2023-10-13 14:14:58
One sometimes has to return to one’s origins to rediscover oneself. And it happens to mainstream super artists too. Bad Bunny has just released his fifth album: Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. In it he returns to rhythms more related to the trap of his professional beginnings and to more experimental music than the reggaeton that was heard in the previous one, A summer without you.
Stadiums are no longer enough for Taylor Swift, she wants to fill theaters (and her pocket)
Open the job with Nobody knows, a 6:19 minute song that is more melodic and instrumental than their latest works and in which there is no percussion. “But no one knows, no / What it feels like, hey / To feel alone with a hundred thousand people in front / For all the people to talk about you,” she confesses at the beginning of the song. The exploration of Benito’s own identity—Bad Bunny’s real name—runs through the entire album in 22 songs.
The album, released by the Rimas record label, was generating a lot of expectations in recent weeks for possible collaborations. From Drake or Justin Bieber to Bizarrap, even passing through Spaniards like Cruz Cafuné or Bad Gyal. In the end, Bad Bunny does not publish who each of the collaborating artists are and when looking at the list of songs at a glance, only their name appears.
We won’t say who each one is, but you can listen to artists like Young Miko, Feid, Mora, Arcangel, Delaghetto or Ñengo Flow. All of this has been produced by Tainy, MAG and La Paciencia. Of course, as for rivals, a message to J Balvin stands out, with whom he has several collaborations: “You have seen me with the same ones, while you are friends from all over the world / Like J Balvin.”
Bad Bunny is probably the Latin American artist with the greatest global impact since 2018. His latest works have broken all records. However, in addition to various controversies, his fans criticized him that he always sounded the same or that he composed only to have visitors.
According to sources specialized in the sector, if the Puerto Rican artist’s idea was to continue expanding as a mainstream reference, it was going to be more difficult to break the mold. And, in this work, the reproductions have been left elsewhere. As he himself has stated on his networks, it is “a gift for the royals who have been here from the beginning.” He moves away from the pretensions of being a global commercial success to consolidate his strongest fan base.
“This album is not meant to be played a billion views / It’s so that my real fans are happy / Although inside I don’t feel 100% / It’s so that they cancel me and hate me,” he confesses between piano instrumentals in the first song of the album. When it comes to defining it, the work sounds more similar to his first album, x100pre, than to the latest bestsellers. He returns to the most typical rhythms of trap and hip hop while telling us about his origins, ex-partners, his dreams or fame and explores new sounds.
Search for identity
The album can be seen as an exploration of his own identity. It can be seen from the cover. He signs it as Bad Bunny/Benito. Shortly before its release, on his social networks he promoted the album with masks and there are details subject to interpretation such as childhood toys or childish traces of a cowboy riding on the cover. The figure of the cowboy can also be analyzed as a lonely path of this type of characters in the movies. He has also changed his image: from long, poppy hair to the shaved head that he used to have in his most trapper days.
Much of the criticism towards Bad Bunny in recent months was that he was trying to target English-speaking audiences. The complete work is only in Spanish. At the time Where she goes, It was seen as a favorable nod to Americans for his relationship with Kyle Jenner. However, analyzing the video you could glimpse those criticisms of fame that are now explicitly exposed in the album: surreal appearances by Ronaldinho, Frank Ocean or Lil Uzi Vert contrasted with images of fallen angels.
The album is a hit on the table in which he speaks, again, of his humble Puerto Rican origins. He also claims sexual freedom in Baticano, where he plays to change the Christian ‘v’ for the ‘b’. “Maybe my music isn’t healthy / But I didn’t invent sex or marijuana-huana,” he explains, while claiming and hesitating: “I kiss with Villana, I kiss with Tokischa, hey / The one who doesn’t care like it, heh, it’s because it doesn’t chicha.”
He talks about new masculinities and mental health, topics that he has always defended, but with a hesitant tone and winking at Shakira for her beef with Piqué in the session with Bizarrap. “Now men cry, yes, but without stopping billing,” she sings in Los Pits. And he even quotes Miguel Bosé in I do not want to get married: “This year will be better than the last, I know it / That you look better in your underwear, I know it, I know it, hey / I will be your bandit lover, Miguel Bosé”
And to finish the album, leave in the air in Un Preview, one of the two songs he had released before releasing the full work, whether he will return to reggaeton or not. “Come here, to put on something, to put on a preview of what comes next.” In any case, you can never know what Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio will end up doing. He already said that during 2023 he was not going to get any work.
An album after controversies
One aspect to emphasize is the controversies in which the artist was involved. The international explosion that he had A summer without you In 2022 it also brought rivals and criticism to the artist. Bad Bunny has shown his support for the trans community and the LGTBIQ + collective in previous songs such as I twerk alone (2020) or has actively positioned himself against Ricardo Roselló, governor of his country accused of corruption. However, in an interview in the magazine Time, where he was the first Latin American musician to be on the cover, they asked him if he thought if racism could be a differentiating factor in the success of an artist. “I can’t say yes or no because I don’t live it. I have also not seen with my own eyes that yes, this person did not become more successful because of his skin, I have not seen it,” Bad Bunny replied.
These statements cost him criticism from a large part of his fan base. Many questioned the artist’s real political involvement. Since it was “easy” for him to position himself on the trans community, they accused Bad Bunny of queer-bating, that is, of taking advantage of his claims to achieve fame. He was also criticized for retracting his criticism of Americans in The Blackout, a song-documentary in which the artist exposes poverty in Puerto Rico and the problem of power outages.
Shortly after this controversy, a few months ago, Bad Bunny headlined the Coachella festival. Taking advantage of the context and perhaps wanting to redeem himself from these events, when it was his turn to perform he did something unusual: he left the stage and screened a ten-minute documentary about Afro-Caribbean music and the evolution of Latin American music, as well as the importance of this music. regarding the roots, essence and resistance of the people. Afterwards he brought salsa dancers on stage with classics of the genre, to which he went up to play I like it, which collects all those influences. This was interpreted by many as an attempt to lecture one of the most mainstream audiences and events in Western music.
It is clear that an artistic reference cannot always be a political reference. And Bad Bunny has not declared intentions of wanting to be the latter. But this new album helps him reconnect with his origins and roots. Knowing who he is, what he wants to do and what kind of musician he wants to become. But as the title says: no one knows what will happen tomorrow.
#Bad #Bunny #returns #trap #introspective #album #full #personal #confessions