Reggaeton's Daddy Yankee to perform at MSG - Reggaeton News

By Steve Knopper Newsday

September 07, 2007

The businessman behind Daddy Yankee, the reggaetón star, is a frantically hardworking guy who runs a company of about 100 people. Ramon Ayala started out selling mixtapes out of a car in Villa Kennedy, a housing project in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He built that business into an international label called El Cartel Records. He hired family members to handle booking and management, and his company took care of publishing and distribution.

The trick is that Daddy Yankee and Ramon Ayala are the same person. They just aren't allowed in the studio together.

"When I'm in the studio, I'm with my producer, and it's about the art. When I'm outside, I got to put the art into the business side. I know how to separate one over the other," said Daddy Yankee, who headlines Friday at Madison Square Garden. "It's all about being creative. I say to everybody: 'Don't speak about any business over here.'"

Ayala spoke plenty of business, though, before Daddy Yankee's new album "El Cartel - The Big Boss" came out earlier this year. He had spent a decade building up his career, selling his own tapes for $9 apiece on the streets, before growing into the focal point of a new Spanish-language radio format, reggaetón. The singer-rapper's jittery, booming house-party anthem "Gasolina" crossed over into the Top 40 and hit heavy MTV rotation in 2004, and suddenly Daddy Yankee was a mainstream star.

Jimmy Iovine, head of Interscope, was so impressed that he flew to Puerto Rico to meet Ayala personally. Instead of signing a traditional contract, Ayala kept his master recordings and his publishing rights, using powerful Interscope simply for marketing and distribution.

"When the majors approached me and tried to sign me, I was laughing: 'Come on, man, you got to give me the real deal. Speak the real numbers to me!' I don't like fronting," he said by phone from Puerto Rico. "But, you know, me and Jimmy sat down, we discussed everything, and we got a nice deal. I'm my own boss, I make my own decisions, and I got a big partner, and I have plenty of respect for him."

Daddy Yankee's 2004 breakthrough album, "Barrio Fino," hit No. 1 on the Latin charts, even though it was released by a small Puerto Rican indie label, VI Records. It was right down the middle for radio's growing reggaetón format - a mixture of Spanish-language hip-hop, heavy synth beats and some dancehall (the "reggae" part of reggaetón) R&B - and Yankee threw in so many styles it was hard to keep track of them all. "El Cartel - The Big Boss" is similarly jittery, bursting with ideas, from the Rio de Janeiro-style funk of "Mensaje de Estado" to the gigantic crunk sound of "Que Paso!" Unlike "Barrio Fino," the new CD is packed with superstar North American collaborators: Black Eyed Peas members Fergie and will.i.am and producer Scott Storch.

"I got my roots inside of me all the time - plenty of salsa joints and Caribbean music," said Daddy Yankee, son of a salsa percussionist. "The Anglo stuff, that's a side a lot of people haven't seen in Daddy Yankee. People expected me to come with all the new stuff; so I got tropical music, reggaetón, hip-hop, Spanish R&B. I got all kinds of music."

WHEN&WHERE: Daddy Yankee, 8 p.m. Friday at Madison Square Garden. Tickets are $59.50-$129.50. For more information, go to ticketmaster.com.

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