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Reggaeton

Reggaeton is today’s global youth music. Urban music based on the Afro-Caribbean dembow riddim is evolving into fusions all over the world.

The Reggaeton story begins in Jamaica. Jamaicans building the Panama Canal brought it to Panama where bus drivers used it as a pregone (seller’s song) to promote their services.

Panamanians brought it to New York City. From here Puerto Ricans took it to the caserios (public housing) of Puerto Rico where it developed in mixtape culture. Reggaeton then jumped to Medellín, Colombia and went worldwide.

🇯🇲 > 🗽 > 🇵🇷 > 🇨🇴 > 🌎

Latin Trap is not Reggaeton, but many artists play both styles. Trap is Southern Hip-Hop (Atlanta) about the hard street life. Trap’s signature sound is the high-hat. Both are African Diaspora arts, but one is more English-speaking USA and the other is more the Spanish-speaking Caribbean.

Reggaeton NYC

April 21, 2022

Mar | May | Sep

Urban Music

Reggaeton NYC (Alex3/Dreamstime)
Reggaeton NYC (Alex3/Dreamstime)

Reggaeton Venues NYC

La Boom nightclub in Woodside, Queens.

United Palace theater in Washington Heights, Manhattan.

Ritz Theatre in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Reggaeton Festivals NYC

Mega Bash starring Alex Sensation was at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on Jan 2, 2022.

Soulfrito, the Urban Latin Music Festival, was at Barclays Center on Aug 30, 2019.

NYC Reggaeton Calendar

These are annual events and coming events.

Reggaeton NYC
March

National Reggaeton Day is Mar 15.

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Reggaeton NYC
May

J Balvin

J Balvin brings his “Jose Tour 2022” of Colombian Reggaeton and Latin Trap to Barclays Center in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn on Sun, May 22 at 7pm. From $67. 🇨🇴

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Reggaeton NYC
September

Daddy Yankee’s Final Tour

Daddy Yankee brings his La Ultima Vuelta World Tour of Reggaeton and Latin Trap to Madison Square Garden in Chelsea on Tue, Sep 20 at 8pm (7pm doors). 🇵🇷

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Reggaeton Artists

Nowadays everybody does a little dembow, but these are some of the players.

Reggaeton Makes Family

Reggaeton is “Da now ting,” Worldwide

Riddim > Trinidad > Jamaica > Panama > New York City > Puerto Rico > Colombia > Worldwide

Reggaeton lyrics can be terribly raunchy, but who didn’t think that way in their teens and 20s? Reggaeton dancing can also seem raunchy, but the woman, or whoever is getting down, controls the game.

Elders made the same complaints about Elvis and Frank Sinatra in their day. So let the kids have fun. Better yet, jump in.

Reggaeton dancing is an Afro-Caribbean expression of community belonging and individuality within the community. In Puerto Rico, we dance reggaeton with our families. That may be its truest context.

Shake da Booty

Booty shaking in the dance looks sexy and it is, but the woman is in control. Her movement mirrors the shaman’s squat, where a healer squats to connect his/her first chakra (root chakra, the perineum) to the earth.

In traditional cultures, “getting down” actually makes one taller and more powerful. It’s like a plié in ballet where the dancer goes down and up at the same time.

The movement is very sexual, but anthropologists who study the dance floor, have noted that the woman controls the action. She makes as much contact, or as little as she wants.

Booty shaking is a playful mirroring of procreation which is the most godlike act that humans can do. Caribbeans love to tease each other. We make fun of all the pains, sorrows and joys of life. Whatever is going on, we just make fun.

Relax. We’re just dancing.

Bowcat!, Chesback!
All bowsie, me off with you!
And you know say me, Shabba nuh really like no bow cat, you too dirty!
Nasty livety…”

Dem Bow, Shabba Ranks, 1990

The Spirit of Reggaeton is Caribbean

The famous petroglyph of Atabey, the supreme goddess of the Indigenous Taíno (eastern Cuba + Dominican Republic + Puerto Rico) shows the goddess in the shaman’s squat. She is basically mother earth, the Virgin or Pachamama. You see the same squat in the iconic gold work of Indigenous Colombia and others Indigenous peoples around the world.

Indigenous people are smarter than we’ve been led to believe. We have been the same species of human for around 300,000 years. There is great wisdom in Indigenous ways and metaphors.

Interestingly given the recent earthquakes in the ocean off of southwest Puerto Rico, the representation of Atabey mirrors the geological composition of Jamaica, Haiti/Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The North American plate (which includes Cuba) and the Caribbean plate are both folding down underneath the islands. The collision of the two tectonic plates raises the islands just like Atabey’s amphibious legs support her body in the famous petroglyph.

Like the Abrahamic religions, Indigenous religions generally have one supreme god/goddess with many manifestations that represent characteristics of the supreme one. It is similar, though not exactly, to the veneration of angels or saints.

One of the manifestations of Atabey is Caguana, the spirit of love. Another is Guabancex (the X is a soft breath sound as in Don Quixote), who represents hurricanes, volcanoes and earthquakes. We have all of those things around the islands.

This is the Caribbean spirit and the spirit of Reggaeton, hurricanes, volcanoes, booty shaking earthquakes and love, lots of love.

Tu Pun Pun…

Tu Pun Pun (your vagina) was one of the first hits of reggae en Español, which we now call reggaeton. Edgardo Armando Franco (El General) was a Panamanian reggae singer who came to New York City to study business administration.

Tu pun pun, mami-mami, no”

Tu Pun Pun, El General, 1991

El General started DJing parties and noticed that New Yorkers got more excited when he sang in Spanish than when he sang in Jamaican Patois.

Jamaicans moved to Panama back in the day to finish building the Panama Canal. Private buses used to provide transportation in poor neighborhoods. They advertised their presence with sound systems (which kids now put in their cars in the barrios of New York). Some drivers hired kids to “rap” about their great bus service. Some of these kids made mixtapes to rap over. That popularized the music in Panama.

Caribbean mixtape culture makes music by rapping over popular rhythms, “da now ting.” Jamaican singer Shabba Ranks’ Dem Bow (1990) provided the beat of a generation.

El General brought the music to New York City. People like Puerto Rican reggaeton legend Vico C heard the music and brought it to Puerto Rico. There reggaeton mixtape culture developed in the caserios (Puerto Rican public housing projects).

In the same way that Puerto Rican salsa jumped from New York to Barranquilla and then Cali, Colombia in the 1970s, Puerto Rican reggaeton made a similar jump to Medellín, Colombia.

J Balvin even made a Colombian anthem Mi Gente (2017) which was a reference to the Puerto Rican anthem Mi Gente (1975) sung by Hector LaVoe with Willie Colón for FANIA. African American-Louisiana Creole singer Beyoncé made a mix that brought the song to wider U.S. audiences.

If you can get over yourself, mi gente (my people) includes everyone. There is a double meaning Caribbean style when they sing “Freeze.” It means stop, but it also means “Frees.” True freedom is loving all peoples. On the reggaeton dance floor we are free.

That’s how Jamaican reggae got to Panama, got to New York, switched into Spanish and jumped to Puerto Rico and Colombia before going worldwide as the popular dance music of today’s youth.

It’s not so strange really because even reggae has unspoken clave in it. Clave is the 5-beat bell pattern of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Dembow, Dembow, Dembow
Me vuelve loco bailando el dembow”

Dembow, Wisin y Yandel (2003)

Previously

DJ Mad, DJ Hova, DJ Chocomambo and DJ Rod spin the Spanglish Saturdays dance party at La Boom in Woodside, Queens on Sat, Mar 19 at 10pm. Guestlist free before midnight. Then $25. 🇩🇴

Mora and Omy de Oro sing Puerto Rican Reggaeton for dancing at La Boom in Woodside, Queens on Fri, Mar 18 at 10pm. From $45. 🇵🇷

Bobby Trend, DJ Delio, and DJ Blue Diamond spin the Spanglish Saturdays dance party at La Boom in Woodside, Queens on Sat, Mar 5 at 10pm. Guestlist free before midnight. Then $25.

February 2022

Blessd (“Medallo” #1 in Colombia) plays Colombian Reggaeton for dancing at La Boom in Woodside, Queens on Fri, Feb 25 at 10pm. From $60. 🇨🇴

Farruko brings his “La 167 Tour” of Reggaeton and Latin Trap to Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on Fri, Feb 18 at 8pm (7pm doors). From $44. 🇵🇷

DJ Camilo, DJ Spinking, DJ Manny Mills, DJ 3Sixty and special guests spin the Spanglish Saturdays dance party at La Boom in Woodside, Queens on Sat, Feb 12 at 10pm. Guestlist free before midnight. Then $25. 🇨🇴

Jowell & Randy sing Puerto Rican Reggaeton for dancing at La Boom in Woodside, Queens on Fri, Feb 11 at 10pm. From $48. 🇵🇷

DJ Camilo, DJ Spinking, DJ Manny Mills, DJ 3Sixty and special guests spin the Spanglish Saturdays dance party at La Boom in Woodside, Queens on Sat, Feb 12 at 10pm. Guestlist free before midnight. Then $25. 🇨🇴

Jowell & Randy sing Puerto Rican Reggaeton for dancing at La Boom in Woodside, Queens on Fri, Feb 11 at 10pm. From $48. 🇵🇷

Nicky Jam sings Puerto Rican Reggaeton and Latin Trap at the United Palace in Washington Heights on Sat, Feb 5 at 8pm (6:30 doors). From $61. 🇵🇷

January 2022

Eladio Carrion and Dowba Montana sing Puerto Rican and Dominican Reggaeton for dancing at La Boom in Woodside, Queens on Fri, Jan 28 at 10pm. From $50. 🇵🇷🇩🇴

Jay Wheeler, “La Voz Favorita,” sings Puerto Rican Reggaeton at the Ritz Theatre in Elizabeth, New Jersey on Sat, Jan 1, 2022 at 8pm. From $59. 🇵🇷

December 2021

Celebrate New Year’s Eve with DJ Camilo at La Boom in Woodside, Queens on Fri, Dec 31 at 10pm. $50. 🇨🇴

DJ Pereira celebrates his birthday with Reggaeton at La Boom in Woodside, Queens on Fri, Dec 17 at 10pm. From $50. 🇩🇴

October 2021

Ozuna headlines the Uforia La X Live Reggaeton show at Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on Fri, Oct 22 at 7:30pm. From $90. 🇩🇴🇵🇷

urban music

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