Reggaeton, religion

Daddy Yankee He always took care of his glory. At the Viña Festival he stepped off the throne, on his retirement tour he projected a giant airplane, last week he spun cars before singing Gasoline; but in the final minutes of his last concert – at least of his life as Daddy Yankee – the glory went to someone else.

“My people: this day, for me, is the most important day of my life. And I want to share them with you because living a life of success is not the same as living a life with purpose,” he said, followed by shouts of support from some of the audience and silence – curious or agitated – from the public. other part.

“I want to tell the whole world that Jesus lives in me and that I will live for him” . Shortly after, a cross made of drones behind him dissolved to form the phrase “Christ loves you.” Papa Yankee dropped the microphone which broke when it hit the ground; a baptism without water, a way of life abandoned to start a new one in which Daddy Yankee becomes Raymond Ayala again and preaches the Gospel through his music.

At the end of the concert, the drones in the sky formed the phrase “Christ is coming.”

The news of his conversion was everywhere and I devoted myself to the inevitable activity of reading the comments. Some said that after leading so many people to perdition, he had the audacity to become a Christian. Others responded that we can always be on time. Others, that he now wanted the church’s money. And of course, some thought it was a classic Illuminati move: he had sold his soul to the devil and now had to get it back.

“Are there any unhappy fans of Daddy Yankee who gave himself to Christ?” a Puerto Rican podcaster asked his millions of followers on Instagram.

“Normal,” posted Farruko, who went from worldly reggaeton to Jesus, regretting recovering drugs in “Pepas,” a song listened to 1,398,752,047 times on Spotify.

Farruko wasn’t the first. Before there was Voltio, before Héctor el Père, before Vico C and before El General, the same one from “Rica y apretadita” » ; the same one that many consider to be the point of origin of reggaetón. The General retired from music in 2004, the year it was released Gasoline, and in 2006 he became a Jehovah’s Witness. Since then, he has only given one interview in which he claims that his music was inspired by the devil. But this sentence, funny or shocking depending on your point of view, interests me less than this one:

“When I turned on the camera, my face lit up, my smile, everything. But when I arrived at the hotel, there was a great depression, a silence. »

For the General, silence. For Daddy Yankee, a life without purpose. In conversion stories, there are usually two arguments.

That of someone who has everything material, but who feels that it is empty.

That of someone who has nothing and who needs to find comfort and the promise of a better life in a kingdom which is not of this world.

Converted reggaeton players experienced the transition from having nothing material to having everything. “We are from the street” , sings Daddy Yankee himself, who was shot in a shootout that left him unable to walk for a year, and Voltio and Farruko were in prison. Then came the time to make a lot of money, to make a name for yourself, and in the middle of it all, silence.

I’m focusing on Daddy Yankee again for a reason. Unlike other reggaeton players, he never experienced excess : He’s always had the same wife, he says he’s only gotten drunk once in his life, he says he doesn’t do any drugs except marijuana and for years he’s been talking like he gave a lesson. I don’t say this to justify his morality, but to explain my surprise at his conversion. Without excess, it did not seem to require the order that a church gives. Furthermore, in their music they have been able to coexist with songs like “Taladro” (“no matter how I say it/you know it suits you”) and songs in which they talk about Christ. But, according to Hector the Father, the world or God is chosen.

Now that Raymond Ayala absolutely chose God, I think his form of emptiness was more immense and more intense than having everything and feeling like you have nothing. Its emptiness, I believe, was that of be everything . It has never stopped ringing – since 2004. He once said: “Daddy Yankee is not a singer, Daddy Yankee is a movement”. When he announced his retirement, he was asked who his successor would be – perhaps Bad Bunny? – and his response was ambiguous. I suspect he doesn’t think he can have a successor. I suspect he thinks the only one who is truly close to God is him.

Five years ago, J. Balvin sang “God bless reggaetón/Amen,” but perhaps it’s reggaetón that blesses God.