Daddy Yankee: this was the career of the first big reggaeton star

The day came. The one who didn't see it coming so soon. The day when one of the exponents and pioneers of reggaeton said goodbye to the stage. “Formally, today I announce my retirement from music,” said Daddy Yankee in an unexpected video of just over three minutes with which he decided to announce the end of his career of more than 32 years on the way. The boss, the living legend, as his colleagues tell him, the one who made the world sing 'Gasoline', is leaving the industry definitively. Grateful for his past and hopeful for the future, he confessed that he is going quietly.

He was born in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico, on February 3, 1977. Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez, the artist's first name, grew up in a difficult neighborhood, as he himself tells it in one of the documentaries that were made about his history. Being older in age, he moved to Villa Kennedy where, as he himself says, he met adolescent rebellion. He liked sports, in fact, he saw in this branch, and in other studies, a professional future, music, on the contrary, was just a hobby for him. He grew up with rap culture, but with foreign culture, with English-speaking culture, because Latin urban music, at that time, was not a possibility. There were no references.

Likewise, in his musical awakening, his father was a great reference. “My dad, musician, percussionist, from him comes my side of music. My dad plays every percussion instrument, in those years when salsa was at an incredible height, my dad was well involved,” he said in an interview with CNN.

When Yankee took its first musical steps, reggaeton was a movement with low popularity, it was even a type of music that could be marginalized by those who listened to it for the first time. “We created our infrastructure, created our own marketing system, our own videos, and we all started to become entrepreneurs, out of obligation,” he said in the documentary 'My History'. It is important to note that before giving all his energy to a music career, he was close to signing a contract to be part of the major leagues of baseball, however, he was attacked with a firearm, which caused him injuries that prevented him from fulfilling his mission.

She was 18 years old when she released her first record album 'No Mercy'. It was 1995 and Yankee, as he recalls, had no opportunity to go to a recording studio like he does now, in fact, almost the recordings had to be done in just one shot. “I didn't have the tools,” he argued. He continued to work, not only as a performer, but also as a producer. He framed his name in musical works such as The Cartel: The Untouchables, released in 1997, and The Cartel II: The Cangris, in 2001. At that time, the musician points out, industry executives began to ask about him and his colleagues because, although they didn't sound on the radio, their names were important on the streets, where his music was born.

In 2004, when he was already adding several concerts under his name, his career broke out. That year his album 'Barrio Fino' and the international single 'Gasolina' were released. Its success was such that Time magazine included Daddy Yankee in its list of the 100 most influential personalities in the world in 2006. “I was touched by the strongest part of the movement, which was to establish what was not established, there was no radio, there was no video, there was nothing. I was one of the founders,” he said in an interview. 'Barrio Fino' became the best-selling Latin urban music album in history. From there, what came to the life of the reggaeton king were successes and records.

The musician has more than a hundred awards to his name and has been nominated for different recognitions on more than 300 occasions throughout his history. In 2017 he managed, among other great victories, to go down in history with the song 'Despacito' in collaboration with his colleague, Luis Fonsi. The song became the first in Spanish to reach first place on Billboard's 'Hot 100' chart since 1996.

Daddy Yankee, after a long history of success and discipline, as he himself emphasizes, says goodbye to the stage this year. As he commented, he is now going to dedicate himself to enjoying what his work and his followers have left him. “This genre (reggaeton), which people say that I made it global, was you who gave me the key to make it the greatest thing in the world (...) In the neighborhoods where we grew up, most of us wanted to be drug traffickers. Today I go down to the neighborhoods, the villages, and most want to be singers. That is worth a lot to me,” he said in the video in which he announced his resignation.

He says goodbye with his forehead held high, and in the best way he could do it. He turned his name into something legendary, literally, and will be in charge of a concert tour where he will sing for the last time, in chorus, with those who have followed him from the beginning. It will also deliver a new and final repertoire of new songs on an album that will bear the same name. “'Legendaddy' is fight, it's party, it's war, romance. I retire with the utmost thanks, to my audience, to my colleagues, to all the producers, radio, press, television, digital platforms, and to you, especially you, who have been with me from the very beginning, since the beginning of reggaeton”, he concluded

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