Daddy Yankee announces retirement from music with new album and concert tour

San Juan, 20 Mar Daddy Yankee, self-proclaimed “El jefe” del reggaeton, announced this Sunday his retirement from music with the release on Thursday of his latest album, “Legendaddy”, and his last concert tour, “The last turn”. “This race, which was a marathon, I finally see the goal. Now I am going to enjoy with all of you what you have given me, what you have given me,” Raymond Ayala, first name of the Puerto Rican artist, commented in a video he downloaded to his instagram account. “In this genre, people say that I made it global, but it was you who opened the key for me to open the doors to make this genre the greatest in the world,” emphasized “The greatest leader” of reggaeton in the message. The 45-year-old artist acknowledged that his followers have been “the greatest treasure I can have in my career” that spans 32 years, as Daddy Yankee himself said in the video sitting at a pool table in his mansion in Luquillo, a city on the northeast coast of Puerto Rico. “I always worked not to fail them, not to look for problems, with a lot of discipline, to be able to inspire all the chamaquitos (young people) to be leaders, to dream of growing up, not to think about limitations and to work for their family and for theirs,” he reflected. “In the neighborhoods, where we grew up, most of us wanted to be drug traffickers. Today, I go down to the neighborhoods and villages (public residential), and most want to be singers. That is worth a lot to me,” he said. However, he said that “formally, today I announce my retirement from music, giving you my best production and my best concert tour, and I'm going to say goodbye to you these 32 years of career with this collector's piece, entitled 'Legendaddy'”. In this production he assured that he will present “all the styles that have defined me in a single album”, which will feature a lot of “party, war and romance”. “I retire with the greatest thanks, my audience, my colleagues, all the producers, radio, press, television, digital platforms and you, who have been with me from the 'underground', from the root, since the beginning of reggaeton,” he added. “I love you with my life; over and out, Daddy Yankee says goodbye, 'The Boss', DY,” he concluded. Daddy Yankee started his musical career on the album “Playero 34", by music producer DJ Playero, where for the first time the word reggaeton or reggaeton was heard. Due to the talent that DJ Playero saw in Daddy Yankee, he decided to place him at the beginning of his next productions, that is, the editions of “Playero 35", “Playero 36" and “Playero 37". However, the editions of “Playero 38", “Playero 39" and “Playero 40" had opportunities to be sold in record stores, which then catapulted Daddy Yankee more. The renowned artist also had the opportunity to release his own albums, the first being “No Mercy” and “El Cartel de Yankee”. Likewise, due to the success he was having, Daddy Yankee was also included other productions, especially in the first edition of Boricua Guerrero EP, produced by DJ Playero and Nico Canada, and where the so-called “Big Boss” had a collaboration with Nas, one of the most famous American rappers. Daddy Yankee, with his vision of taking the reggaeton genre to another level, continued to participate in other productions, and in addition, he joined in a duet with Nicky Jam, releasing his album, “Haciendo escante”. However, the duo broke up, giving Daddy Yankee the opportunity to release in 2004 the album “Barrio Fino”, which included “Petrol”, a song that exploited the career of the legendary reggaetonero. A year later, Daddy Yankee released “Barrio Fino, Live,” which included the single “Gansta Zone” with Snoop Dogg, another legendary American rapper. Daddy Yankee continued to release several albums, including “El Cartel: The Big Boss”, “Mundial” and “Prestige”. And, despite all the worldwide success that Daddy Yankee already had in his hands, at the end of 2017 he released together with Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Luis Fonsi the video for “Despacito”, one of the most watched music videos in history. CHIEF jm/laa