The new single, produced by veteran duo DJ Urba and Rome (a.k.a. Los Evo Jedis), arrives as the height of reggaeton’s evolution. What began as a political and raw movement that emerged from the underground in Puerto Rico — by way of the reggae in Español pioneered in Panama — has exploded to a global genre in the streaming era.
Fans have been clamoring for the legendary rapper to release new music beyond the handful of collaborations he’s done since releasing the Latin Grammy-winning album “El Que Sabe, Sabe” (“He who knows, knows”) in 2015. His discography, which launched with his 2002 debut “El Abayarde” — and included now-established reggaeton classics, including the party-ready, oft-referenced “Pa’ Que Retozen” — has been defined by socially conscious, pro-Black lyrics.
Despite his hiatus, Calderón has been in the news quite a bit lately following controversial comments made by Bad Bunny in a recent Time magazine interview. In the March cover story, the rapper was asked whether colorism and racism has affected career trajectories in reggaeton. “Because I haven’t seen it or lived it, I can’t say,” Bad Bunny told the magazine. “It’d be irresponsible of me to say yes.”
Bad Bunny cited Calderón — and the comparisons that have been made between their careers — as an example. “They asked me about if Tego Calderón would’ve been bigger if he wasn’t Black,” he told Time. “But in my eyes, Tego Calderón is the biggest singer in the industry.”
The ambivalent response drew a backlash, in part because the differences in their trajectories are demonstrable. Bad Bunny, who rose to fame after breaking out on SoundCloud in 2016, has performed (alongside Shakira and Jennifer Lopez) at the Super Bowl and was the featured musical guest on an episode of “Saturday Night Live.” After a record-breaking year on the charts and on tour, Bad Bunny was named Billboard’s Artist of the Year in 2022 — becoming the first musician who performs primarily in Spanish to earn the honor. He similarly became the first Spanish-language artist to land a nomination for Album of the Year at the Grammys ceremony, which he opened earlier this year in a lively set.
Bad Bunny made Calderón and his classic, genre-defining debut a prominent part of his recent set at Coachella, where he became the first Latino artist to open the annual festival (as a solo act). “In montages of between-song video clips, he made pointed efforts to highlight Celia Cruz, El General, Tego Calderón and others who laid the foundation for his massive success today,” the Los Angeles Times’s August Brown reported. “He deftly connected Puerto Rico’s polyglot music to the grim colonial circumstances that brought Spanish, Black and Indigenous people together on his island.”
While Calderon is revered by reggaeton fans, his career has not been as widely visible as that of Bad Bunny or other light-skinned Latinos in Latin hip-hop. And the rapper, also known for his cameos in the “Fast and Furious” franchise, has spoken out about fighting for control over his music and being encouraged to dumb down his work for (equally underestimated) listeners.
But in the streaming era, the popularity of reggaeton and its offshoots — Latin trap and urbano — has been impossible to ignore. The genre has helped to fuel unprecedented growth for Latin music, which — according to a recent Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) report — topped $1 billion in revenue last year.
Calderón appears ready to embrace the digitally driven approach of his successors in promoting his new music. Earlier this week, the 51-year-old rapper joined TikTok, where he teased “La Receta,” with a snippet from the song’s music video, expected to drop Friday afternoon. The video unfolds on a tennis court where Tego — dressed in all white — is surrounded by beautiful Black women, palm trees and a bar cart.
Calderón is entering a new era of his career, but his music — especially in the hands of Urba and Rome — is rooted in the old-school reggaeton he helped introduce to the world more than 20 years ago.