San Juan.- Collaborations between reggaeton artists have been one of the key factors keeping the genre at the top of global charts, even though in its early days it was marginalized for its sexually explicit and violent lyrics.

That was the consensus of veteran figures DJ Negro, Mario VI, and Ken-Y, who spoke after participating in the recent forum «Puerto Rico as a Global Driver of Music and Entertainment,» organized in San Juan by GFR Media and Agencia EFE.

“Collaborations are what have kept this genre united and relevant. And not only among ourselves, but with other musical genres as well,” Mario VI told EFE. As a performer, he was known as a composer and backup singer for Don Omar, another of reggaeton’s major stars.

In his view, reggaeton “set an example for other genres that didn’t do that,” like pop, salsa, and merengue, and while those artists don’t typically team up with each other, they “have collaborated with urban music.”

“We never got to enjoy Chayanne and Ricky Martin together, or Elvis Crespo and Manny Manuel. But we did see Daddy Yankee and Don Omar, despite their disputes, and a J Balvin and Benito (Bad Bunny) album, multicultural, two countries, two different global artists,” said the author of songs such as Repórtense and Fiera.

Mario VI, DJ Negro and Ken-Y are three key figures of the urban movement who have witnessed the genre’s different stages, from the introduction of Spanish-language rap by Vico C in the late 1980s to Bad Bunny’s global explosion today.

“I feel super proud to be part of that first tier of the genre that now dominates the world, because here in Puerto Rico there was nobody before Vico, and little by little people began to accept us,” DJ Negro reflected.

The genre’s evolution

DJ Negro and Vico C were among the first Latin urban music duos, with the 1989 cassette La Recta Final, a four-track release that became a huge success on the island’s streets.

Years later, DJ Negro and producers such as DJ Playero pioneered the so-called “underground,” a fusion of rhythms with sexually explicit and violent lyrics that captivated young audiences but also drew government censorship.

Police fined people caught driving and listening to the music, and forced stores to pull records from their shelves until they included explicit-content warnings on the covers.

“There was a lot of controversy with the police because of the negative messages, stories from the barrio, until it took a new turn with different rhythms and songs, and I fell in love with the genre,” Ken-Y recalled.

To ease tensions, producers including DJ Negro began creating songs with less violent content. That opened the door for collaborations between urban artists and performers from other genres, as well as within reggaeton itself.

The arrival of digital platforms ushered in a new generation of artists, Bad Bunny, Rauw Alejandro, Myke Towers, Anuel AA, J Balvin and Feid, who have sparked a worldwide boom.

“It’s impressive what’s happening,” said Mario VI, highlighting how far the genre has come and the global influence of reggaeton and Puerto Rican culture.