El Futuro Del Reggaeton, Rap y Música Urbana parte 2: Back To The Underground, again!? Por Reggaeton Party Mane P “El Uno”
El Futuro Del Reggaeton, Rap y Música Urbana parte 2: Back To The Underground, again!?
Por Reggaeton Party Mane P “El Uno”
Many will be thrown off by the title, even less will know
what the hell I am writing about. To
briefly summarize, Reggaeton in Puerto Rico from 1994-2001 was known as “Underground”. Even though in Panama it was known as “Plena”,
the music was widely considered “underground” during this timeframe as
well. That is why the years of 1994-2001
is often known as the “Underground Era” of Reggaeton and Spanish Rap.
When Reggaeton went back to the dark ages from 2009-2015 as
the major labels blacklisted most Rap and Reggaeton artists until Nicky Jam
collaborated with Enrique Iglesias with “El Perdón”… This era came to be known as the “Back To The
Underground” era. The reason being that
most relevant music with Urbano, Spanish Rap and Reggaeton was not being supported
by major record labels and instead were released independently either through
free releases via online blogs and websites or self-published releases. So the entirety of the “Urbano” genre went “Back
To The Underground”.
Why do I say this is going to happen? Because it already is. We are on the cusp of a second “Back To The Underground”
period within Reggaeton music. Why? Easy.
Oversaturation. There is just
waaay too much music being released and over 90% of it is coming from the
majors in one form of another.
I must clarify something.
True underground music rarely exists anymore if ever. Underground music was 100% self published and
self released material independent of major record companies. This has died out since the advent of Audio
Music Streaming where everyone requires a digital release. Why and how?
From distrokid, to CDBABY, to Tunecore and even Bandcamp… all these so
called independent music distributors are owned by the major record
companies. Warner Music for example owns
Bandcamp. There is no such thing as true
underground music as long as it’s on Spotify.
Today’s equivalent of underground are artists unable to get onto any
relevant playlists curated by the audio streaming companies themselves and that
is still like 60% of artists signed to a major.
But “Underground” is a term still used for music that floats
under the radar, which again is at least 60% of music released by major record
companies directly, even moreso those who release their music independently via
popular outlets like CDBABY. On rare occasion,
though these so called independent releases will gain steam although none come
to mind right now as the majors have pretty much monopolized all forms of Musica
Urbana. “Si No Es Contigo” by Cris MJ is
one of the few examples of a song that was a huge success despite being a 100%
independent release.
What I’m saying is that although the term “Underground” no
longer means what it once used to; it will still remain a relevant expression
for music that ranges from obscure to that artist that is just below Top 40,
but is popular enough for Rauw to shout him/her out on a live.
People thought that by now, Música Urbana was gonna be
crawling with more millionaires than ever… I never thought this, but this
remains a prevailing opinion. This is
because the music is bigger than ever doing the biggest numbers it has ever
done. Of course this has led to a record
breaking number of exploitative contracts signed by newer and younger
talent. Though these type of contracts
do exist in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, many young talents from these
countries had experienced OG’s advise them against signing these type of
contracts to the point some of the hottest talents in the game like Hades 66,
remain unsigned waiting to get the best of their value.
But in countries like Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Spain and
the sort where Spanish Rap and Reggaeton have not enjoyed mainstream relevancy
for a long period of time, that is where these types of contracts are most
abundant. So don’t think they are
promoting more Chilean Reggaeton to you because it’s more popular and cooler
than the Puerto Rican ones, it’s because it is easier for the major record
companies to exploit talents from over there.
Sometimes, it is because they are good too.
But what I write here has little to do with contracts and
exploitation. It is the wave of where
the music is moving. The main reason why
Reggaeton is going back to the underground a second time, third overall, is
because the music is becoming regional.
How many of you have heard of Young Cister? The number will be less and less, the more
the audience goes over the age of 18.
Internationally, he’s pretty much a nobody, but locally (in Chile) he’s
packed over hundreds of millions of plays through Spotify. The same goes for Saiko. Who they tried to blow up in Puerto Rico and DR
but it just didn’t work because he was seen as too EMO. Spain picked the wrong guy, Kaydy Cain would
have been a better choice in my opinion.
But Saiko has over a billion plays on Spotify and almost no one knows
him outside of Spain.
And this trend continues grandly. Kidd Voodoo is beginning to cross over
internationally but in Chile he is already an all time great. In Chile he is bigger than J Balvin. But at least half of international Urbano audiences
have no idea who he is. This is similar
to how Balvin was before “6AM” with Farruko in 2013. Kidd Voodoo just hasn’t found his “6AM” yet. His last album was quite good, so I think he
can do it. But most of the general Latin
audience worldwide would have no idea that Kid Voodoo literally has over a couple
of billion of plays on Spotify. That’s
because 80% of it came from Chile.
And there are more talents of this type, like Standly, El
Jordan 23, El Malilla, Bellakath, Polima Westcoast and many others who are mostly
unknown to worldwide audiences but pulling in huge numbers locally. I would list more names, but I just don’t
know who many of these artists are with songs that have over 200 million plays
on Spotify. And this is that some people
say I am an expert in this type of music… I ain’t bad though in my humble
opinion.
What I do know is that I’ve seen every trend in Urbano music
past the El General/Vico C era from the late 80’s to early 90’s because I was
just a baby back then. But since the mid
90’s I have been an avid follower of the culture and my knowledge has only grown
over time. One thing that has been an
everlasting truth is that once this music gets too expensive, the executives
and their companies always start looking for cheaper and more affordable options. And thanks to Bad Bunny, Spanish Rap &
Reggaeton is the most expensive it has ever been to promote at the highest
level.
I’ll give you the most recent example, in 2017, the majors
were crazy with Pop Urbano. They said it
was the future of all Latin Music, not just Reggaeton. They put millions behind CNCO, Piso 21, Becky
G, Mike Bahía, Pedro Capo, Mau & Ricky and countless other awful music acts
with the intention of erasing Real Reggaeton from the map.
It worked, at first.
We were really looking at a world where CNCO was going to be where Bad
Bunny eventually got to. The marketing
was genius. The images sold made teeny
boppers go crazy. And they even sold out
stadiums for a couple of years. But the labels made one major mistake when they
overpromoted Pop Urbano to the masses… And that is that Pop Urbano music suuucked!!! They had a few good singles… even the awful
Mike Bahia has that one good song with Greicy… but 95% was pure garbage.
Meanwhile, the major record companies were throwing their
money away at crap… Anuel AA and Bad
Bunny were making revolutionary music that was gaining HUGE ground… without the
backing of a major! Clearly one was more
organic, while the other was force-fed hogwash the public eventually rejected. Maybe Alleh N Yorghaki can revive it? Don’t bet it on it, but they ain’t bad especially
compared with most Pop Urbano crap.
But the labels weren’t done.
Even though by 2019 Pop Urbano was already dead. The labels doubled down on their piece of
crap music. They heavily invested on new
releases by CNCO, Piso 21, Mau & Ricky and the sort which all flopped and
went triple plastic. People no longer
wanted the watered down version of Urbano, they wanted the real thing.
But then Covid happened.
And the labels could no longer justify the expenditures. They dropped most of the Pop Urbano artists
from their respective rosters. Few have
continued independently, but the overwhelming majority of them have become
irrelevant. This pissed the majors
off! Talents like Farruko, Bad Bunny, El
Alfa, and Anuel were all signing record breaking deals that left them as owners
of their brands, publishing, masters and albums. The majors hate giving up that much.
But they saw opportunity in the burgeoning movements of
South America, particularly Chile and Argentina. The labels would have sought Colombia too,
but the problem is that when the talents over there become too big, too
quickly, they also become very expensive.
Feid, Karol G, Maluma and J Balvin are all very expensive acts to book
and sign. Nowadays when a Colombian
talent makes it big it is either because Maluma’s people are behind them like Blessd,
or they signed with a Puerto Rican exec like Beele did with DJ Luiann.
But Argentina and Chile are very cheap in comparison. I cannot say who but a big name talent with a
major label contract from Chile had his advance deal reported within Reggaeton
news outlets over a year ago. Said
talent had accumulated over a billion plays on Spotify without a major. He signed to Sony for just $100,000 (US)
dollars. Details were undisclosed except
that it was a 360 joint venture meaning that the label will collect a
percentage (usually around 50%) of concert earnings and merchandise on top of
record sales/streaming revenue.
360 Joint Venture deals are different from regular 360’s in
that an artist retains ownership in his own label and at least 50% of his
publishing. The artist is supposed to
retain ownership of his masters once the contract is up, but the labels usually
get the artist in debt to the point the only way to pay that debt back is to
give up your masters. Either that, or
they buy you out like Universal Latino bought out WY Records in 2012 for about
a million dollars.
Wisin & Yandel were scammed if you ask me, but they sold
out of panic as the future of the record business was uncertain back in 2012
because no one knew how successful audio streaming would be as it was just in
its infancy. Physical sales were dead,
Itunes had caused the record industry to be at an all time low in overall
sales. Wisin & Yandel were desperate
to get out of their contract and the ultimatum was to sell WY Records back to
Universal. Yandel feels it was a big mistake
after seeing how much money “Rakata” has made alone since then. I bet they lost at least 10 million dollars
from that deal.
$100,000 (US) is a respectable amount, especially in Chile
where that money would probably have a spending value of at least 3x that. But… look at Anuel’s last contract. It was reported to be for $2 million dollars
(US) and that was after he tanked his value by cheating on Karol G forcing her
to dump him and dissing Maluma, then looking worse by bowing down to him which
tanked his value even further.
Ironically, that other artist from Chile (who shall go unnamed
out of respect) hasn’t had a big hit since he signed with Sony. Who knows why? But at face value, that bet should have been
a guaranteed winner. Instead, homeboy is
still in Chile doing club shows, meanwhile Anuel has had several big time hits
since then and still sells out stadiums in Mexico, PR, Argentina, Chile,
Colombia etc… Sometimes greed doesn’t work
out.
*BTW… This will be
a true but somewhat controversial sentiment.
The reason why no one can ever go at Maluma lyrically is not because he
is a Pop star. People used to diss Ricky
Martin all the time. But it is because
Maluma has long been rumored to be bisexual and his LGBTQ fans who don’t
understand “battle” culture misinterpret attacks against him as xenophobia. Many have tried to go at Maluma from Anuel to
Tempo, Bryant Myers (indirectly) and even J Balvin but it just hurts their
career because Maluma fans ain’t having it.
I think the only reason Balvin was forgiven is because he was long
rumored to be bi as well, although he has denied these rumors, unlike Maluma. We are living in a different time and people
are much more sensitive now. Let’s just
say Falo vs Alberto Stylee today would essentially be interpreted as a hate
crime. And I believe Nando Boom’s “No
Queremos Mariflor” is why many modern-day pundits deny him when talking about
greats among Reggaeton’s pioneers.
Back to why Reggaeton is going regional AKA “Back To The Underground”. But there are others who have been a
resounding success for the majors. Cris
MJ for example. Although he is an
independent artist, he has a management deal with RIMAS, as recently as 2025,
and although Gerardo Mejia wants to sign him badly to Warner Latina, he has
chosen the independent route because it was more lucrative for him. He did donate “Gata Only” to Warner artist,
Floyy Menor however. That was arguably
the biggest song of 2024.
Even though Cris MJ’s success is barely attributed to any major,
their hopes are to find one like him at a bargain bin price. And I hate to say it; the major labels will
eventually accomplish this goal because they did back in the day with J
Balvin. In the late 2000’s to early 2010’s
when major labels shafted and shelved many big name artists including but not
limited to Jowell & Randy, Arcangel, Cosculluela, Alberto Stylee, John
Eric, Kendo Kaponi, Nova & Jory, Danny Fornaris, Baby Rasta & Gringo, Ñejo
y Dalmata, J Alvarez among many others, some we don’t even know about… But there was one artist who got the red
carpet treatment from the majors and that was… J Balvin.
J Balvin signed to EMI circa 2009 for only $75,000 (US)
dollars. Reggaeton was much cheaper back
then, but Jowell & Randy were shelved because White Lion wanted hundreds of
thousands of dollars for “Sobredoxis” which they did not receive. So they put out the album independently and
it flopped. It did not even sell 30
thousand units.
Meanwhile, J Balvin’s albums sold relatively well inside
Colombia for the time. No, he did not
sell hundreds of thousands of units, but I believe his album “El Sistema” went
gold back then and that was about 20 thousand units inside of Colombia. But that is not where the major labels made
back their money with J Balvin. Where
they made an astronomical profit with him was collecting on concert monies.
See, before this era, artists used to only sign for albums
when they were big. Their concert money
often was handled by separate companies when they were big time. If you were starting out however, your parent
company like Universal or Sony would also handle your concert money. But all this changed in 2007 thanks to
declining record sales. Not only in
Reggaeton but industry wide.
Record labels mandated what are known as 360 deals even for
some big name artists. Now if you were Jay-Z,
Daddy Yankee or Beyonce, you did not have to sign these type of contracts, but
for everyone else, yes they did. These
contracts are now the norm, but in 2007 they stirred a lot of controversy. The big clause in these contracts was that
now artists had to give a large percentage of their concert earnings to record
labels in order to justify the distribution of their music. Before the record industry could profit from
record sales alone and a big time artist like Fabolous could go and make deals
elsewhere in regards to his concert earnings. But in 2007, they began obligating even
artists at Fabolous’ level to sign 360 deals.
*Please note that there are now 360 distribution deals
which offer a bigger advance and let artists retain full ownership over their
intellectual works. These are done in an
80-20 split in favor of the artists.
These are the type of deals that Jay-Z, Beyoncé and yes even Daddy
Yankee have signed. Bad Bunny doesn’t
even have this type of deal but I expect Noah to give one to him once his
contract renews, if not then the Bun Buns should walk out as he could easily
get a 360 distribution deal with ‘Live Nation’ for at least 40-50 milli. Bad Bunny last renewed his contract in 2020
and it is up this coming year, I believe.
Though the amount was never reported, his current deal was estimated to
be at a 7 million advance in a 60-40 joint venture split in Bunny’s favor.
Many Reggaeton artists at first refused to sign the 360
deals and they were let go from the labels.
Eventually the record labels began offering 360 joint venture deals
which were better structured and allowed potential ownership to artists who
were business savvy enough. Farruko signed
this type of deal for $3 million dollars back in 2015. But he kept everything from ‘Carbon Fiber
Music’ in a 60-40 split to his favor.
The last one he signed was for $7 million (US) I read circa when ‘767’ came
out.
So that’s what the major labels want. They want to invest a pittance in comparison
and receive J Balvin on the other end which is a return of several of millions
of dollars on a paltry $75,000 (US) advance when compared to a bigger artist
like Farruko. But the likelihood of this
is a one in a million shot. Balvin was a
once in a lifetime thing. I doubt that
will ever happen again in which they got an artist so cheap yet he turned out
so fruitful.
There were so many catalysts needed to let Balvin grow the
way they did. Puerto Rico had to fall
and become irrelevant on a mainstream worldwide stage. Colombia had to become the hottest Reggaeton
territory in the world. And internationally
recognized artists like Jowell & Randy, Alberto Stylee, and Nicky Jam from
Puerto Rico had to cosign J Balvin to help him grow in neighboring territories
like Ecuador and Chile. In 2013, nobody
in New York except die hard Colombian Reggaeton fans had any idea who J Balvin
was, but in Ecuador he was already becoming a legend.
They will never find someone that cheap ever again, but yes,
they will find someone who is a bargain in comparison and make him/her a very
big deal. That might be Kidd Voodoo
whose contract isn’t Balvin cheap but I estimate is somewhere around $300,000-$500,000
dollars (US). That is a bargain when
compared to Farruko’s 7 million dollars.
Plus, I don’t believe Kid Voodoo owns his own label which means extra
percentage points to the major label that has him signed. I could be wrong as I have yet to come across
Voodoo’s business dealings for it hasn’t been made public.
But what the majors did is pure insanity. They bought pretty much all Reggaeton real
estate that is worthwhile in some form or another. If they couldn’t sign Cris MJ, they still
collect via Noah’s management partnership with him. So now they pretty much own it all whether it
makes money or loses. And what this has
caused is a classic every man/woman for himself type situation. A real-life Royal Rumble.
Reggaeton and Música Urbana has become kind of like the end
to the classic video game Mortal Kombat Armageddon. A every man/woman for himself elimination
tournament for the privilege to fight Blaze atop of the mountain. I don’t read much classic literature…
sorry. I did read all the New Testament
and 80% of the old one though. This is
what is happening in the local regional Reggaeton scenes. And the prize which is to fight Blaze to
become champion is gaining a presence on the international scene which now appears
to be Kid Voodoo as the next one after Cris MJ f’d up his golden opportunity
releasing hordes of crappy music post “Gata Only” except for “Si No Es Contigo”
& “7 Trompetas”.
In Argentina it might still be Quevedo though he took a
backstep with his follow up album, despite his debut being pretty solid. In Mexico, it’s Peso Pluma. I think Saiko’s seat is for the taking in
Spain, it would be C. Tangana except he’s on a long hiatus after his exhausting
“El Madrileño” run. Panama’s current
champion is Boza. And that is the future
of Reggaeton.
Comments
Post a Comment