Bad Bunny’s ‘DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS’ bridges generations of Puerto Rican music in his most personal album yet

Known as the ‘King of Latin Trap’ and following the recent release of his sixth studio album, Bad Bunny (Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) became the first Latin act to surpass 95 million monthly listeners on Spotify with DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS enjoying its 5^th consecutive week at number one on Spotify Global. Benito’s fifth album, 2023’s Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana, was described by Rolling Stone as being “lost in a vortex of unfathomable fame as he grappled with the frenetic year that followed his career-defining album, Un Verano Sin Ti.” After an “inaccessible” album that was “worlds away from the former grocery store bag boy turned reggaeton innovator”, how did Benito find himself and his true sound again? He could have recruited the biggest names in Latin music or collaborated with English-speaking artists to chase more Grammys and streams; instead, Benito returned to his beloved home, Puerto Rico, cementing a deeper connection with his community and creating his most profound statement yet.

Of the 17 tracks that make DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, every single one is studied, deliberate and intricate, exploring generations of Puerto Rican rhythms and styles: salsa, plena, bolero and old-school perreo fused with today’s Latin pop and música urbana. Bad Bunny, ever the perreo scholar, lets the hand drums and Afro-Indigenous sounds live right alongside the hypnotic synth lines and sub-rattling bass.

The album opener, ‘NUEVAYoL’, sets the defiant tone of the album, beginning with a 20-second sample of El Gran Combo’s 1975 salsa classic, ‘Un Verano en Nueva York’, before igniting into Dominican dembow, colliding past and present music genres and generations in a refreshing and truly accessible manner. The unison of past generations with present and future is prominent across the album, as Benito fuses styles and samples to unite Puerto Ricans in a celebration of their heritage and culture.

DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS is so much more than an album to dance and sing along to — it is a passionate, powerful statement and narrative of Puerto Rico’s struggle for sovereignty, routed in centuries of Spanish and American colonisation

One of the most popular tracks is a moving six-minute salsa ‘BAILE INoLVIDABLE,’ in which the booming refrain, “No, no te puedo oldivdar/No, no te puedo borrar/Tú me enseñaste a querer/Me enseñaste a bailar” or “No, I can’t forget you/No, I can’t erase you/You taught me how to love/You taught me how to dance”, is powerful enough to become an instant classic, with its accompanying roaring trombones and clapping claves further illustrating the nostalgic feel of the entire album. ‘BAILE INoLVIDABLE’’s touching music video features one of the most influential film directors in Puerto Rico’s history (and the only to have directed a Puerto Rican film to be nominated for an Oscar), Jacobo Morales. The video’s central theme is the passage of time, as it follows Morales and his younger self, played by Benito, attending salsa lessons and thus reconnecting with his youth. Not only does this song and music video reminisce on Benito’s own nostalgia for his youth and island, it has also had a tremendous influence in salsa and dance communities across the world — a dance style previously less popular among young people has blossomed, as Benito reminds people from all cultures of the power of remaining connected with one’s heritage and family through music and movement.

DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS is so much more than an album to dance and sing along to — it is a passionate, powerful statement and narrative of Puerto Rico’s struggle for sovereignty, routed in centuries of Spanish and American colonisation. The decima-inspired ‘LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii’ combines poetic folk music from Puerto Rico’s jibaro people, who reside in the countryside and mountains of the island, with hip-hop percussion. “Quieren quitarme el río y también la playa/Quieren el barrio mío y que abuelita se vaya/No, no suelte’ la bandera ni olvide’ el lelolai/Que no quiero que hagan contigo lo que le pasó a Hawái” or “They want to take my river and my beach/They went my barrio and abuelita to leave/No, don’t let go of the flag nor forget the lelolai/I don’t want them to do to you what they did to Hawaii,” is one of Benito’s most moving and political refrains, as he warns his people and expresses his fears regarding Puerto Rico’s ongoing struggle to decide its own status between independence from the U.S. statehood, or to remain an American colony with that of Hawaii.

Puerto Rico has witnessed a growing number of wealthy outsiders moving to the island in the past decade; since 2012, the Puerto Rican government has offered wealthy mainland Americans to move to Puerto Rico and pay no taxes on interest, dividends, capital gains or crypto assets, all while living on a beautiful island in the Caribbean and maintaining their U.S. citizenship. The streets of every major city in Puerto Rico have become overwhelmed by the presence of expensive hotels, Airbnb’s and other home rentals catered to non-Puerto Ricans — with an unsettling amount of ‘for sale’ signs riddling the streets of the island, it is hard to ignore the absence of locals in these communities. In the closing of the album, ‘LA MuDANZA’, Benito makes one last defiant and poignant act: “De aquí nadie me saca, de aquí yo no me muevo/Dile que esta es mi casa donde nació mi abuelo” or “No one will kick me out of here, I’m not going anywhere/Tell them this is my home where my grandfather was born.” Corruption in Puerto Rico may be pushing more and more natives out of their home, however Benito and countless others are making a stand, refusing to have their island taken from them.

Across DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, Benito makes sure to give spotlights to rising Puerto Rican artists, the majority of his band and collaborations being made up of students at Puerto Rico’s public Music Conservatoire

Across DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, Benito makes sure to give spotlights to rising Puerto Rican artists, the majority of his band and collaborations being made up of students at Puerto Rico’s public Music Conservatoire. RaiNao takes centre stage in ‘PERFuMITO NUEVO’, while Chuwi’s Lorén Torres delivers a beautiful soprano for trap-charged ‘WELTiTA.’ The most rewarding collaboration, however, is with Los Pleneros de la Cresta, a band dedicated to keeping plena (a dance and music genre native to Ponce, Puerto Rico) alive in contemporary times. Their track, ‘CAFé CON RON’, fuses folk plena with showstopping congos for a fun, buoyant journey up the mountainside of Puerto Rico.

My personal favourite on the album is ‘DtMF’, an emotional centrepiece and love letter to Benito’s home island expressing what it means to leave home and build a new one elsewhere. It has brought millions of listeners worldwide, including myself, to tears as in one of his most vulnerable tracks yet, Benito captures the truth of loving a place or person that no longer belongs to you in the way it once did, and what it means to exist in between cultures, languages and identities. Laced with feelings of nostalgia and yearning, Benito sings, “Debí tirar más fotos de cuando te tuve, debí darte más besos y abrazos las veces que pude/Ojalá que los míos nunca se muden”. Translating to “I should’ve taken more pictures when I had you, I should’ve given you more kisses and hugs whenever I could/I hope my people never move,” this singular chorus has become an online phenomenon, as hundreds of thousands of TikTok users have shared their own photos and memories of their families and homes. Immigrants and migrants sacrifice so much physically, but also emotionally, when building a whole new life from scratch, often having to prove themselves over and over in countries hostile towards them. When Benito sings about his people moving, he refers to friends and family, but most importantly his roots — he sings about holding onto your identity, heritage and those who remind you of home; being torn between two worlds can be difficult and painful, yet home is never actually lost but something we carry within ourselves.

DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS is a truly groundbreaking testament to Benito’s evolved artistry, containing nothing but love for his island, community, family and childhood. Music has once again proven itself to be an incredibly powerful instrument capable of uniting people from all over the world for we may not all speak the same language or have the same culture; we all feel love in one way or another. DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS has cemented the trajectory of Benito’s success as a musician and will most likely remain a timeless classic for generations to come.