Though Puerto Rican reggaeton duo Wisin Yandel born Juan Morera and Lladel Vegilla were around for some time their debut album Reyes del Nuevo Milenio was released in 2000 and gained fans and recognition with records like 2004s De Otra Manera and 20…

As the urban regional style of Latin music heated up in the mid-2000s spearheaded by the burgeoning reggaeton sound Daddy Yankee above all led the charge selling hundreds of thousands of CDs in the wake of his international breakthrough hit Gasolina …

It took the Puerto Rican duo Calle 13 about a year to catch on after quietly debuting stateside in 2005 on White Lion a small reggaeton label in partnership with Sony BMG but catch on they certainly did By the end of the following year Calle 13 had b…

Jose Nieves Rakim and Kenny Vasquez Ken-Y joined forces in 2004 to form the reggaeton duo Rakim Ken-Y A few short years after their formation the pair climbed the ranks to reggaeton stardom arriving in 2006 as one of the genres most important groups…

One of the fathers of reggaeton Tito el Bambino was half of the groundbreaking duo Hector Tito before he embarked on a solo career of his own signing with EMI Televisa and debuting in 2006 with Top of the Line Hector Tito may have been groundbreaki…

A New York-based Dominican boy band with their roots deep in bachata If that sounds unlikely well Aventura have managed to cope with it Formed in 1994 in the Bronx by a group of four boys Anthony Santos Lenny Santos Max Santos and Henry Santos Jeter …

Ivy Queen the undisputed Queen of Reggaeton was born Martha Ivelisse Pesante on March 4 1972 in Afiasco Puerto Rico She moved with her parents to New York as a child but the family relocated back to Afiasco while Martha was a teenager and she finishe…

b. Sean Paul Henriques, 8 January 1973, Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies. Paul was educated at Wolmers High School near the National Heroes Stadium, and the exclusive Bel Air High School in uptown Mandeville. His principal vocational research was at th…

In the wake of the crossover mania that characterized the Latin music industry at the end of the 90s Ricky Martin Shakira Paulina Rubio Thala -- all of whom released English-language albums around this time came Juanes a Latin artist so great he didn…

This photogenic Colombian singer began her recording career at the tender age of 13. It wasn't long before her eclectic brand of Latin pop became a sensation in numerous Spanish-speaking countries. In 1998, without making the concession of singing in…

There may be little that is musically authentic about RBD a prefabricated poprock act that was initiated on television yet the group of Mexican teens achieved astounding commercial success quickly becoming a multilingual pop culture juggernaut whose …

Hector Tito were a pioneering reggaeton duo in existance from 1998 to 2003 after which the two split and went on to lucrative solo careers as Hector and Tito each referring to himself as El Bambino The Father Just before they split in 2003 they won …

Pop-oriented RB vocalist Chris Brown debuted with the Scott Storch-produced Run It and became the first male solo artist to release a single that went straight to the top of the Billboard singles chart Only 16 at the time Brown came from a small town…

(see Noreaga)

Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Copyright Muze UK Ltd. 1989 - 2004

Hailing from Queens, New York, rapper 50 Cent had already garnered a grass-roots reputation as one of the hottest MCs around when he was tapped in the early 2000s by hip-hop golden boy Eminem for inclusion on the soundtrack to his film 8 MILE and a p…

Though both Raul Alexis Ortiz and Joel Fido Martinez were active in the Puerto Rican reggaeton scene since they were teenagers they didnt join forces until 2001 on the compilation Desafio There was room for only one track and both wanted to be includ…

Tijuana-born and San Diego-raised contemporary RB artist Frankie J was raised on a steady diet of Latin music and American artists like Michael Jackson and Run-DMC At the age of 15 he was involved with the Latin freestyle scene and released a series …