J Balvin’s Top 5 Reggaeton Artists for Quarantine Listening
When J Balvin’s new album Colores came out last month, it brought some much-needed technicolor to a world in the throes of a frightening pandemic. The global reggaeton superstar and his ever-changing hair—currently dyed rainbow—is a powerhouse of creativity, constantly churning out innovative Latin music and collaborations with fashion and music legends. Having spent the last decade jet-setting between continents on his meteoric rise to world-wide fame, Balvin finds himself in a rare extended period at home in Medellin. But that doesn’t mean he’s slowing down. “I’ve never been working as much as during this quarantine,” Balvin told Mark Anthony Green on the latest episode of The Drop In. “When everything gets back to normal, I want to be moving even faster than I was before.”
On top of promoting his new album and studying architecture and design, Balvin is also planning to drop five new music videos, each corresponding to one of the color-themed songs off Colores. He’s following up his BAPE collaboration with an Air Jordan 1 release (dropping in November), which makes him the first Latino artist to work with Nike on an original Jordan design. “I had a beautiful meeting with Michael Jordan in Paris,” he recalls, when he got the green light to go through with the project. “We were just vibing and talking until four in the morning. And he was, like, ‘You know, I love what you do, you do it.’ It was quick.”
As he leverages his hard-earned stardom to bring his style to ever wider audiences, Balvin’s working with more and more legends, whether that means performing at Coachella with Beyonce or joining Jennifer Lopez onstage at the Super Bowl. “We were vibing for, like, twenty days in Miami before the Super Bowl,” he said of J.Lo. “She made me feel like family, so much that I forgot it was J.Lo. I saw the human being. Which makes her even greater.”
While he was here, Balvin also dropped his top-5 reggaeton gods list—the legends who he grew up worshipping and who helped pave the way for artists like Balvin and his frequent collaborator Bad Bunny. Even if they're not news to you, there's never a bad time to put some Daddy Yankee on the stereo.
1. Daddy Yankee
"Daddy Yankee was the first one who crossed over with "Gasolina." Respect to the godfathers of the movement. And the beautiful thing is, Daddy Yankee’s still relevant and working. I used to follow Daddy Yankee everywhere, I was a groupie. Like, waiting for him in the hotels. Definitely an annoying fan, man. He’s my big brother in this. That’s my dad. That’s the man.
El Cangri Punto Com was straight up street reggaeton. The essence. The roots of reggaeton. That’s how I fell in love with reggaeton. I was, like, 19 or 20 when it came out. And then Barrio Fino is like the Bible. The Holy Grail. That’s the album that opened up a whole movement. It was also a commercial masterpiece—how to elaborate on hood music and elevate it so much that it was on every radio station."
2. Wisin & Yandel
"Pa’l Mundo is just club bangers. One hit after another. When you guys listen to it you’ll be, like, “Okay, I think I’ve heard that before.”
3. Tego Calderón
"He started doing amazing Spanish rap, and he basically started kinda crossing over. He was the first one crossing over at his level during his time. He made the Afro cool again in Latin culture. We all wanted to have the Afro. I grew out an Afro. Bro, my hair is puffy!"
4. Don Omar
"The pioneers of Reggaeton are Daddy Yankee, Wisin & Yandel, Tego Calderón, and Don Omar. He was the first one who started mixing, like, ballads. Like, R&B-reggaeton mix. He was harmonizing and at the same time he was rapping."
5. Nicky Jam
"Nicky Jam is one of my closest friends in the game, and he definitely made reggaeton way more melodic and cooler than it used to be. On Vida Escante he was rapping, he was doing R&B...he was a hit."
The actor, director, and film buff gave us 20 movie picks (plus 3 books) to fill our socially-distanced days.
J Balvin, the reggaeton sensation famous for his outrageous fashion and his rainbow hair, keeps the kind of travel schedule that could make even a seasoned globe-trotter faint. Just before he drops a major new album, we caught him in a rare moment of calm.
Originally Appeared on GQ
