A brand new era of artists — together with Villano Antillano, RaiNao, Paopao, Chesca, and Younger Miko — are breaking boundaries and demanding to be heard
A report by Frances Solá-Santiago for Rolling Stone.
LAST JULY, WHEN Unhealthy Bunny performed three sold-out reveals in Puerto Rico, the celebrity — who was essentially the most streamed artist in 2022 — took a second to cross the mic. Positive, he’s accomplished this earlier than: His performances have grow to be international spectacles which have included appearances from artists like J Balvin, Romeo Santos, and Cardi B. However these weren’t regular Unhealthy Bunny live shows. He was returning to his residence island to kick off his first stadium tour after dropping the record-shattering, history-making album Un Verano Sin Ti. Hundreds of individuals waited to see what Unhealthy Bunny would do — and who he may deliver out.
On the primary night time, the viewers exploded into cheers as Unhealthy Bunny revealed an sudden visitor: the barrier-breaking rapper Villano Antillano. She stepped onstage carrying a satin jacket with sky-high platforms that made her appear to be a super-hero, then proceeded to fireplace off bar after bar from her viral freestyle session with the Argentine producer Bizarrap, which presently has 179 million views on YouTube. The following night time, Unhealthy Bunny made approach for Younger Miko, the 24-year-old artist from Añasco, whose smooth, swaggy supply despatched her bouncy entice single “Riri” flying up the charts. By the top of her cameo, your complete crowd was screaming for an encore. The saxophonist-turned-vocalist RaiNao took the highlight on the third night time. Wearing a see-through T-shirt made by Puerto Rican designer Namibia Viera, she was fearless as she belted out her ballad “Luv.”
The gesture was monumental. Unhealthy Bunny might have introduced out any artist he needed. As an alternative, he co-signed a women-led revolution that’s been brewing in Puerto Rico over the previous a number of years.
Since 2018, ladies and LGBTQ folx in Puerto Rico have been powering a scene that’s been just about unprecedented within the male-dominated world of reggaeton and urbano. Antillano, Younger Miko, and RaiNao are only a few of the names who’ve been attracting listeners, every bringing her personal model and perspective to the style. Antillano, who acquired her begin releasing underground mixtapes in San Juan, was one among Latin music’s greatest breakthrough artists of 2022, because of her nimble rap expertise and sincere songwriting. Younger Miko, an brazenly lesbian lyricist, used cash she made as a former tattoo artist to pay for studio time and has put her experiences into entice songs that uplift the LGBTQ neighborhood. RaiNao, a graduate of the Escuela Libre de Música, combines her background as a musician and former vocalist for artists like Rafa Pabón to create her personal sound.
The listing doesn’t finish there. Paopao’s moody soundscapes and edgy goth-kid aesthetics have turned heads, with Tidal singling her out as a Rising Artist to Watch in 2023. Singer Chesca has been racking up thousands and thousands of views on YouTube with ebullient empowerment anthems like “TuTuRu.” In the meantime, the folkloric reggaeton of Ana Macho and the psychedelic sounds of Cita show how multifaceted this new era is.
“That is a completely new dynamic, the place so many female voices are rising,” Antillano tells Rolling Stone. “It’s a superbly historic second.”
None of those artists are strangers to urbano. They have been raised on reggaeton, the archipelago’s road soundtrack that began with late-Nineties recordings of Vico C, the Noise, and DJ Playero earlier than reaching its present business and international apex. RaiNao remembers listening to artists like Tego Calderón and Héctor el Father on faculty area journeys in her neighborhood of Santurce. “Our era noticed it go from underground to the mainstream,” she says.
But few ladies have been allowed to affix the ranks of reggaeton’s heavyweights. There was, in fact, the boundary-pushing pioneer Ivy Queen, identified for early reggaeton feminist anthems like “Yo Quiero Bailar,” and La Sista, whose bomba-infused beats and gritty lyricism outlined her 2006 album, Majestad Negroide. However the panorama was primarily a boys’ membership the place ladies have been typically relegated to the background, away from the highlight. “For a very long time, the market — directed primarily by males — solely had house for one,” Antillano says. “Being a lady is one thing so flat to them that only one is sufficient.”
As reggaeton expanded internationally in recent times, feminine artists from different international locations, like Karol G from Colombia and Natti Natasha from the Dominican Republic, created a presence for ladies on the charts with pop-infused hits. Nonetheless, in Puerto Rico, the cradle of reggaeton, ladies remained on the periphery in a style that talked about them however hardly ever allow them to converse for themselves — till now. They’re demanding consideration and getting acknowledged by the world, impressing even Unhealthy Bunny, and breaking the doorways to the business large open.
THE CHANGES DIDN’T occur in a single day. In keeping with Patricia Velázquez, co-founder of Hasta ’Bajo Venture, a multiplatform group devoted to archiving and dissecting reggaeton’s historical past, the social and political turmoil in Puerto Rico has empowered a younger era to demand extra inclusion — and the urbano scene has lastly begun to shake off outdated attitudes rooted in colonialism and patriarchy.
Since 2016, Puerto Ricans have lived by way of a sequence of political upheavals and pure disasters: the appointment of the fiscal management board enacted by the U.S. authorities’s PROMESA invoice, which has minimize budgets, pensions, and different assets; governmental neglect from native and federal authorities within the aftermath of Hurricane María; 2020 earthquakes that rocked southwestern Puerto Rico; and the coronavirus pandemic that left 1000’s lifeless. All of those occasions have heightened silent crises of home violence and psychological well being. Following Hurricane María, an area report discovered that suicide charges spiked by 50 p.c, whereas femicides as a lot as doubled, inflicting the federal government to declare a state of emergency in 2021, which feminist organizations had been calling for since 2018.
“This [movement] is the work of many sectors, from feminist and LGBTQ activists to anti-racist and anti-colonial teams,” Velázquez says. “Their work has allowed for the style to vary. As a result of audiences are extra open and inclusive, their world has modified round them.”
Residing in an archipelago stricken by colonial insurance policies, a decades-long financial disaster, and alarming charges of violence towards ladies has pushed this era again to reggaeton’s radical political roots. “Reggaeton has at all times been transgressive, talking towards the federal government and narrating actual experiences,” Velázquez says.
One instance of that sharp transgressiveness is “Mujer,” a tune from Antillano’s debut album, La Sustancia X, that options the Puerto Rican artist iLe. They finish the monitor by naming victims of gender violence in a robust acknowledgment of a femicide and transfemicide disaster that, in response to the Observatory of Gender Fairness in Puerto Rico, killed greater than 60 ladies in 2022. Antillano additionally mentions Puerto Rico’s 2019 protests, a catalyst for her personal political awakening that erupted after a leaked Telegram chat revealed then-Gov. Ricardo Rosselló and shut officers had been mocking members of the native feminist group Colectiva Feminista en Construcción. “Because it’s one thing so vital and sacred for me, I needed the tune to rise to the second,” Antillano says. “We all know what it’s prefer to be a lady on this nation and the violence that we’re all topic to.” Within the refrain, she repeats, “Soy una mujer, llena de poder,” which suggests, “I’m a lady, filled with energy.”
These paradigm shifts have disrupted the standard notions of storytelling within the style. Sexualized lyrics and romantic pop fusions are widespread in reggaeton and Latin entice, however these rising artists have new narratives and experiences to share. On songs like “Riri” and “Bi,” Younger Miko sings on to ladies, talking authentically to her id as a queer lady. Her EP Entice Kitty options audio recorded inside a strip membership in Puerto Rico, giving listeners a view into archipelago nightlife from one other perspective. “It’s simply this empowerment towards my entire neighborhood, and that’s one thing actually stunning, that they really feel they’ve an area to be themselves and really feel badass,” she says. Chesca, too, has been encouraging ladies to have a good time themselves by way of her songs. “I would like ladies to be at liberty, assured, and safe in themselves,” she says.
This era isn’t simply providing highly effective new messages; they’re upending the very sound of urbano. At a showcase in Mayagüez final 12 months, RaiNao threw a chilling saxophone interlude right into a set that additionally combined rock, reggae, and digital manufacturing. Paopao, a graduate of the College of Miami’s Frost Faculty of Music and a Latin Grammy-winning composer, is reimagining the style: Her tropical-goth strategy blends EDM, entice, and reggaeton with the emotional punch of a pop ballad — portraying the energy of “unhappy women on the membership.”
Regardless of the successes these ladies have achieved, they’re nonetheless up towards an old-school, misogynistic mindset embedded in music. Final 12 months, Antillano and the Dominican rising star Tokischa carried out at a membership in Puerto Rico, the place the 2 kissed onstage. Quickly after, reggaetonero Omy de Oro took to Instagram and griped that the efficiency gave him “secondhand embarrassment.” Shortly after, the rapper Cosculluela mentioned the style was turning into “a cage filled with gays,” igniting a backwards and forwards with Antillano, who referred to as out his homophobic remarks.
The brand new scene has additionally confronted resistance from a narrow-minded business that doesn’t at all times see the total scope of their expertise. Paopao says that after she launched her debut EP, Diamantes y Espinas, in 2022, her label had doubts about her artistry. “They mentioned they weren’t positive of the sound and my picture and didn’t need me to launch extra music for the remainder of the 12 months,” she remembers, including that they described it as “darkish and peculiar.” However a couple of days later, Unhealthy Bunny shared her tune “algo así” on his Instagram, proving how a lot individuals have been connecting with the music.
There’s another factor that defines this scene: the camaraderie and friendship inside the group. Just a few weeks after taking part in with Unhealthy Bunny, Antillano, Younger Miko, and RaiNao carried out at an area music competition, the place they posed for a photograph in a sororal hug that went viral on Puerto Rican Twitter. This era is prospering by nurturing a sisterhood that’s revolutionizing urbano, and it goes past pleasant hugs: Antillano has collaborated with Younger Miko, RaiNao, and Chesca, whereas RaiNao and Paopao not too long ago debuted a single collectively. For Chesca, it’s about time they take over: “I’m so lucky and proud to be on this circle of girls who’re combating every single day to be heard, seen — to vary the principles, to encourage and encourage others,” she says. “It’s like ‘Let’s go women!’”