego Calderón, La Atrevida, Sech, and all of the other Black and brown archetypes from communities in Panama and Puerto Rico who birthed this genre and are continuing the legacy?
Spotify’s LOUD podcast answers this question. Produced by Marlon Bishop, Julio A. Pabón, and Katelina “Gata” Eccleston, LOUD attempts to dismantle misconceptions about reggeatón and contextualize them by taking the audience on an auditory trip to the roots.
And who better to tell and unpack this story than la Diva, la Potra, la Caballotta, Puerto Rican singer, Ivy Queen. This Anasqueña is an icon when it comes to the history of reggaetón. From the days of auditioning for DJ Negro in 1995 and releasing the feminist, reggaetón anthem “Yo Quiero Bailar” in 2003 to performing “Yo Perreo Sola” on the 2020 Billboards Music Awards stage with Bad Bunny and Nesi, she is no stranger to the history because she lived it. Plus, she isn’t a stranger either when it comes to highlighting the stories of this genre.
Before Ivy Queen was approached by Spotify Studios and Futuro Studios to host the 10 chapter series, she toured the United States in two buses that had podcast equipment to share Instagram story interviews with colleagues and other reggaetón superstars, like Jowell y Randy, and Don Omar. Fast forward to the genesis of LOUD and Queen went from a personal audience of 2.8 million to partaking in a podcast that would reach all who listen to the most streamed genre of the world.
Not without verifying the authenticity of the material first.
“I didn’t want to put my seal of approval on something that wasn’t going to tell the whole truth. I wanted facts that were 100 percent verified,” Queen tells Teen Vogue. “And indeed, that’s what the podcast is about. It’s an educational, auditory notebook where whoever doesn’t know about the genre will be presented all of its history without letting anybody out of the narrative.”
Through 10 chapters and across five countries (Panama, Puerto Rico, the U.S., Dominican Republic, and Colombia) LOUD is narrated in Spanglish and explains the beginning of perreo through its current iteration, neoperreo. The language choice makes sense considering that, as the first episodes explained, the roots of reggaetón began when English reggae was translated into Spanish in Panama by MC’s like Renato y El General, and eventually became a fusion of many genres, including dancehall, reggae, and hip-hop. However, Queen also makes notes of the podcast’s target audience and how it’s intended for American listeners to be educated on what this genre truly is.
“Nowadays the features [in songs] are the other way around. American [artists] want [featurings] with Latino [artists]. La bola se fue para la otra cancha.”
Take Justin Bieber jumping on Luis Fonsi’s and Daddy Yankee’s 2017 record-hitting song, “Despacito” or Nicky Minaj on Karol G’s “Tusa” or Rosalía collaborating with Bad Bunny, J Balvin, and Sech. The list is endless. Simply go to Spotify’s flagship playlist for the genre, Mansión Reggaetón, and see for yourself.
But that doesn’t mean Queen doesn’t believe Spanish-only speaking Latines are exempt from learning the history of reggaetón. On the contrary, Queen shares that there are already talks of making LOUD in Spanish so that “future generations can be educated, too.”
For those like myself who grew up listening to reggaetón, the podcast is nostalgic, especially when listening to episodes six and seven that emphasize the reggaetón boom of the early 2000s. But LOUD also explores the homophobia, misogyny, classism, and racism within the genre and Latine cultures.
“[The history of reggaeton] isn’t an urban myth. These are true stories,” Queen shares with me. “What Tego Calderón went through for being Black and rocking his afro, what I went through for being a woman and having a deeper voice. It’s important that people have the concept of what this music is.”
For example, in episode two el General’s Spanish lyrics were dubbed by a Chilean TV host as “made up” due to the prevalent classicism and colorism in Latine culture (a discourse still is found to this day where fellow Spanish-speaking countries “don’t understand” what is being sung by Caribbean artists and countless of explainers are churned out in TikTok’s, Twitter threads, and Billboard articles). In episode four Queen narrates how the underground music that was criminalized by the Puerto Rican government “Mano Dura” policy tormented housing projects.
So as the first season of the podcast has wrapped up, what exactly is the history of reggaetón? When asked, Queen shared with Teen Vogue that the history of reggaetón is one of survival, resistance, and resilience. She feels immensely proud that a genre that some gave an expiration date from its genesis is the music that controls the industry today despite all the shortcomings within Latin America, too.
Despite the globalization and whitewashing of the genre, she wants everybody who listens to this podcast to take with them the essence or “la sandunga y el sazón,” as Queen calls it. “I know music has to evolve and fuse,” she says. “I know about ‘fusing’. I’ve fused different genres with reggaetón at its core. But we have to educate future generations because what’s going to prevail in the future is what’s real.”
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Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out:
- Panamanian Trailblazer Sech Talks Legacy, Icons, and New Album “42”
- Meet the Afro-Latina Purveyors of Reggaeton Music
