Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez (born: February 3, 1977), known professionally as Daddy Yankee, is a Puerto Rican singer, composer and producer. He is one of the most well known members of reggaeton music genre. He was raised in San Juan, but currently lives in Miami, Florida and has dual citizenship.
Early Life[]
Ramón grew up in the "ghetto" neighborhood of Río Piedras, a former municipality of Puerto Rico's capital, San Juan. As a child, his dream was to become a baseball professional, and his musical tastes were of an average kid at the time. When entering his teenage years, however, began to be interested in the art of dance, and all sorts of Latin music, particularly rap. He began to sing songs in the latter style, with which his popularity grew immensely.
Start of Music Career[]
During his early years, he had the opportunity to meet Pedro Gerardo Torruelas, an independent disc jockey who, like most other Puerto Rican musicians, was better known by his stage name: DJ Playero. Since the early 90s, this key figure in the development of reggaeton has been producing records that mixed reggae and hip hop rhythms, with improvised recitations in Spanish. DJ Playero was able to appreciate the potential of young Ramón and his rap skills. The ingenuity he displayed in his fluid improvisations intrigued him the most, and they began to collaborate in a series of recordings that, despite their almost crafty accomplishments, soon reached great popularity among the youth of the Caribbean.
First Independent Albums[]
Ramón's first independent album, the album that supposed the definitive triumph of the artist and the genre, was Barrio Fino (2004). In a little more time than a year and a half, two million copies of the album came to be sold worldwide, which would receive a multitude of recognitions: it received the Lo Nuestro award and the Latin Billboard, and the successful single Gasolina, extracted from the album, was nominated for the Grammy and the MTV.
Intense Popularity[]
The promotion of the album took the artist on tour throughout the Americas and Europe, without excluding non-Spanish-speaking countries, such as France or Italy. The album even penetrated the best-selling lists in Japan. In 2006, Time magazine included Daddy Yankee on its list of the 100 most influential personalities in the world.
Discography[]
- No Mercy (1995)
- El Cangri.com (2002)
- Barrio Fino (2004)
- El Cartel: The Big Boss (2007)
- Talento de Barrio (2008)
- Mundial (2010)
- Prestige (2012)
- Legendaddy (2022)
Filmography[]
As a headliner[]
- Barrio Fino World Tour (2004–06)
- The Big Boss Tour (2007–09)
- Talento de Barrio Tour (2009)
- Mundial Tour (2010–11)
- European Tour (2012)
- Prestige World Tour (2013–14)
- King Daddy Tour (2014–15)
- #TamoEnVivoTour (2017)[1]
- La Gira Dura (2018)
- Con Calma Tour (2019)
- La Última Vuelta World Tour (2022)
As a co-headliner[]
- The Kingdom Tour (2015–16) (with Don Omar)
References[]
