Daddy Yankee announces retirement: beginnings, influences and the legacy left by the reggaeton king

One of the greatest exponents of reggaeton announced his retirement from the music industry, and he is Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez, better known as Daddy Yankee.

The artist, who is originally from Puerto Rico, indicated that his retirement from the industry will be as soon as his last tour ends in more than 10 countries. This tour has been called “La Última Vuelta” and it will begin in August and will end in December 2022, Peru is one of the 10 countries that will receive Puerto Rican.

“In this race I finally see the goal. Now I'm going to enjoy all of you and everything you've given me. To this genre you say that I made it global, but it was you who gave me the key to making this genre the largest in the world,” said Yankee, also known as “The Bigo Boss”.

He added the following: “Formally today I announce my retirement from music by giving you my best production, my best concert tour and I'm going to do them celebrating my 32nd year career with this collector's piece titled “Legendaddy”, he said in a video posted on his official Instagram account.

THE BEGINNING OF DADDY YANKEE

His childhood and adolescence were not easy, as he grew up in a dangerous neighborhood in the capital of Puerto Rico. His dream as a child was to be a baseball player, but he was interrupted by a shot he was shot in the hip by a stray bullet. Fortunately, the wound was treated on time thanks to a neighbor who came to help him.

Daddy Yankee started in 1994 and in 1995 released his first year titled “No Mercy”. After three years he decided to form a duet with fellow singer Nicky Jam. This duet was named “The Cangris”.

With the passing of time, exactly in 2004 and as a soloist he released the album “Barrio Fino”, the result of which brought him to fame and won the Latin GRAMMY and Billboard awards for the first time in his career.

DADDY YANKEE INFLUENCES

The Puerto Rican had great influences throughout his musical career. He indicated at the time that he always had a great inclination towards hip hop and the exponents he most admired and influenced him were Big Daddy Kane who is his favorite and even in honor of him he bears his stage name. He is joined by Rkm, King Sean and Das-Fx.

Dancehall was undoubtedly also present in the creation of his songs and confessed to being a fan of Spragga Benz. Juan Luis Guerra was also part of his musical influence.

DADDY YANKEE'S

The legacy of “DY” is broad and one of them perhaps the most important is that Daddy Yankee is the first street artist to have received the Billboard Hall of Fame Award. He was also the first reggaeton artist to make a live performance on the Billboard stage, this undoubtedly opened a big step for urban artists, since no one had ever been present at the award ceremony before. The Big Boss was also honored in the Billboard Hall of Fame.

In addition to opening the path to urban music at the Billboard, Yankee also managed to win 10 Guinness Records, 20 Billboard Music Award, 26 Billboard Latin Music Awards, 7 Billboard Music Awards, 7 Latin Grammy Awards and 3 American Music Awards.

He is currently one of the greatest influencers of urban music, considered a living legend.

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