Ramón Ayala (born February 3, 1977), better known by his
stage name Daddy Yankee, is a
Latin Grammy Award winning
Puerto Rican reggaeton recording artist. Ayala was born in
Río Piedras, the largest district of San Juan, where he became interested in
music at a young age. In his youth he was interested in
baseball, and aspired to become a
Major League Baseball player and was going to the Major Leagues after trying out for
Seattle. He was unable to continue this sport when he was shot in one of his legs, leaving him unable to walk correctly. After receiving lessons from several artists within the genre, he developed an independent career, first recording in a production titled
Playero 37. After this he began to produce independent albums. Ayala released his first solo album,
No Mercy (1995). He subsequently formed a duo with
Nicky Jam, and then continued his solo career with the releases of
El Cartel (1998) and
El Cartel II (2001). This led him to be one of the pioneers of the Reggaeton genre. Daddy Yankee is the only
Reggaeton singer to have a two song on the 24 which was
Rompe and 32 which was
Gasolina.
In 2002, El Cangri.com became Ayala's first album with international success, receiving coverage in the markets of New York and Miami. His third studio album, Barrio Fino (2004), received numerous awards, including a Premio Lo Nuestro and a Latin Billboard, as well as receiving nominations for the Latin Grammy and MTV Video Music Awards. In 2007, El Cartel Records released El Cartel The Big Boss, which was ranked as the top-selling album in Latin music genres and also embarked on an international tour which broke attendance records in Ecuador and Bolivia. The tremendous success of Barrio Fino may have led to the Reggaeton explosion in the early 2000's which resulted in many Hip-Hop artists featuring Reggaeton artists. His performances have appeared on more than 70 albums, including compilations such as Blin Blin Vol. 1 (2003) and Mas Flow 2 (2005). Outside of his work as a musician, Ayala has also worked as an actor and producer. Throughout his career, he has been generally reticent to discuss his personal life, but has publicly expressed the importance of his wife and children to him.
Daddy Yankee was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and was influenced by several musicians in his family, including his father and some of his mother's relatives.[1] During his childhood he practiced singing and focused on lyrical improvisation. Although Ayala first aspired to join the ranks of baseball’s Major Leagues and was on his way to MLB, he abandoned this goal after being involved in an accident—at age seventeen, he was caught in the crossfire of a barrio gun battle and received two bullet wounds. One bullet grazed his arm and the other, from an AK-47, hit him in the leg and left him with a permanent limp.[2] Following this incident he became interested in the underground rap movement, which at the time was in an early organizational stage.[3] He also took more interest in the events that took place in the neighborhood in which he was raised, a public housing project named Villa Kennedy.[1] Early in his career he attempted to imitate the style of Vico C. He went on to emulate other artists in the genre, including DJ Playero, DJ Nelson, and DJ Goldy, taking elements from their styles in order to develop an original style.[3] In doing so, he eventually abandoned the traditional model of rap and became one of the first artists to perform Reggaeton.[3] Ayala first recorded with DJ Playero as a featured artist in a production titled Playero 37, going under the name Winchester Yankee 30 30 which was released in 1992.[1]
His first album, titled No Mercy, was produced in 1995 when Ayala was eighteen years old.[1] The production did not sell well, and he continued his work within the genre for the rest of the decade, eventually forming a duo with Nicky Jam. One of the duo's songs, "Posición", was included in the soundtrack of One Tough Cop, a movie directed by Bruno Barreto, that was released in 1998. Beginning in 2000, Ayala began concentrating more on his solo career because of a feud that occurred between him over Nicky Jam because of Nicky Jam becoming addicted to Marajuana, releasing albums produced outside studios. The first production he released was titled El Cartel, featuring elements of the mixtape style.[1] In 2001 El Cartel II was released, a direct sequel to the previous production, and influenced by similar genres.
