8. The Rebirth

From Reggaeton Star to Rock Bottom Previously on Loud, No matter what anybody says, the industry never wanted reggaeton to succeed. Speaker 2 The Napster MP3 era was the worst time. I mean, like everybody was in bankrupt. Everybody. Speaker 3 Press was overwhelmingly over Daddy Yankee and Gasolina, and I think too much attention was given to just two little people. Speaker 1 In the mid 2000s, Nikki Yang was left behind from the reggaeton boom. Speaker 4 I was in a bad moment in my life. Speaker 1 In his good days, Nikki was dope. He was in a door with Daddy Yankee called Los Gangres. They were fire. But by 2007, Nikki was struggling with addiction. Speaker 4 I was hitting opiums really hard and a lot of drugs. I was not doing shows. Speaker 1 When he started in the underground scene, he was just a teen. He was drinking and partying a lot and God UN poquito Perdido lost. He missed rehearsals, Sepelia Gontodos and he got kicked out of Locandres. And then in 2003, he went to jail for shooting someone outside of a club. Speaker 4 I did three years, so yeah, when I went out, the whole system was changing. Speaker 1 When he was in jail, Gasolina blew up and took reggaeton up with it. It wasn't easy to watch everybody else make it and get rich from the sidelines. Nikki felt his career had gone down the drain. Speaker 4 I felt like I was shit and I feel that I wasn't doing anything with my life. I feel that nobody loved me, nobody cared that I existed. Nicky Jam Finds Love in Medellin Until one day he got a call from a strange number. Speaker 4 Somebody gave me a call and told me that they wanted to do a show with me in Columbia and I was like, shocked because I didn't have no songs. Speaker 1 Nikki didn't have any new music out, just his old songs from the early 2000s, but he tried to play it cool. Speaker 4 I remember I had to play myself. I wanted to seem like I was still popping, so I was like, I acted like I was my own manager, so I changed my voice and everything. Speaker 1 The promoter bought it Le Creo and booked him a show at a club in Medellin. Speaker 4 I got $2000 for a show. I needed to pay the rent so I went over there. Speaker 1 And at that show in Colombia, he was shocked to find out that people remember him as a country. Speaker 4 When I got over there it came to me that it was a whole different ball game, 'cause people love me over there. Speaker 1 The love he wasn't getting in Puerto Rico, he realized he could get all of it in Colombia. Speaker 4 He saw me as a legend. Speaker 1 Nikki didn't know yet, but he just landed in a city where reggaeton was popping. Viviendo Sumejon momento. The Industry Declares Reggaeton Over A city that will embrace the Janeiro and make it their own, where he will be reborn as an artist and so will reggaeton. From Spotify Studios and Futuro Studios. I'm your host Evie Quinn and this is loud. The history of reggaeton Episode 8 the rebirth reggaeton had a big commercial moment, but by 2006 some people were claiming that reggaeton was dead, that our music had just been a fad. Unamoda. That's how the US label saw it. Of course, reggaeton never die in La Cage, Siem Persona La Fuerte. But to be honest, even in Puerto Rico, some people were feeling a little worry about what was going on, De La Ghetto says. He felt that the quality of the music dropped because the industry started following a formula that all the new songs sounded pretty much the same. Speaker 5 Everybody in those times, you had the singer and you had the rapper and then all of a sudden. Speaker 6 Reggaeton was always. Speaker 5 The guy rapping and the girl on the back. Speaker 6 You know, it was cool, but to us it was corny. You know, I say, we want to refresh. Speaker 1 It by 2009 we started seeing another trend. This was the era when they bigot on the electronic dance music was hot, and many thought reggaeton could take advantage of that. This is Wissing started to experiment with some idiom sounds they use less than bow and added club beats and synthesizers. Something new? Speaker 2 And. Speaker 1 That's how we got tracks like. The problem was that it didn't really feel like reggaeton to a lot of us. It was just more mainstream music, and this trend fizzled out. Here's Nicki Yam. Speaker 4 They got lost in the process, you know, they were too futuristic. The beats were like, you know, like too many. Like it was like so much and they lost what people like. Speaker 1 And so after that, people were legit worried reggaeton was over, but they didn't know about a new promised land for reggaeton, UN Paraiso la Montagna de Colombia, a city called Medellina, just in Clilis. Reggaeton Finds a New Home in Colombia Medellina's. Speaker 4 Valley in Humbaye. Speaker 7 Is like a city in the middle of the mountains. It's beautiful. It's just like when you see it, it's like breathtaking. Speaker 1 The city is set in a steep valley of Green Mountains, and as Medellin grew over the last decades, houses and tall buildings have taken over the hillsides of the city. In the early 2000s, old school Reggaeton de la Viequela was popping all over Medellin. Speaker 4 And it's. Speaker 7 Like chilli cold, you can have like a nice jacket and it's just, it just feels good, man. I don't know. It's beautiful. Speaker 1 The city was crazy for reggaeton and pereo boom all over town, Especialmente en El Barrio. To understand why, we have to go back to the 90s, a time when the city hit rock bottom. Growing Up Amidst Cartel Violence The Medellin Cartel had declared war on the Colombian state. The cartels set up car bombs in shopping malls, plazas, bars and they fought with other narcos. In 1991, Medejim became the murder capital of the world, in large part because of violence by Pablo Escobar. Speaker 4 Southeast busca a Pablo Escobar recompensa dos mince de cientos. Speaker 1 Migione de peso. That's one of the first Colombians that made reggaeton. He says. He won't even mention Pablo Cobar name out loud. It's shocking that people look up to him in other countries. He remembers he didn't have a lot of role models growing up in Medellin. He grew up in the hood and he look up to the guys who work in the drug business. He wanted the same motorcycle. They had a Jamaaha DT dirt bike, the typical bikes used by Medellin sicarios in the 90s. But in El Barrio, there was only one way to get those things. Would dream of having a gun just like the guys in El Barrio. Speaker 4 But. Speaker 1 The reality was the guys that he wanted to be like were the same guys he would see dead on the street from one day to the next. Reagan says it's easy to judge the hood from the outside, but when you leave there, it's do or die. Speaker 8 Fun barrio de muchos conflictos por por El Toto El Tema El narco. Medellin's Rebirth from Violence to Culture Trafico Laura Mulatas also grew up in a rough neighborhood in the 90s. She's a dancer and choreographer who has worked with Maluma, Joeli, Randy and Karos Gee. She remembers a lot of drug violence, too, but also how the city was trying to change things. The city created places to get the kids away from the drug trade. Speaker 8 Y para nosotros como hoenes en estros barrios de lecho E que si cieran colectio de teatro que si cieran Casa de la cultura la caldia lesta postando con muchos esfuerzo de sicario namula Laura was able. Speaker 1 To grow up away from trouble by going to the community art spaces, dance classes and theatre collectives that the city government funded. It was an alternative to becoming a hitman or the drug mule. Speaker 8 Los colectivos, Cultural EC Literal foreign paranos. Otrosun Salvadas. Speaker 1 The Medellin government also invested in the city itself. In 1995, the Medellin Metro opened, connecting poor neighborhoods. They also built cable cars, libraries, job training centers, all of this to tackle crime and violence. By 2002, there were no more card bombs and crime was way down. The murder rates plummeted by 90%. Touristas were coming back. Parks stayed late until the night and people were outside. It's in Miedo Social. Alessando Medellin, the city of Eternal Spring, was in full bloom. How Daddy Yankee Ignited Colombian Airwaves It was around this time, in the early 2000s, that Puerto Rican reggaeton made his way to Colombia. And to tell you how it all went down, we have to meet someone. Speaker 2 Bueno me Nombre is Luis Fernando now DJC Mafero. Speaker 4 In. Speaker 1 2001 was a DJ for the main tropical radio station of Medellin. The station was in the most iconic building downtown, Edificio call Tejer. It's like Medellin's Empire State Building. The entrance to this building lead to a street market downtown where you can find pretty much anything in the city. Lots of contrabando pirateo from Panama and Caribbean islands. The DJ at the station will go there to buy pirate cities. They wanted to make sure that they were playing what the people wanted to double check that they were doing their job right. According to SEM Aforo, one day he found a pirate CD with a song that he had never heard before. Speaker 2 At. Speaker 1 1st The station thought the song was a champeta. Champeta is an Afro Colombian dancing rhythm from La Costa Caribena. It has a similar beat to reggaeton, but the song in that CD wasn't champeta. It was a reggaeton song by Daddy Yankee Song. This becomes the first song to be playing at the radio station in all of Colombia. Speaker 2 It. Speaker 1 Becomes an instant hit. People go crazy for it. They won't stop calling the radio station requesting. Speaker 2 It. Afro-Caribbean Rhythms Make Reggaeton Familiar And that quickly opened the door for all the reggaeton songs in Medellin, songs by Tego ET Toritito and yours truly. At the barbershop where he worked, Reikon remembers hearing a friend putting Tego song, telling him you have to check the song out. Remember when I told you about when we first heard rap en Espanol? Like Bico, the movie went from black and white to colour. Reiko was feeling the same shit that we did. He really loved it. It's what made him want to be a reggaeton start. It was like rap, but made especially for them, for people from the hood and an espanol. The thing is, it makes sense that they told LA Tigasso was a champeta Afro. Caribbean music has been a part of Colombia's tradition for a long time. This is Laura Maluma's choreographer again. She said Panamanian dancehall opened the door to these rhythms. Remember, it has been popular in Colombia since the 80s. Speaker 8 And she says. Speaker 1 Because of their Afro Colombian traditions, dancing, reggaeton. Speaker 8 Was easy for them. Speaker 1 Champeta ma paleo rimos Afro colombianos like whining in dance hall. Have a three 60° mobimiento de cadera that goes back to ancestral ideas of fertility. That sounds so fucking sexy. Speaker 8 That's why reggaeton is. Speaker 1 So familiar to Colombian women. It's like a dance language they already knew. A Historic Showcase for Reggaeton in Colombia I remember the first time I visited Mendejing, I was like, Oh my God, we have so many fans here. Our Puerto Rican reggaeton was the language that they were speaking in Colombia. In 2004, I was invited to perform in the city at their main soccer stadium. It held almost like 50,000 people. It was going to be the biggest showcase of El Janeiro in Colombia. Colo Grande, the top dogs it was Dari, Yankee, Zion, Lenox, Tego, Calderon, Hectoritito, Dongomal and honey of course. La Reyna, La Toyota, myself, yours truly. Here's an interview that I did when I got there. When I get to the venue, it's packed. I'm telling you, hack to the fullest where your knees started shaking. Hector Tito come out on motorcycles on stage and the crowd, the crowd goes wild. Daddy Yankee brings a huge inflatable Bulldogs on stage. People lose it, people lose it. So it's my turn. I am getting nervous, but I always think ahead. I want to pay tribute to this land of cumbia. So I come out wearing a poyeta, those big traditional cumbia skirt and ice cream. Colombia. This concert split into the history of reggaeton in Medallo. A Young Maluma's Dream Begins at the Concert There is a before and an after. In my opinion. It's like we planted the seed and blossom and you see the harvest and it made a really big impact on someone we all know. Speaker 9 Cuando fuel primer concerto de reggaeton en Colombia yo tenia ocho anos. Speaker 1 You already know, right? Maluma was about 8 years old at that time. None of his classmate listened to reggaeton yet, but his older sister had introduced. Speaker 9 Him to it. Speaker 1 Maluma really wanted to go. His aunt got him tickets and because she worked in TV they were great tickets real close to the stage. Speaker 9 He remembers. Speaker 1 It like it was yesterday. It was so exciting. He was really moved. He couldn't believe it. The artist he listened to on his CD player they were right in front of. Speaker 9 Him. Speaker 1 He had always dreamed of being a professional soccer player. Speaker 9 But that day, he imagined. Speaker 1 Himself on stage. And years later, his dream will come true. He will sell out stadiums. Speaker 9 Tesola Maluma baby. Colombian-Puerto Rican Connection Fuels the Scene Don't worry, we'll get back to Maluma later. The point is, this concert spread El Genero in Medellin like a wildfire. Radio station started blasting reggaeton 24/7. It was in Taxis Schoolyard club at the La Banana area. It was like the heartbeat of the city. Supulso was now pure Dambo. Commercial reggaeton might have gone bust, but Pereo was bumping all over La Calle de Medellin. Colombians were all about the ogis, the Pereo legends. This is DJ Bash. He's a legendary DJ who started spinning the first dance hall and Panamanian plenas at parties in the 90s. He's now Nicki Jam's DJ. He says the city became a gathering place for lots of boricuas. I get it. There's a connection. Colombianos Y boricuas, Nos and demos, we get each other. We are party people. We love dancing. And our musical relationship goes back to salsa saaros. Finding Love and Sobriety in Colombia And after that concert in 2004, even more Boricuas started to come to Medellin, one after the other. Nikki Yang again. Speaker 4 It's the best moment in the world to feel that people respect your art and people see you as a legend. Speaker 1 Remember, while he star had fun in Puerto Rico, he found a new life in Colombia. It was a moment when his addiction to Percocet had taken control of his life, so that meant a lot. Speaker 4 So for me to go to a place and see people love and respect me as one of the top guys of this music industry, being in my lowest part of my life, it was it was a blessing. I feel good, I feel happy. Speaker 1 And the love that Nikki got from his fans and people in Colombia help him make a decision. Speaker 4 That's why I said I was going to stay there, because who doesn't want to stay a place where you feel loved, you know? Puerto Rican Stars Find Appreciation in Colombia So he decided to stay in Colombia, get clean and basically get his shit together. Speaker 4 What Puerto Rico lost for a long time, Colombia picked it up. Speaker 1 And Nikki wasn't the only one who felt this way. Says everyone in Puerto Rico starts going to Colombia. You could go out on Wednesday and will be playing at this club and down the street and across the street. Let me tell you, there was a lot of cash to be made. Came to Colombia too, they said. The fans felt different. Speaker 3 It almost. Speaker 1 Felt like fans in Colombia appreciate our better and even more than our own people in Puerto Rico. That's saying something. I agree 100%, Darling says. Sometimes they got invited to play parties, private parties hosted in fancy big houses. These parties will only have 10 or 15 people. He says he shouldn't say this but but a lot of them were narco parties where the drug Lord and buyer will get together to seal the deal and the bosses will invite girls to the parties 3 or 4 for each guy. These girls loved reggaeton so Nejo says they will ask for whichever Puerto Rican artist was in town will get call at 3:00 in the morning to go perform at this parties. But it was the only the Nacos that pay for private parties. There were many people with deep pockets for reggaeton. They will play for the doctor's daughter, the oil tycoons, the owner of a bank and so on. Sneaking into Parties and a Prized Earring Reggaeton was in demand, especially for quinceaneras. Maluma remembers when he was 14, he will sneak into this quinceaneras he wasn't even invited to, to see some of these reggaeton artists perform and that they were lit. One day he got word that after the show he got on the stage. He was drunk. He had a few bullies that day which are like slurpees with a lot. Speaker 9 Of alcohol, really sweet. Speaker 1 So he was faded. I'm your biggest fan, please will you give me your earring for your #1 fan? Please please please. He's a very chill dude so he says OK and gives him the earring. Speaker 9 The. Speaker 1 Next day, Maluma wakes up with a terrible hangover and remembers he. Speaker 9 Has nails. Speaker 1 Earring. Wow, it was a musical note in gold. 18 carats. Maluma took it to the pawn shop. He didn't even have bus money. But he ended up keeping it. He says he still has it in his house in Medellin. Something about the reggaeton scene in Medellin. It's seduce Boricuas, Nejoy Dalmata. We're supposed to be just visiting for a month, but Nejo ended up staying for seven years. Dalmata still lives in Medellin. Speaker 4 Everybody after me started going over there and living over there and seeing what I saw. Apart from the beautiful girls, It's the beautiful people, 'cause people only see Manellin as Coke and girls. I see it as beautiful culture. Respect. Embracing Colombian Culture and a New Manager By the late 2000s, Nikki Jan had also decided to stay Medellin. He felt really good. Speaker 4 There, it was beautiful. I think I needed it. I felt like I didn't want to go to America. Speaker 1 Nikki was raised in Massachusetts and Puerto Rico, but he didn't want to go back. Speaker 4 I feel embarrassed being American in a way, I'm not going to lie, because a lot of spoilness that's going on in the States. We're never happy, you know, We're never satisfied. I was blessed that I found that paradise. Speaker 1 Nikki was playing some shows here and there and living a very low key life and that's when Nikki met Juan Diego Medina, a guy who would get Puerto Rican artist gigs and Medellin Juan Diego pitch Nikki. He wanted to become his manager, but Nikki was afraid of being famous because all the shit he went through back in Puerto Rico. For a while Nikki will tell him no, he was happy with his couple $1000 he got from his shows every. Speaker 2 Month. Speaker 1 He said he ate well, he got a little car, he could even afford to buy a new pair of sneakers every now and then. But then one day, Nikki tells when they go to come see. Speaker 2 Him. Speaker 1 Nikki hands his cell phone, which he used to handle his business, to Juan Diego and tells him make yourself rich by making me rich. Vallenato Inspires Vulnerable Reggaeton Lyrics And so they start working together. Speaker 4 So I did my first song with the Colombian color. Speaker 1 Right away, Nikki gets to work in the studio. Speaker 4 I wasn't trying to do music for Puerto Rico, I was doing music for Colombia. Speaker 1 Living in Colombia really inspire him, the music. Speaker 4 Bayonato from Colombia gave me a way of writing as well. Because the way the music they will write, they will talk about. I did wrong. I never respected you as a woman. I was fooling around with girls, blah blah blah blah. Speaker 1 Bayonato is popular folk music del Caribbe Colombiano. It's played with accordiones and a beat that comes from black and indigenous Colombian music. Back in the day it was sung by travelling throbadores. Yodia is super popular. Speaker 2 Everyday boom by Genato side to side in La Caje, in La Casa La La senora El servicio la primita El Primo. Speaker 1 DJ Pope, one of the first Colombians to make reggaeton, he says in Colombia you hear by Genato every day, people bump it everywhere. Speaker 2 La letre de la bagenatos on poemas. Speaker 1 He says by Genato, lyrics are poems. Speaker 2 Entonces colombie entro con projecto di ferente in la parte de la letre. Speaker 1 And that poetry gives Colombian reggaeton a unique flavor. Speaker 4 This was lyrics they would never be saying in my general music. So I did that and I bring that by lyrics were more vulnerable. Nicky Jam's New Sound Achieves Worldwide Success And being bulnerable for Nikki was a big deal. It wasn't cool to be in your feelings in the hood, in Puerto Rico. And this Colombian lyrics with reggaeton, it sounded fresh. Speaker 4 Let's go back to Boy Ave. Ave. is a song that the beat was was that typical Colombian color of reggaeton. It was that it was like that reggae string that gives it a good vibe and that's what I did. Speaker 1 Becomes a Friday night party anthem but also a love confession. Hello, who has some colder crush after a night of drinks? We all remember this song was the opposite. It was sweet. You could dedicate it to your girlfriend. And DJ Bash says that's why it wasn't just big in Colombia, it was an international hit. Speaker 4 I was doing music for Colombia. Doing music for Colombia made me do worldwide hits. Enrique Iglesias Collaboration and Renewed Fame Along with Boyaverin, he also put out his hit Travisuras and then one day. Speaker 4 I got a call at 1:00 in the morning, Enrique Iglesias, and he said he wanted to talk to me. He said he wanted to. I couldn't believe it was him because obviously my mentality is what is he calling me for? Because I'm not his league, you know, And you got to understand everything that happened to me was going to be an impact, a double impact 'cause I came from a downfall. So I was so used to failure that when something good happened, it was impressive to me. It was incredible. Paisa Artists Take Reggaeton to the World They will make one of Nikki's biggest hits ever, El Perdon. For Nikki, so many things had changed since he first arrived in Mid again. And things had changed for the city too. All of a sudden, all ears were on reggaeton paisa. Speaker 4 It came to a moment where if you wanted to be big, you had to go to Colombia. From there you would jump around the world. So Colombia was kind of like a trampoline for the urban music. Speaker 1 Trampoline that will take our music global and paisa artists like J. Balvin, Maluma, Karolgi, they will take an enero to the next phase when we will dominate the world. Production Team and Special Thanks Just next time on Lao the History of Reggaeton. Lao the History of Reggaeton is a Spotify original podcast from Futuro Studios. This podcast was written and reported by Marlon Bishop and Luis Gallo and edited by Sofia Paliza Khan from Spotify Executive producers Gina Belbag, Adrian Arredondo, Jessica Molina and Julio A Pabon. We producing help from Dan Behar. Executive produced for Futuro Studios by Marlon Bishop. Produced by Luis Gallo, Gini Montalvo, Catalina Gata Eccleston, Hermes Ajala, Joaquin Cutler, Sandra Riano, Nicole Roswell and Daniela Tejo Garzon. Additional production by Christian Herrera, Sebastian Herbais Nunez, Ezequiel Rodriguez Sandino and Juan Diego Ramirez. Fat checking by Tatiana Diaz. Sound design and mixing by Gini Montalvo and Stephanie Lebow, with help in this episode from Julia Caruso. Our theme song is by Max, Original music by Echo and Danny, Crazy Town for the Echo team and Impulse and intellectual music supervision by Big Sing Yours Truly, recorded at Hega Studio by Maluri Inverness. Special thanks to Julio Ricardo Barela, Luis Nuna, Liliana Ruiz, Josh Lindrin, Sonia Clavell, Ricardo Montalvo, Jasmine Afifi, O'Neill Anderson, Jessica Diaz Hurtado, Kimu Elolia, Sarah Gaynor, Vijean Garvey, Jessie Hart, Sue Lu, Brian Marquis, Lauren Monkey, Ashley Nesby, Andreas Lensi, Way Slitkin, and Jordan Tochinsky. For production support. I'm your host EB Quinn. Make sure to follow LOUD The History of Reggaeton only on Spotify. where the Cheese Man is the hit, one Queen rules the Cheese Man.