Daddy Yankee

Daddy Yankee原名Raymond Ayala，1977年2月3日出生在波多黎各，2000年与大牌DJ Playero合作出版首张个人专辑El Cartel de Yankee（cartel是西班牙语海报的意思），成为当时Reggaetón音乐的探索性先锋专辑之一（Reggaetón音乐产生于90年代初期的波多黎各，该音乐形式结合了传统Salsa音乐，牙买加的Reggae，以及Hip Hop等多种音乐风格为一体），并以自己独特的演绎让Reggaetón音乐引起了美国和欧洲主流流行音乐市场的注意，因此Daddy Yankee在波多黎各本土享有“Reggaetón即兴音乐之王”的美誉。
by Jason Birchmeier
Daddy Yankee did more than anyone to establish reggaeton as a marketable music style. His success was so phenomenal in the wake of his 2004 mainstream breakthrough, Barrio Fino -- and in particular the international hit "Gasolina" -- he transcended cultural boundaries and genre trappings. He became more than just a reggaetonero; he transformed himself into an international name brand. By the time of his 2007 follow-up album, El Cartel: The Big Boss, for example, his name, image, and music were used to sell soft drinks for Pepsi and footwear for Reebok, as well as a syndicated show for ABC Radio Networks (Daddy Yankee on Fuego) and a feature film for Paramount Pictures (Talento de Barrio). Daddy Yankee indeed had become a business empire, of which the primary asset, his music, remained independent from major-label control: he keenly operated his own independent label, El Cartel Records, and chose to partner with labels such as Interscope only for purposes of marketing and distribution, rather than sign himself and his publishing to them outright. The business side of Daddy Yankee was so remarkable, it often overshadowed his music, which admittedly is often most noteworthy for its commercial viability. The music is noteworthy on its own terms nonetheless, with Barrio Fino in particular standing tall as the definitive reggaeton album of its time. Boasting a pair of fantastic hits, "Gasolina" and "Lo Que Pasó, Pasó," the album was a standard-bearer, influencing a legion of followers and establishing the production duo Luny Tunes as reggaeton's hottest hitmakers. Barrio Fino was also the first reggaeton album to reach number one on the Top Latin Album chart, a position it held for roughly a year's time while selling over a million copies in the United States alone.
Born Ramón Ayala (aka Raymond) on February 3, 1977, in Río Piedras, the largest district of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Daddy Yankee grew up in a musical family. His father was a bongosero (i.e., a salsa percussionist), his mother's family included numerous musicians, and he himself sang from an early age, with a knack for improvisation. As Daddy Yankee grew older, he took an interest in Spanish-language hip-hop, especially the socially aware raps of Vico C, and he became increasingly drawn into the street life of his neighborhood, the Villa Kennedy housing project in San Juan. The "Yankee" moniker arose from the Puerto Rican slang for "someone tall, who is big in what he does" (according to a 2005 interview with Billboard magazine); "Big Daddy" is thus the rough English translation of Daddy Yankee. He got into reggaeton just as it was taking shape in the early '90s, when San Juan DJs would spin hip-hop alongside dancehall reggae while vocalists would freestyle over the beats. This convergence of hip-hop, dancehall, and freestyling proved popular in San Juan, most notably at the Noise, a long-running club night that spawned a collective of DJs and rappers. Besides the Noise, the other key proprietor of proto-reggaeton was Playero, a mixtape DJ/producer with whom Daddy Yankee got his start, debuting as a featured guest on Playero 37 (1992). A few years later, at age 18, Daddy Yankee made his full-length album debut, No Mercy (1995), again working with Playero. Little came of No Mercy, however, and he continued to work the reggaeton underground for the remainder of the '90s. Toward the end the decade, he began performing alongside Nicky Jam as a duo and had one of his songs, "Posición," a collaboration with Alberto Stylee, featured on the 1998 One Tough Cop soundtrack.