The History Of The Evil Pina Narrative and How it Came To Be. Is Raphy Pina really the Darth Vader of The Reggaeton Business? Maybe. (Rough Draft)
The Beginning (1997 to 2001)
Ironically, there were no evil narratives about Raphy Pina during his beginnings. He started out as a barber despite being the son of a famous local record mogul. Pina Sr. began the Pina Record label as a means to distribute mostly folkloric Puerto Rican music like Trova, Bomba y Plena. He occasionally signed tropical acts such as Grupo Karis as well.
During Raphy Pina Jr's stint as a barber, he found out through scuttlebutt at the shop that Don Chezina was unsigned and looking for a label to produce and finance his not yet started solo debut. Raphy brought the legendary MC to his father who signed Don Chezina to a record deal on the reccomendation of his son. Raphy Pina Jr. was smart enough to leverage points on the sales of Don Chezina's debut "Bien Guillao De Gangster" released in 1997. He immediately went out and bought his first luxury car with all the money he earned from that album.
"Bien Guillao De Gangster" by Don Chezina was a monumental success, selling 60 Thousand Units indepedently in the first year and over 100 Thousand Units overall. This led to Pina Sr. signing more talents his son brought to him such as fellow barber/rapper, Polaco and his lyrical affiliate Lito in 1999 after the duo became dissatisfied under the guidance of DJ Eric Industry who kept delaying their respective projects.
Raphy used the recordings of Polaco and Lito, both individually and together to forge a debut album in the year 2000 titled "Masacrando MCs". This caught Polaco off guard as he originally signed with Pina Records as a solo artist, but he went along with the duo concept. Pina Records reportedly did the same with their follow-up "Fuera De Serie". And Polaco again went along to get paid via live performances though in contract, he and Lito were technically both solo artists, more on this later.
Lito & Polaco's first 2 albums went double Puerto Rican Platinum (120 Thousand Units) as local certifications systems remained active in the island until 2003. But in the year 2000, Don Chezina achieved Pina Records' greatest success in their early "Urbano" days. The album "Exitos" was released that year which contained Don Chezina remaking several of his earlier hits under new musical production from DJ Joe and Master Joe. The new musical arrangements made the songs feel new and since a large chunk of the international audience never heard the originals, the songs were warmly received and treated as if brand new.
Thanks to the strength of lead singles "Chezidon" and "Tra Tra", Don Chezina's "Exitos" album sold over 200 Thousand units independently. That was astonishing considering that Pina Records was not under a multinational record label thus only had limited distribution between Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and parts of the United States. By 2001 when Pina Records released the classic various artists album "La Conspiracion", Raphy Pina Jr. had taken over his father's label and remained mostly focused on Rap & Reggaeton moving forward. Pina Records then was widely viewed as the 2nd most successful Reggaeton label in the world, only second to VI Music.
(2002 to 2008) The Dark Legacy of Evil Pina begins via his feuds with Yaviah, Speedy, Tempo, Don Chezina, Lito & Polaco and others...
The first thing to paint Pina in a negative light is often a forgotten one. Everyone remembers Pina "roncando" (bragging) on Lito & Polaco's diss tracks to Tego Calderon & Voltio. This was when a large portion of fans that hate Pina began resenting the record executive. They hated how he attacked the beloved Tego Calderon and never forgave him for it.
But before that, Pina had begun developing kind of a feared reputation. The Pina Records of 2002 was not the Pop Urbano Pina Records of today getting Daddy Yankee on "Despacito" with Justin Bieber and being the masterminds behind one of Latin Pop's biggest divas in Natti Natasha. No. This version of Pina Records were in a very heated rivalry against Buddha's Productions "Buddha's Family" which was lead by Tempo.
Buddha (RIP) and his connection to the Puerto Rican underworld have been very well documented so we won't go into detail about that here. The truth is that many artists under Pina around that time, including Daddy Yankee, Nicky Jam, Lito, Polaco, MC Ceja, Master Joe and OG Black were making street music dissing the rival Buddha's Family crew. And around this time, both Buddha and Tempo were shot at and nearly assassinated for what many blamed Raphy Pina for instigating. Some even theorized he may have been behind the attempted hit on Tempo and Budda.
Regardless, nothing has ever directly linked Raphy Pina to Tempo's assassination attempt apart from threats on song. But in 2002, Buddha and Tempo were arrested on drug conspiracy charges, something which is googable, so we won't delve into that either. Buddha was cleared of all charges, meanwhile Tempo was sentenced to 23 years, but with multiple appeals managed to do only 11 in prison and the remaining 12 under probation. Another thing that added to Pina's negative image was that on "La Conspiracion II" he included a Rap track by Master Joe which seemed to mock Tempo in prison and hurt Master Joe & OG Black of becoming more commercially viable during this time as many Reggaeton fans were offended by the song.
But Darth Vader Pina really did not come to the forefront until he signed Yaviah in 2003. What happened was that in 2004, Yaviah thought he received a release from Pina Records in order to sign with Gold Star Music (Hector El Father's label) for a reported $1 Million Dollars (USD). When Pina found out bout the deal via news outlets in Puerto Rico, he was infuriated. He not only blocked the deal, but denied Yaviah his release, sued him and shelved the artist for his remaining time under Pina Records, forbidding him from commercially releasing new music, which is why Yaviah gave away all his music for free during that time.
Yaviah went on several radio interviews in Puerto Rico exposing Pina. Pina to this day claims that Yaviah only spoke with a secretary who had no authorization to give him his release, though Yaviah had a fax copy to prove otherwise. The situation was held up in court for years until 2008 when both parties came to an agreement which allowed Yaviah to leave Pina and sign with WY Records (Wisin & Yandel's label) through a verbal/handshake agreement and Pina Records received Tony Dize in exchange. Nothing like this has ever been done before or after in Reggaeton.
Wait... there's more. In 2004, Pina entered in yet another unresolved feud... with Speedy. Someone from the record company told Speedy that his second album "Dando Cocotazos", distributed by Pina Records/Universal Latino had already sold 100 Thousand Units in its first 6 months. Speedy never saw any additional money past his first advance from Master Joe who was working with Pina via the 'Diamond Collections' imprint. Speedy estimated he was owed at the bare minimum, a hundred thousand dollars.
Speedy demanded his owed money from Pina Records or he would leave the company. Pina refused to pay him. Because Speedy did the deal through Master Joe instead of Raphy, Master gave him his release. Speedy would then form his own label "Yoko Joe Records" in 2005 and re-release a new version of his debut "Nueva Generacion" featuring some new songs and remixes like his hit with Lumidee. The album was distributed worldwide by a company based out of Italy as Speedy became one of the first Reggaeton artists to tour Europe and the Middle East.
The next one is baffling because renowned artists both remained on Pina Records after their feud with Raphy. Lito & Polaco's "Fuera De Serie" album essentially flopped in 2004. Though it was critically acclaimed, their perceived loss to Tego and Voltio in a lyrical battle hurt potential sales. The album actually sold less than their previous ones despite having newfound international distribution from the major record company, Universal Latino with which Raphy formed a partnership in 2003.
Lito had an accountant look at the numbers as he found Raphy's story suspect and though it turned out they were owed nothing in terms of royalties over album sales, his accountant found that Raphy Pina had released two DVD Collections titled "Pina Records Los Exitos Video Collection 1 y 2". The DVD's sold over 200 Thousand units in total and featured several of Lito & Polaco's hits. Lito estimated he and Polaco were owed $100,000 each.
Surprisingly, despite a lot of back and forth, Pina actually paid them and they remained on the label as solo artists. Polaco left in 2005 with Pina's permission to sign with Hector El Father and the two remain cordial to this day. Polaco is one of the few people that has never said a bad thing about Pina. Meanwhile, Lito remained on Pina Records until circa 2012. That one however did not end amicably. We will retouch on that later.
There were other incidents and accusations against Pina. At first his run with Master Joe & OG Black did not end well which led to the shelving of "Francotiradores 3" which was leaked but never released officially. OG Black and Master Joe said they rushed the album just to complete their contract with Pina and took key albums like "Sandunguero 1 & 2", "Francotiradores 2" and "Yakaleo" with them. But they eventually made up.
The Voltio ending was not bitter at first, but Voltio was always salty Pina did not believe in him and Karel. They got their release with no problem and Pina appeared to make a mistake because "Los Dueños Del Estilo" sold over 60 thousand units with no international distribution in 2003. Things remained quiet until Tego Calderon signed Voltio to his imprint "Jiggiri Records" in late 2003. Voltio then got to defending hi friend Tego in his current battle against Lito y Polaco and even dissed Raphy and Don Chezina.
It was around the Tego battle that Raphy's image shifted for many. During Pina Records' famous rivalry with Buddha's Family only Reggaeton insiders knew that Raphy did not like Tempo and co. in real life. Most of the audience did not pay attention to Raphy. He was just simple known as the money guy behind many of your favorite Reggaeton songs.
But when the Tego battle happened, which started in 2001 when Lito y Polaco first dissed Eddie Dee, who many know discovered Tego. This led to Eddie and Tego responding on "El Abayarde" despite Tego having recorded background vocals for Lito & Polaco a year prior on the song "Estamos Prestao" which wouldn't be officially released until 2004.
Raphy made what in hindsight must now be viewed as a big mistake. On a couple of songs from "Fuera De Serie" and bootleg releases, Raphy Pina got on record and talked shit to Tego Calderon and Voltio when Tego was the #1 guy and most beloved artist in the history of our music. It backfired huge. And this was just a couple of months before the Yaviah situation. This made many, many people turn on Pina, something that would become a common theme for him to this day. But we're not done yet.
On the next one, even the person wronged here forgave Pina and thought he did the right thing. Nicky Jam went gold (and eventually Platinum) with "Haciendo Escante" in 2001 which was a Pina Records release. But then in 2002 was when Nicky's well publicized substance abuse issues took hold and even DY began distancing himself from Nick despite being as close as brothers. Because of this, Raphy withheld Nicky Jam's next advance for his next record and refused to give him any money unless he got clean. When Nicky refused, Pina dropped him from the label.
Nicky then signed with "White Lion" in 2003 and released the successful "Salon De La Fama" but was almost immediately released from there too for the same issues. Nicky ended up hospitalized and in jail. He called Pina out of desperation and Raphy bailed him, signed Nicky to a new contract and put him in a rehabilitation program. It worked at first and Nicky was mostly sober for almost a whole year. It must be noted that no one here, not even Tony Dize who owes Pina about $4 million dollars for missed dates, tours and not showing up to studio sessions... even with that, Pina probably only loss half the money he did with Tony that he did with Nicky. And Nicky Jam, except for that one time in 2003, has never said a bad thing about Raphy Pina again. That speaks volumes.
But wait, there's more. Don Chezina, the man that built the foundation of what Pina Records went on to become. Without Chezina, Raphy would never have become one of the most successful executives in the history of Latin Music. And they got into a huge club brawl circa 2005. Bottles were broken over people's heads, the whole 9.
Chezina had million dollar offers on the table in 2002 as "Tra Tra" and "Chezidon" kept breaking into more South American countries like Colombia and Peru. But he chose to resign to Pina out of loyalty and because they had already achieved so much success together, both men sought to replicate it now that they had a major label backing from Universal.
Then in 2004, Pina Records and Chezina re-released an international version of his "Exitos" album from the year 2000 titled "Mi Trayectoria"* with a recent, but already released song in "Dicen Dicen". Despite it being practically a re-issue, the album sold well since this was the first time it became available internationally. I heard both sides back then and neither of them bring it up anymore as they made peace, but are no longer friends. Still, I will try to piece this together as best as I can.
Chezina thought this newfound success of approximately 50 thousand albums sold, of an old album, entitled him to a bigger advance. But Pina Balked, he thought
Chezina was no longer worth the money he was asking for.
Because of this Chezina withheld the various artists album “Don Fichureo” from Pina. Pina knew about the project which was being financed by Chezina and local car dealer Montana Collection who once financed an album by Playero in 1995.
“Don Fichureo” was a phenomenal album. It had participation from big names like Nicky Jam, Las Guanabanas, Maicol & Manuel, Johnny Prez, Tony Touch, Nottyplay, Don Dinero, Master Joe & OG Black, Yaga & Mackie among others…. The production was top notch as well. Notty & Sonic, DJ Blass, Playero using his “Majestic” moniker, DJ Giann Live Music and others…. Plus it had what people most wanted brand new music from Chezina with the modern updated sound.
Chezina knew he had gold in terms of quality, so when Pina refused to give him more money, he took the project independent. Don Chezina was still super hot in the beginning of 2004 and as long as he had distribution in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and major US cities like New York and Miami, he should have sold at least 100,000 units easy. So Chezina put out the album with Montana using a distribution network in Miami, FL which was able to get the album in the key markets I just described.
Montana and Chezina took a different route which should have worked. They opted for a grassroots approach, building from Miami first then other markets. During the first week of sales, “Don Fichureo” was only available in Miami and New York. It would not be released in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic until about a couple of weeks later.
There’s one thing no one brings up. I think what ultimately caused “Don Fichureo” to fail was its album cover. Don Chezina does not appear on the cover. Instead it has “Don Fichureo” in large liquid gel text over a liquid glass background; meanwhile Don Chezina and Montana’s names are small and almost illegible from a distance.
There’s a blurb on the bottom listing all the big names but the cover confused people. I was selling music around this time in New England and most people had no idea “Don Fichureo” was a Don Chezina album. Some even thought it was a bootleg because Chezina wasn’t on the cover. The album sold ok but not as well as it should have.
Chezina should have appeared on the cover with a luxury car in the background which is what people expected from his image. It would have sold much better if Chezina’s face was on the project and had his name appeared in big print. Once people saw Chezina and his name they would have bought it on that alone as he was still pretty big in 2004.
What caused the beef between Raphy and Chezina is that Puerto Rican radio refused to promote “Don Fichureo” on local radio. Chezina was told it was because Pina told people not to play him. Chezi could not even get a radio interview in Puerto Rico. He instead went to promote the album in Peru where it wasn’t available due to limited distribution; so Chezina himself took hundreds of copies to Peru and sold them in concerts and to local stores.
Pina refutes the idea that he kicked Chezina off of Puerto Rican radio. He says that Chezina was no longer played because he was irrelevant which is very suspect. Chezina was still big in 2004. The fact he couldn’t get support from his home country seems to be from outside influence. At least someone in Pina’s camp got Chezina kicked out of radio, possibly due to Blind loyalty as many in Pina’s camp viewed Chezina as a traitor.
But what Pina did next was definitely treacherous. Pina heard from people he had in Miami that Don Chezina had a new album. This confused him because according to Pina, Chezina was supposed to show him the new album before anyone then they would decide. When Raphy found out Chezina went independent without telling him, Pina stopped taking new bookings for Don Chezina as Pina Records was still taking concert bookings for Chezina in early 2004. Supposedly when you called Pina Records around that time, they would tell you that Chezina is no longer under contract and said they didn’t have his new booking info. This really hurt Chezina financially.
At first, thanks to support from Radio in Florida, “Don Fichureo” sold well, selling over 15 thousand units in Florida and New York (plus other US cities) in the first month. But being kicked off Puerto Rican radio limited Chezina’s profile. Most audiences in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the rest of Latin America had no idea Chezina had a brand new album. In the end “Don Fichureo” sold only around 30 thousand units in its lifetime. To this day most fans have no idea it is part of Don Chezina’s catalogue and every album since has done even worse in numbers. Chezina supposedly lost money on that album.
But the final straw was that before their relationship was strained, Pina supposedly had a check of $75,000 (USD) waiting for Don. Chezina tried to collect but after the “Don Fichureo” fiasco, Pina ghosted him.
Pina confirmed this part to be true. His defense was that if Chezina is such a big star then why is he hurting over 75 g’s? Plus, Pina said Chezina never showed up to the Pina offices to confront him face to face. Chezina said he was too busy touring South America but tried to set up a meeting several times to no avail.
The next time they saw each other was circa 2005/2006 inside a nightclub in Puerto Rico. It appears to be the old Luxor nightclub where Arcangel and Franco El Gorila once got into a physical altercation and had to be separated by security. That’s what led to their berf on wax.
Not much is known about exactly what went down. But it appears Raphy and Chezina had hostile words for one another and then got into an old fashioned scuffle. They were tussling on the ground according to Pina himself. Reports back then vary on who got the upper hand, Chezina supposedly got the best on the feet bloodying Pina’s nose but Pina was supposedly on top while grappling on the floor. Their respective entourages got into it and bottles were supposedly broken.
Raphy Pina and Chezina have been tight lipped on what actually happened but both confirmed the incident to have occurred. They made peace but are no longer friends or any of the sort. As amazing as it is to believe, Piña would have even more conflict in the decade to come where he transformed himself into one of the most powerful music executives in the world.
2009 to present Pina, the music magnate and most controversial behind the scenes figure in all the genre
Pina changed direction in the year 2006. With the the help of then president of Universal Latino and future manager of Maluma, Walter Kolm who still remains one of the most powerful music executives to this day; Pina unleashed RKM & Ken-Y on the world. Up until this point, Pina Records used to be viewed as the most street label in all of Reggaeton. RKM & Ken-Y changed all that.
The key to RKM & Ken-Y’s monumental success was that although they are the first official Pop Reggaeton act in history, in the beginning their image and music remained street enough to retain the authentic Reggaeton audience while crossing over at the same time. Their debut “The Masterpiece Nuestra Obra Maestra” sold over 1 million copies worldwide, it’s at 2 million with streaming numbers added.
This massive success led to the first show in Pina Records’ history at the famed Jose Miguel Agrelot coliseum, commonly known as “El Choliseo” where Bad Bunny held his historic 31 date residency this past summer. “El Choliseo” which holds over 17,000 people remains the most important Reggaeton venue worldwide. When international acts like Karol G and J Balvin had to prove themselves as bonafide forces within the Reggaeton world, it was via selling out “El Choliseo” as headliners.
RKM & Ken-Y sold out their first Choliseo as headliners in 2006. They had rose monumentally over the past 2 years since signing to Pina back in 2004, to the point they would sell out stadiums in Latin America. In 2007, Pina signed famed duo Plan B to Pina Records with one half of the duo, Chencho Corleone becoming one of the label’s main writers for over the next 10 years. In 2008 he signed Tony Dize and legendary Reggaeton duo, Zion & Lennox. Pina Records was back on top as Reggaeton’s hottest label.
By the time Pina Records signed Arcangel in 2011, they had become the hottest label in all of Reggaeton again like they were in their peak of 2001-2002. From the years of 2008 to 2015, Pina Records put out some of the most successful albums and songs in the history of Latin Music in general.
“El Doctorado”, “Te Regalo Amores”, “House of Pleasure”, “Si No Le Contesto”, “Como Curar”, “More”, “Zapatitos Rotos”, “Porque Te Demoras”, “Me Prefieres a Mi”, “Love and Sex”, “Solos”, “Candy”, “Es Un Secreto”, “Fanatica Sensual”, Los Favoritos”, 50 Sombras De Austin”, “Tuve un Sueño”, “Mi Amor Es Pobre”, “La Melodia De La Calle Updated” among others…. These works collectively have sold an equivalent of several millions of units.
Also around this era, Raphy Pina became the manager of the two biggest solo artists in Reggaeton history, Don Omar in 2012 and Daddy Yankee in 2014. Don also brought future superstar Natti Natasha to the label in 2013. Everything seemed rosy for Pina but controversy would soon rear its ugly head with one Tony Dize.
Before diving into more Pina Records controversy, I would like to highlight the many artists of the label over the years who never said anything negative about their employer at any point in time. RKM, JCO, Myztiko, Cruzito, Lobo (Tony Dize’s designated songwriter), Plan B (Chencho Corleone & Maldy), DJ Dicky, Harry Digital, Polaco, Yaga, Mackie, Hector El Father, Maicol y Manuel, Master Joe & OG Black, DJ Luiann, & Arcangel. All these artists never said that Pina wronged them in any public forum, in fact Polaco, Arcangel, Master Joe and DJ Dicky all said in podcast interviews that Raphy Pina dealt fairly with them. Now we can move on.
Tony Dize had a bad reputation before signing with Pina Records. He was originally signed to Wisin & Yandel’s imprint “WY Records” from 2003-2008. Tony supposedly complained a lot about his album being delayed several times having to keep remaking “La Melodia De La Calle” year after year to keep up to date with the current sound.
He also reportedly refused to go on tour with Wisin & Yandel and missed a lot of booked dates for his own “La Melodia De La Calle” tour. I remember reading somewhere that Tony Dize claimed to have an illness or something like that. On top of that, Tony wanted to be released from his contract to WY Records.
Although the media reported it as a trade, the whole Yaviah for Tony Dize thing seemed to be circumstantial. They both signed 5 year contracts at the time in 2003 which both ended up expiring around the same time. Tony did end up owing Wisin & Yandel over a million dollars so they could have tied him down, but just let him go.
At the same time, Pina decided not to further pursue his legal proceedings against Yaviah and just allowed his contract to run out. It does appear Pina spoke mainly with Wisin about Tony leaving and that’s when the duo found out Yaviah was available. Yaviah never signed to WY Records but did allow their label to book shows for him for the next 3 years or so. Tony however did sign a new contract.
Tony’s first album with Pina Records was a remake of his debut titled “La Melodia De La Calle Updated”. It contained around 8 songs of the original with 8 new tracks. WY Records had to sign off on giving away those tracks to Pina. And yes, that is why the original version isn’t on streaming services.
“La Melodia De La Calle Updated” was a much bigger success under Pina Records thanks to lead single “El Doctorado”. The original version only sold 100 thousand units. The Pina Records version sold over half a million. With streaming numbers included, “La Melodia De La Calle Updated” is at over 1 million units equivalent in total.
At first, the Tony Dize experiment was very fruitful. Raphy sang Tony’s praises. He said Tony was the 2nd best singer (traditionally speaking) in Reggaeton history after Don Omar who is generally considered as having the best voice of all Reggaeton vocalists. Pina was really happy until Tony went back to his old habits.
I am more than aware of Tony’s rumored substance abuse problem. But this has never been founded. Tony has never been arrested. And Pina never accused him publicly of such activities. Pina straight up says that Tony Dize is simply lazy and afraid of success.
The problems started while recording Tony’s follow up album “La Melodia De La Calle 3rd Season”. Pina says Tony became less involved. He wouldn’t show up to studio sessions with producers and writers. He wasn’t involved in the development of songs like with his previous work. Tony only showed up to record his vocals then left, refusing to participate in the other facets of the development.
This approach affected the quality of music. Pina knew the album wasn’t very good. He tried to get Tony to start over and record new songs. Dize refused. Thus to mitigate expenditures, Pina chose to release the album as completed, despite knowing it was inferior. He thought the album had some decent singles and hoped Tony Dize’s star power would be enough to sell it and make a profit.
The album flopped. It barely sold around 50 thousand copies. Because Tony had become so big, it needed to sell around 120 thousand just to break even. Raphy claims to have lost a couple hundred thousand dollars on that record. But that’s not it. Tony started pulling no shows again.
Dize defended these actions with claims of being overworked. Apparently he had requested time off to spend it with family and Pina wanted him immediately back in the studio. Dize claims Pina’s greed forced a rushed product and that Raphy did not respect Tony’s creativity as an artist forcing him to work even when he was uninspired.
Tony also claims he told Pina and their offices he would not be available to perform live for certain amount of time in order to attend to personal matters and family. Supposedly Pina booked those shows knowing Tony would not show up to rob promoters of non refundable advances or force them to book other talent like JCO.
Fans online took Tony’s side when they heard his defense. From what I’ve seen, fans hate Pina the most for what he is believed to have done to Tony and how he is believed by Dize’s fans to have squandered his potential. Fans went years without hearing new music from Tony and they place all the blame on Raphy Pina.
In a recent interview, Pina says that Tony’s comeback song with Bad Bunny from the record breaking album “Un Verano Sin Ti” couldn’t have occurred without him. Pina said he gave Tony Dize his release despite the artist owing him millions of dollars. He says he forgave Tony’s multimillion dollar debt.
Tony accused Raphy of stopping him from moving on over the years. Raphy admitted this to be true but only because Tony was offered deals that were a pittance and that he deserved much better. When Bad and Noah came with an offer, he finally let Tony go because he thought it was a fair deal. He claims to have looked out for Tony’s best interest despite him being disloyal and a liar.
Raphy claims Tony didn’t show up to performances because he simply didn’t want to. It wasn’t that he wasn’t aware or had to take a break for family. Tony is now signed to RIMAS. His most recent album underwhelmed in numbers doing about 15 thousand units in equivalent copies sold.
The Daddy Yankee and Don Omar controversies surrounding Pina plus miscellaneous
Now, for what you all have been waiting for. The Daddy Yankee vs Don Omar beef over the cancelled “The Kingdom” concert tour which was headed up by Raphy Pina himself. Before continuing, I think it is imperative to know that DY and Don are no longer beefin’. Daddy Yankee and Don Omar made up after Yankee decided to leave secular music behind and dedicate himself to making Christian music in 2025. This is because Don Omar is Christian himself and a former preacher who never left his faith behind. The two have publicly expressed respect and admiration for one another during the past year.
But before all that, there was beef that lasted almost a decade. It wasn’t the first time, however. Don had been rapping since the 1990’s but didn’t really make noise until Hector El Father signed him in 2001. Yankee and Don knew each other but didn’t befriend one another until Hector signed Omar. Through Daddy Yankee’s pre-existing friendship with Hector El Father, he and Don got along.
Because Don was still up and coming (despite being the same age as Raymond), Daddy Yankee took Don Omar under his wing. This culminated in the 2003 worldwide smash hit “Gata Gangster” prod by DJ Blass. Many see that song, along with “Dale Don Dale” as the ones that catapulted Don Omar to international stardom. The two were best of buddies until 2005.
Now the next part I write with the upmost journalistic integrity I can possibly retain given the circumstances. I want to state that although I met both individuals, before they were international superstars, and when I was still a child, I don’t know either of them personally. I have no direct attachment to either of them though I knew someone who knew Playero and have met the legendary dj himself. I even opened up for him (as a dj) once when I was only 15 years old. Playero only dj’d, there were no singers there that night, and I left early because of my age.
I also must reiterate that the following of what I write are only rumors. We all read those gay lover rumors about Wisin & Yandel back in the day that remained unfounded despite both artists being married men with children. The following could be just pure speculation.
My sources are that I used to be part of the old Reggaeton forum circles. I was never a prominent member but did manage to be part of some that had exclusives because the owners and members worked for prestigious labels like VI Music, Pina Records and Mas Flow Inc. Though not everything reported on those websites back in the day was found to be true, a lot of it was. This is what they said about Don and Daddy before those sites shut down in the mid 2010’s.
Word has it that both Daddy Yankee and Don Omar are notorious womanizers. Though Don supposedly calms down whenever he settles down with a female; Daddy Yankee on the other hand was rumored to be a wolf with the ladies despite being married since the 90’s; except when work was his main focus. Supposedly one of the reasons why Daddy Yankee worked so hard was in attempt to remain faithful to his wife.
Both times Daddy Yankee and Don fought were rumored to be over a skirt. The official reports was professional jealousy and competition even on mainstream media like Univision and Telemundo. But in the underground forums, Daddy Yankee and Don Omar were fighting over girls. And not just any girls, superstar chicks.
The first one they fought over was rumored to be Jackie Guerrido. Don Omar back in the day had the reputation of being a heavy drinker and marijuana smoker. Those old songs that Don Omar and Hector made about bullying other men, even rappers, starting fights and taking other guys’ girlfriends were apparently true. Don even got into a heated feud because he unknowingly tried to steal fellow rapper, Great Kilo’s woman without knowing they were together and it was a big mess in Puerto Rico that Hector El Father had to clean up.
I think Jackie was married prior to Don but either while being separated or divorced from her first husband, she started seeing Don in secret. But rumor has it Jackie had a fling with Daddy Yankee around the same time after interviewing him. Jackie Guerrido was a famous news reporter on Telemundo. She was once cited as the most beautiful Latina woman on television. When she became single again, it was like the gold rush for Latino male celebrities that were able to come into her presence.
Jackie would end up marrying Don eventually around 2009. But before that, when she was single, she supposedly had trysts with him and Daddy Yankee at the same time. This created tension among the two and it culminated when in 2005 on “Mas Flow 2”, when Daddy Yankee threw shots at Don Omar with the lines “Ronca, Ronca y te patee gallo bolo, los numeros hablan por si solo”; alluding to Don Omar’s hit with Zion & Hector “Ronca” and Don’s rumored alcoholism.
Daddy Yankee denied he dissed Don Omar and said those were just subliminals aimed at nobody. No one believed him. Just like no one believed Vico C when he claimed he did not diss Daddy Yankee on “Pregúntale a Tu Papa Por Mi” in 2023, though the song was marketed as a diss track to Yankee and the lyrics overtly refer to an unnamed individual that is believed to be DY.
Don Omar reacted with a vengeance. He dissed Daddy Yankee on 3 back to back songs including the famous Sangre Nueva Intro “Sacala” with Hector El Father, Wisin & Yandel. But the prior year, Don Omar was arrested for being found with guns and marijuana. The cops accused him of trying to traffic, but it turns out that all that weed was for Don himself and his then undiagnosed bipolar disorder. BTW, because of his Christian beliefs Don never sought professional treatment for his bipolar disorder but claimed a doctor diagnosed him with it.
Don Omar went into probation for about a year and had to cancel his tour for “Los Bandoleros” losing a few million dollars in the process. Both artists made peace by the time Jackie and Don married. I believe DY and his wife even attended the ceremonies. Everything was cool until in 2012 when Don discovered Natti Natasha.
I am not gonna sugarcoat it. You never see this anymore because she is now married to Raphy Pina with children and a global Pop superstar. But Natti Natasha was rumored back in the day to be responsible for the split between Don Omar and Jackie. Don discovered Natti in 2010 and signed her to his label ‘El Orfanato Music Group’. Their hit “Dutty Love” is rumored to be a confession of their adulterous relationship.
“Dutty Love” was a huge hit, especially in Colombia where it went #1 despite never having an official music video. It made Natti Natasha a star, preparing her for an even more successful run at Pina Records when Raphy Pina bought her contract from Don Omar. Many know the story. She signs to Raphy, they meet cute, fall in love then get married and have babies. Fairy tale story. But the internet was fuming with rumors.
The rumor was that before Natti got with Pina, she hooked up with DY, romantically. Don had no clue until the first “The Kingdom” concerts in Puerto Rico. Apparently, DY and Natti did some things when they thought no one was paying attention that Don found suspect and he confided to people around him about the fact. But Don and Natti had long broken up by then so he just ignored it and never brought it up publicly. DY nor Pina have also never been confronted on the matter. It is just rumors and heresay.
The first 4 Kingdom concerts was a record breaking success in Puerto Rico. Yankee and Don tied Aventura’s previous record of 3 straight sold out Choliseo dates and held the record for most consecutive concerts at the venue with a fourth last minute added date which sold over 15,000 tickets with less than a week of announcement, though it wasn’t a total sell out. This record would be broken several times by the likes of Jay Wheeler and Bad Bunny. But it was a record that stood for awhile.
“The Kingdom” was such a success that moving forward from it, Raphy Pina became the main liaison for Urbano shows at El Choliseo for many years. Pina was responsible for dozens of concerts over the years, many which sold out, that were held at the prestigious venue. That deal alone made Raphy Pina one of the richest executives in all of Latin Music.
But what happened between “The Kingdom” that caused Don and Yankee to have beef again. Several things. Though the first concerts in Puerto Rico went off without a hitch, there were tensions brewing. Don Omar told Maiky Backstage that Daddy Yankee kept trying to “son” Don Omar, which annoyed him because they are the same age. Nicky Jam says that it’s just DY’s personality and that he likes to kid with people. Fans online speculated that Don was in his feelings over Natti.
But then went they did the first leg of shows in Las Vegas, after DY “sonned” Don again, Omar claims he saw someone in Yankee’s entourage fiddling with the controls. Don thought nothing of it until he went out onstage and his mic malfunctioned. The dj’s music could barely be heard and other technical problems. Daddy Yankee had no issues while performing live.
The same thing happened on the remaining shows where both artists performed. When Don complained to Raphy, Pina immediately took Yankee’s side on the matter. This caused Don to abruptly leave the tour and drop Pina as his manager. Pina tried to continue with only DY but promoters refused a substitute. Pina had to refund all advances he had received. There were a planned 60 dates for the tour across the globe. According to Pina himself, he lost $2 million dollars after Don Omar got the tour cancelled.
Daddy Yankee’s side of the story blamed Don Omar’s bipolar disorder. Yankee claimed Don was distant and antisocial towards him. The he said that Don made those baseless accusations and that the offense almost led to blows between them. Yankee says that Don’s problems were all in his head. And that he was glad that during the time Don was his enemy that Daddy lived rent free in his head. They made up around the end of 2024 when Yankee left Reggaeton for good (at least for now).
Natti Natasha would go on to become one of the most successful female artists in the history of Urbano. “Criminal” ft Ozuna went about 50x latin platinum and sold over 10 million equivalent units worldwide. She had several other hits since then as well. Her and Raphy got together in the mid 2010’s and were married in 2021.
Before Natti, Pina was married to Puerto Rican entertainment personality Taina who isn’t much to look at today due to botched surgeries, but back in the day was quite the looker and greatly admired for her beauty. But they divorced. Since Pina became attached to Natti, he is more famous than ever. Most of the people from the Pop world who are aware of him had no idea who he was until he was revealed as Natti’s beau. They are now married and have kids together.
During his relationship with Natti, Raphy received money laundering charges in 2015 and an illegal firearms charge in 2022. He pled guilty to both and received light prision sentences. He claimed he did that to return to his family as soon as possible, but not that he was guilty of any of it. Those are his words.
Finally, the last controversies. But before that, a sort of mysterious incident occurred back in 2013. The truth appears to be that there were business disagreements. But Pina knocked down Zion with a right hand on stage in Puerto Rico. I guess in a social media post Raphy accused Zion of manning up to him while under the influence of illicit substances. Zion denied this. Either way, the incident from 2013 made Pina look like a bully. Somehow, Zion y Lennox got their release in 2014 and never looked back.
Also, despite the fact that he never badmouthed Pina. When Ken-Y went solo in 2015, it was because Pina refused to put out a solo project from either him or RKM. They were originally supposed to do individual solo projects in 2008 but Pina changed course. Ken-Y agreed because the duo was super hot but when the album “Forever” flopped in 2011, Ken-Y felt it was time for the duo to go solo.
“More” which did not feature RKM was designed to present Ken-Y as a solo act. The song became one of the most successful in Pina Records’ catalogue. Still, the solo project from Ken-Y stalled leading to the artist being dissatisfied and requesting his release from the label. Ken-Y signed with Yomi Fresh’s label, “Fresh Productions”. Yomi is the mastermind behind the series of albums “La Mision” which were very popular in their day and discovered Alexis & Fido and Wisin & Yandel.
In 2015, Ken-Y put out “The King Of Romance” under the guidance of “Fresh Records”. Despite having a noteworthy lead single “Cuando Te Enamores” ft Nicky Jam which was a big record in Colombia leading to Keny getting a lot of shows in the country, the album itself did abysmal numbers. All these years later “The King Of Romance” has only sold about 30 thousand units worldwide, a far cry from “The Masterpiece’s” 2 million units and counting.
When Pina was asked why he never let Ken-Y go solo while at Pina Records? He said that although they flirted with the idea having Keny do collaborations with the likes of Hector El Father and Tony Dize, solo, he always knew that Ken-Y wasn’t money without RKM and that a solo album of his would flop. Raphy said that Ken-Y’s solo project with Yomi proved him right as it went nowhere. And then Raphy praised Yomi calling him one of the greatest minds of Reggaeton seemingly putting the fault of Ken-Y’s failure in the disinterest of fans seeing him go solo.
The next involves legendary MC and one half of his duo with Polaco, Lito MC Cassidy. Meanwhile Polaco moved on to greener pastures with ‘Gold Star Records’ in 2005, Lito remained a part of the Pina Records roster all the way until the year 2012. During this time Lito worked on a compilation “Los Rompecuellos” and his solo album “Il Capo Di Tutti Capi” which never came out. Lito supposedly finished his album about 3 times with Pina claiming it not to be the right time to come out.
Finally on the 3rd try in 2012, Lito got Pina to tell him the truth about why he wouldn’t release Lito’s project which he had been working on since 2005, completed once in 2007, another time, sometime later and finally once more in 2012. Pina admitted he felt that Lito’s time had passed and that he did not believe the project would do any numbers if released. Pina admitted in his recent interview with Chente that not only is this true, but that he never bothered to even bring up the project to Sony execs (Pina moved from Machete Music/Universal to Sony Latin in 2011) because he knew they would not get behind it. He even said the project was trash and outdated.
In a social media video post, Lito confirmed these details to be true. Lito was not mad at Pina that he did not like Lito’s hard worked project and did not have faith in him anymore to provide numbers. He respectfully disagreed, requested his release and his album back. Pina acquiesced to all these requests except another one. Lito never said the amount, but he wanted to be paid for all his time at Pina Records where he had to let other opportunities offered to him go because he was signed.
It appears that in 2006, Lito’s contract renewed for $100,000 advance. It then renewed again a few years later for the same amount. So it seems that for Lito’s tenure at Pina from 2006-2012, he received at least $200,000 in payment. Pina claimed that Lito would always get booked at Pina Records performances and would consistently get bookings both solo and with Polaco (this was when they were still on speaking terms).
Pina agreed that Lito should get paid something, but that the amount he was requesting was ridiculous for an artist of his stature. But Pina said that as a favor for his loyalty all these years, he gave Lito back all the Lito & Polaco masters for all their albums under Pina Records except “Exitos vol. 1” because DJ Eric owns that one. This is where both disagree on how things actually played out.
Lito’s social media response video directly accuses Pina of lying. Lito says that he has the documentation to prove that after being ghosted for 4 years, Lito took Pina to court. Polaco was not involved because he did not want to get mixed up with legal proceedings. After going back and forth for many years, Pina gave the masters back as part of a court settlement, but not because he wanted to be Lito’s good friend and do the honorable thing like he claimed. I saw the interview myself, Pina did say he gifted Lito those masters, not that the courts made it part of a settlement.
Sadly though, Polaco and Lito are no longer under speaking terms because of all this. Polaco was offended that Lito just got ahold of the masters and did not include him in any discussions on how they were gonna handle the redistribution or repackaging of the material and that Lito just relaunched everything on streaming services without consulting him. It is unclear as of this time if Lito is paying Polaco for any of his royalties, but Lito did make deals on the catalogue without consulting his former partner who contributed to around 50% of the works.
And finally, Daddy Yankee’s upcoming day in court with Pina. In 2025, after divorcing his wife Daddy Yankee sued his wife, her lawyer and Raphy Pina of misappropriating funds. Mireddys herself was accused of stealing somewhere between $50 and $100 million (USD) in royalties by signing off on documents that she had no authorization over. She also erased and completely locked out Daddy Yankee from any of his online paperwork regarding “El Cartel Records” rendering the label defunct, according to reports online.
All this is why Daddy Yankee sold all his publishing rights and masters to ‘Concord Music Publishing’ in late 2024 in order to mitigate losses obtained at the mishandling of his intellectual property by his ex-wife. Pina was accused of helping Mireddys misappropriate fund through a shared lawyer who was able to give her illegal power of attorney over contracts regarding Daddy Yankee’s intellectual works. While doing this, Pina himself was given royalty points, also known as splits, which accumulated to over $3 million dollars (USD) in misappropriated funds over from some of Daddy Yankee’s royalties.
Pina responded online. I did not see all of it. The response was very boring and devoid of Pina’s usual showmanship. But I saw enough to see him say that this is a misunderstanding. And I think Pina accused the media of lying. It appears though Pina is named in the deposition and will probably be called to testify, he claims he was entitled to those royalties during the time he managed Daddy Yankee from 2015 to 2021. This was all part of his agreement with Daddy Yankee he says. But it appears that the error is in Mireddys never receiving permission to sign for Yankee but not that Pina stole from him.
This actually makes sense. You have to understand, the way Yankee got on “Despacito” was through Pina and Nicky Jam. Luis Fonsi originally wanted NJ, but Nicky felt the song would be a much bigger hit with Daddy Yankee on it. DY didn’t want to do it initially, but Pina convinced him to as his manager. It would make sense if Pina was entitled to a point or 2 on the record. Music moguls like Tommy Mottola do it all the time. It’s how they get so rich.
Anyways this is where the Darth Vader Saga/Legacy of Raphy Pina stands at for now. And now to conclude this elaborate thesis, I will give you my honest opinion on whether I think Pina is a bad guy or not. And I gotta refer to one of Pina’s most loyal former employees, Arcangel for this one.
People have always tried to stir up a beef between Pina and Arcangel, probably because both individuals are so controversial. If a true disagreement did happen between the two, it would definitely be fodder for social media and the tabloids, most definitely. I even had some people on Reddit tell me Arcangel accused Pina of stealing from him. I never saw that.
I have seen Arcangel’s interviews about Pina. He only has nice things to say. He says Pina dealt fairly with him, made him a millionaire several times over, and helped him out at a time when he was unsure where his legacy and trajectory as an artist would end up. Arcangel says he is aware of Pina’s past controversies with others, but that with him Pina did business right and that there is absolutely no disagreement between the two. If someone could show me a clip of Arcangel saying otherwise, I would love to be enlightened, but with my own eyes and ears, I have only observed Arcangel being complimentary to Pina.
Arcangel did have one tiny complaint and here is where my opinion on Raphy manifests. You have to understand, Arcangel had a 60/40 partnership with Pina in Arca’s favor. It was a handshake agreement on top of that… old school. Arcangel will ultimately own all his masters and publishing until he decides to sell them to anyone else. Most artists from Pina did not have this kind of deal. Chencho did, Maldy did. Tony Dize did not, RKM & Ken-Y did not. Speedy did not. Lito & Polaco did not until Lito got back all his records taking Pina to court.
80% of Pina Records artists did not have as good of a deal as Arcangel. That’s not to say this is the reason why artists badmouth Pina. Nicky Jam never had anything close to that deal back then, but he never badmouthed Pina after the music mogul saved his life in 2003. But both Nicky and Pina share a common perspective about Raphy. In their respective interviews whenever they are questioned about Raphy Pina, CEO of the historic Pina Records label… they both highlight him as a shrewd businessman.
Nicky says that if you aren’t conscious of your paperwork or have a good lawyer to look after you, Raphy will squeeze out every penny he can from you. But most successful businessmen are this way. At the same time, both Arcangel and Nicky say that if Pina feels you have earned it with him, one is able to negotiate themselves into a position of power with him as well. If he thinks you deserve to be your own boss, he will let you be your own boss.
I’m not saying the accusations against Pina are baseless. With that many feuds, there has to be some consistency in the disagreements but from the outside looking in, I would probably side with Nicky Jam and Arcangel’s viewpoint on Pina over Tony Dize and Speedy. He is probably just a shrewd businessman whom if you sleep on, he will take that penny away from you which you neglected when you weren’t paying attention to your own paperwork, or chose to throw the money away on jewelry instead of investing in a worthwhile lawyer to wisely handle your contracts (yes, I know some lawyers are crooks too).
I think Pina is more of a misunderstood businessman than anything else. Tony had a bad reputation before signing with Pina Records. I read Speedy only sold 50 Thousand units and somebody accidentally lied to him. No matter how many times Nicky fucked up, Pina gave him chance after chance because he knew how supremely talented Nick was. And time proved Pina right over and over again.
When Daddy Yankee last spoke about Pina in public, he only had good things to say. This was about 4 years ago when “Legendaddy” came out. The lawsuit happened in 2025 and DY has not spoken on his former friend and manager since. We will see where the story goes, but like it or not, Pina has left an everlasting legacy within the music business.
This article will only be available here for 90 days. I have my reasons. I made no presumptions though I did include things/subjects only known to be rumors and nothing else. But I felt I had to give a well-rounded context to the narrative from all credible perspectives. I am aware these are real people with real lives and families. I do not do this with the intention of dishonoring anyone’s reputation nor to slander. But I know how potentially controversial this piece could be, depending on how far it reaches. I cannot disavow my own work here and think it is pure as it stands. However, I do not want something like this which would potentially feed into malicious gossip, social media exploitation and other ills of our modern day society to be my legacy nor define me as a human being. So, although I cannot disavow my own work, I am choosing to not let it be my legacy. I apologize if this offends anyone but I am just doing my best as a journalist and critical thinker of Reggaeton-Rap to present the truth and all potential truth from all authoritative sources. Thank you for reading. And thank you for your patience. – Reggaeton Party Mane “El DJ Chachi Lova”.
Please note, that this work is still being edited and formatted.
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