Over the last few years, Bad Bunny — the global superstar of reggaeton and Latin trap whose astonishing success has remade the pop landscape for Spanish-language music — gained the world. Three chart-topping Billboard albums. A headlining slot at Coachella. The title of most-streamed artist on the planet. A burgeoning acting (and wrestling) career. A creeping interest in his romantic extracurriculars by the paparazzi.
And yet all his success left him unanchored from the place at the root of it: Puerto Rico, where he was born, raised and lived until 2023, when he decamped for an extended stay in Los Angeles and New York.
He’s back in Puerto Rico now, and on his sixth solo album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” (“I Should Have Taken More Photos”), the musician born Benito Martínez Ocasio is making his recommitment to the island plain with a pointed musical pivot.
The 17-track LP, cut through with live instruments, was recorded wholly in Puerto Rico, and features a host of young collaborators representing a range of his homeland’s styles dating back generations — urbano from the singer RaiNao (“Perfumito Nuevo”); reggaeton and Latin trap from Omar Courtz and DeiV (“Veldá”); and traditional rhythms like plena and bomba from Pleneros de la Cresta (“Café Con Ron”) and the young band Chuwi (“Weltita”).
“Every one of them is Puerto Rican and there for a reason,” Bad Bunny, 30, said in an interview in late December, ahead of the album’s release on Sunday. During his globe-trotting, he added, “When I listened to them, I felt like I was there in Santurce, hanging out.”
In an appearance on Popcast, The New York Times’s music podcast, Bad Bunny discussed his path to “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” including how life under the celebrity spotlight in Los Angeles led him back home, literally and musically; how his creative risk-taking has inspired Spanish-speaking musicians the world over, in a variety of scenes; and whether it matters if you can understand all the words in his songs.
These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
JON CARAMANICA You just played us your new album, which you called your “most Puerto Rican album ever.” What are you trying to achieve on this record?
BAD BUNNY The title of the album means “I Should Have Taken More Photos.” I remember back in time photos used to be something very special. Today you can take a picture of everything. Maybe sometimes I don’t want a picture with someone for many reasons: Maybe I’m not in my best mood. Sometimes I feel that maybe this person is not a real fan. And also because maybe I got used to it and it’s not a special moment for me.
But for them, maybe it is and the person wants to save that moment. So that’s the meaning of the title — you should appreciate more the moments and the people. It’s not an apology, it’s more like a reminder to myself.
CARAMANICA This album is about Puerto Rico now, but also the sounds of Puerto Rico from 20, 40, 60 years ago. You’ve spent the last six years elsewhere in the world — Los Angeles, New York, in the wrestling ring, in front of paparazzi. At what point did you realize, “I need to reconnect”?
BAD BUNNY When you are far, sometimes you can see better, you can appreciate more. All the features on the album, those are the artists that I used to listen to when I was in L.A. or on the road on tour. And it was special because you can feel close to home through the music. That’s one of the purposes of this project.
CARAMANICA In the early years of your success, did you think, “The more I’m away from Puerto Rico, that means I’m doing better”?
BAD BUNNY I think it’s something that the industry tries to put in your head, like you need to be worldwide. And I understand because Puerto Rico is a very small island. Maybe an artist from Mexico could be successful only in Mexico. Same with Brazil. But I always knew that I could be big and successful being Puerto Rican, with my music and with my slang and with my culture, my everything. So I was working to reach the most places, but at the same time keeping my essence, my roots.
All the rhythms are Puerto Rican rhythms, like with plena, one of the oldest rhythms on the island. “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” the title song, is like a new plena. It’s a really rich rhythm to create and explore, even in mainstream pop music.
JOE COSCARELLI This is something we’ve seen repeatedly over the last few years, whether it’s Rosalía with flamenco, young Mexican artists with corridos tumbados, even merengue and bachata. Did you feel that there were Puerto Rican sounds that were ripe for modernizing, like salsa and plena?
BAD BUNNY Yes. This is not like a new rhythm, it’s a very old rhythm, it just sounds new and different because I’m doing it — I’m making this sound with my voice, my style, my flow. Sometimes young people can think, and I used to think this when I was a kid, this type of music is for old people, that’s my abuelita’s or my grandpa’s music. But when you grow up, you start to appreciate it and understand it more. And at the same time, I just want to let them know that you can make it in a very cool way. You can make it like your own style. You don’t have to do the same thing that the old artists did in the past. You can do it with a new feeling, with a new slang, with a new everything. There’s no rules.
CARAMANICA You were, as far as I can tell, the first major artist to collaborate with someone in corridos tumbados, with your Natanael Cano remix for “Soy El Diablo.” Tell me about keeping your eye on that scene.
BAD BUNNY I always believed in Latin music, not only in my genre, but in all of them. I was impressed that this song that I liked a lot and sounded fresh and new was a traditional rhythm and it’s made by this kid. I was like, see, this can be real. This can be something. I’m really proud of this whole movement — corridos tumbados. I’m not Mexican, but I can feel how Mexicans can be proud. I believe that every country in Latin America can do the same with their rhythms, like Colombia with cumbia.
COSCARELLI The live instrumentation on this album really stands out. Where was this music recorded?
BAD BUNNY All in Puerto Rico. All the salsa songs are made by young kids from escuela Libre de Música. All of them are like 18, 19, 21 years old — young kids with a lot of passion and energy. Because people think, oh, now every young kid today is making reggaeton. No, there’s a lot of great, great musicians — young kids — that are only waiting for the opportunity.
COSCARELLI Did you feel like only now, at this stage of your career, you had the platform to bring them up with you? Maybe if you did this project five years ago …
BAD BUNNY It wouldn’t have been the same. I’ve been saying, like, what is the purpose of me being here, in this position? What’s next? You die and that’s it. There’s no, like, “Oh you were the most streamed artist” — so what? I was thinking on that and said, “I should do something where I can plant a seed.” I said, “Bro, that is the purpose — to give young people an opportunity to showcase the rhythms of Puerto Rico.”
And it was a very nice experience to create this song with these people because we worked all together in the studio. The best part was that all of them were very humble, very talented, very passionate. There was no egos. And it felt good that I could relate more with them than any other huge stars that I’ve met before.
CARAMANICA At Coachella in 2023, you brought out José Feliciano. I wonder when you think of the Puerto Rican music of the ’70s and the ’80s, what do you hear in common with what you do?
BAD BUNNY When you really, really listen to the music from back in the day, it’s the same thing. I know that people say, Nah, music in the old days, it was different. And it’s true in some ways. But when you listen to the lyrics, when you listen to the stories, it’s the same. I’ve been listening to a lot of Chuito el de Bayamón, an artist from Puerto Rico from the ’40s and ’50s — música jíbara, música típica — and all the songs are about things I can relate to. Wait, he’s singing about this — I was living that two weeks ago.
COSCARELLI Take me back to just before the U.S. election. There’s this Trump rally at Madison Square Garden and a comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, makes his disparaging comments about Puerto Rico. You decide it’s time to say something. What was going through your mind?
BAD BUNNY I didn’t feel any pressure to say something, I did it because I felt it. I was angry at the time, because I was here in New York. I was like, “Well, this guy’s right here — we should go …”
It was a real moment of frustration. Yeah, I know, he’s a comedian, blah, blah, blah, blah. But that wasn’t a stand-up comedy show. It was supposed to be a political rally. I didn’t know he was a comedian — he was in a suit, I was like, oh, he’s a politician. Then people told me, no, it’s a comedian. It wasn’t funny. For a lot of reasons. I have a great sense of humor. And I like dark humor. But there’s places and there’s circumstances for that.
COSCARELLI Then, a couple of weeks later, a big story coming out of the election was that many Latino voters moved to the right. How did you reconcile those two things in your head?
BAD BUNNY I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to believe. I don’t know anything. I just know that there’s always going to be people who are going to protect and defend our country and our culture. And that’s the people that I want to have around me. That’s the people that I believe. And that’s something that I also want to inspire and promote with this project.
CARAMANICA In the past, you’ve participated in protests, you’ve included investigative journalism in your music videos about things that are happening on the island. You said that after the rally, you didn’t feel that you had to say something. But you’re also the most visible Puerto Rican star. Does that weigh on you, having the power to sway people’s perspectives and opinions?
BAD BUNNY Every time that I express myself about something, I do it because I feel it. It’s not because I’m Bad Bunny and I have 40 million followers and I want to — no. I’m a normal human being and I have feelings and I get mad and I get happy and that’s how I make my music. Sometimes you want to cry, sometimes you want to dance, sometimes you want to fall in love and sometimes you want to talk about political things. That’s how it works: Everything that I say and everything that I do is because I feel it, not because I feel a pressure to say something because I’m a public figure.
COSCARELLI Are there political songs or lines on this project?
BAD BUNNY There’s a lot of political lines that you can’t tell are political. The song “Bokete” — it’s a song about a love story but the whole analogy of boquete is — in Puerto Rico there’s a lot of holes in the street. It’s not a song about potholes, but … There’s a lot of things like that.
COSCARELLI One of the things that sets your generation of Latin artists apart from the crossovers that happened in the ’90s or the early 2000s is your choice to continue to perform in Spanish. Now that your music is reaching so many millions of people around the world, is there a part of you that feels like listeners who don’t understand the lyrics are missing something?
BAD BUNNY Definitely. People miss a lot. Actually, there’s even a lot of Latinos who speak Spanish who are missing a lot because I’m singing in Puerto Rican slang. After “Un Verano Sin Ti,” it was the biggest spot of my career and I came with this totally different album — “Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana” — with a lot of bars and Puerto Rican analogies, and I’m 100 percent sure that people missed the best parts of that album. Definitely.
CARAMANICA How does that make you feel? Do you want to over explain it or you just —
BAD BUNNY [singing] I doooooon’ttttt caaaaaaaare.
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