March 10, 2005 @ 11:00 pm

VIBE Magazine: NEXT >> Daddy Yankee - Gimme the Light

Angie Romero

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Tonight, the plan is to have fun, or as the boricuas say, “Gozar.” Which isn’t easy in the sticky-floored club Atarazana, Miami’s mini Copacabana, where the Presidente beer–filled cups are spilling and the tobacco is burning. Despite this, the mamis in tube tops and frizzy curls are grinding with cubic zirconia–clad thugs to the live sounds of Daddy Yankee, reggaeton’

Raymond "Daddy Yankee" Ayala, 26, is the busiest MC/producer in reggaeton, which Yankee describes as a Spanish blend of hip hop, Panamanian reggae, Jamaican dancehall, and salsa. The genre blossomed in his native Puerto Rico, circa the mid-'90s. "I want to show that reggaeton is not just party and bullshit," says Yankee, who appeared as a teen on Playero's 37, one of the first reggaeton mixtapes. Today the competition is fierce, with everybody from Tego Calderón to Don Omar making hits. But Yankee - who got his moniker from the Puerto Rican slang for "powerful man" - gives credit to all. "Tego helped open the doors for us to go mainstream," says Yankee. "Now we each play a role in raising the music to a higher level." Yankee's sixth album, Barrio Fino, which was released independently through his label, El Cartel Records, and includes the incendiary "Gasolina," has infiltrated the Billboard 200 pop chart. Meanwhile, "Oye Mi Canto," with compatriots N.O.R.E. and Nina Sky, is seducing America's mainstream. Yankee refers to the song as the "'Rapper's Delight' of reggaeton." N.O.R.E. agrees that they're onto something big. "I'm lucky to be a part of this movement," he says. "And Daddy Yankee is going to exceed his own expectations because he's so talented." Raised in the projects in San Juan by a manicurist, Rosa, and a drummer, Ramón, a young Ayala studied rap, from Rakim to N.W.A. "I realized Latinos and blacks have the same problems in different languages," says Yankee, whose thug-life flirtations earned him two bullets in his right thigh at age 18. "After that, God said, 'Use your gift and never look back,'" he recalls. Now the baby-faced phenom - whose forthcoming album, tentatively titled Los Homerunes de Yankee, will feature productions from his longtime partners Luny Tunes all the way to Lil Jon - delivers music to the masses. "My other albums were hard core," he says, "but now I'm running all the bases." And, no question, this Yankee's going to score.

Article tags: VIBE, Magazine, NEXT, Daddy, Yankee, Gimme, Light 

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