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\n\tIf you grew up in Latin America, the Caribbean, or diaspora in 2005, you grew up to the thud of a dembow beat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWhether you winced at it or leaned heavily into it, depending on your age, there\u2019s a strong chance you were at a party de marquesina sweating up on your crush, gyrating in sweaty jeans or a miniskirt. You were in the passenger seat of your cousin\u2019s car riding around Caracas or San Juan or Santo Domingo. You were in a middle school grinding train, figuring out what your hips could do in the eyeshot of horrified chaperones.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut before reggaeton became a global music industry behemoth that redefined pop music, and even before it was the soundtrack to Caribbean teenage dreams and Latin diasporic childhoods and sometimes-criminalized dancefloors in San Juan that hosted freestyle battles to what was then called \u201cunderground,\u201d the booming beat was far mellower. Nine years before Wisin y Yandel coalesced as a duo, Jamaican producers Steely and Clevie made the \u201cFish Market\u201d riddim. The following year it was sped up and injected with early electronic dub by Dennis \u201cThe Menace\u201d Thompson, who created the \u201cPounder\u201d instrumental. This blistering waist-whiner, made for a steamy partystarter originally sung over by Jamaican New York-based DJs Bobo General and Sleepy Wonder, would become the base riddim that reggaeton artists freestyle over to this day.<\/p>\n
\n\tWisin y Yandel\u2019s Pa\u2019l Mundo<\/em> appeared on Nov.eer 8, 2005. Daddy Yankee had dropped the seminal album Barrio Fino<\/em> the year before. By the time Pa\u2019l Mundo <\/em>landed onto the world, Wisin y Yandel had successfully made a name for themselves in the underground. Joining forces in 1998, they had been together for over half a decade before \u201cel duo din\u00e1mico\u201d making the 19-track monster of an album under their self-titled independent label WY Records. Though they\u2019ve had hits afterwards, this was a kingmaker for both of them, remembered (and bumped at full volume) to this day with a reverence reserved for a records considered foundational to a genre.<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\tPowered by a confluence of rhythms from merengue (\u201cMayor Que Yo\u201d) to bachata (Romeo Santos-assisted \u201cNoche De Sexo\u201d) to salacious old-school reggaeton (foundational reggaeton track \u201cRakata\u201d), and propelled by the genre\u2019s newfound visibility Pa\u2019l Mundo<\/em> was bound to become an instant classic. Outside of just being unbearably good, it was groundbreaking for its weirdness, sampling everything from telephone ringing (\u201cLlama Pa\u2019 Verte [Bailando Sexy]\u201c) to a Take Me Out To The Ballgame<\/em> instrumental (\u201cFuera De Base\u201d), Pa\u2019l Mundo<\/em>\u2019s inspiration for blooming producers cannot be denied.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\tProduced by reggaeton\u2019s finest producers, from Luny Tunes and Nely \u201c\u2018El Arma Secreta\u201d to then-burgeoning Tainy, the album went to\u00a0 No. 1 on Billboard<\/em>\u2019s Top Latin Charts, and snaked its way into the heart of a generation of Latinx fans. Solidifying their place as forces in music, Wisin y Yandel rode the success of Pa\u2019l Mundo<\/em> and came to define a genre\u2019s sound in the process as it continued to grow in reggaeton on Puerto Rico and beyond.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI grew up with Los Extraterrestres, they\u2019re pioneers from here, from PR,\u201d says rapper Young Miko, who has collaborated separately with both Wisin and Yandel as solo acts. \u201cThey came out of the marquesina parties. That wave was Wisin y Yandel, Don Omar, Jowell & Randy, Gringo, Chencho [Corleone], Plan B\u2026when I was little, the high school parties were all perreo parties playing the classics. I\u2019m so sure when they put this out they knew it was a good record, but did they know they were making something that would never die? \u2018Rakata\u2019 is for sure a top five song for me.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe staying power of \u201cRakata\u201d in particular is undeniable, from the iconic opening shoutouts to the bouncy dembow chain rattle that beckons you close to the nearest body on the floor. It\u2019s inspired a slew of remixes, including one Ja Rule and Tea Time made for English-speaking hip-hop fans. On a more philosophical level, they\u2019ve inspired the current wave of Latin electronic acts and producers. Venezuelan \u201cdiva experimental\u201d du jour Arca\u2019s earth-shattering \u201cRakata\u201d comes to mind, a twisted fantasy of a track produced by Luis Garban, who produces as Safety Trance \/ Cardopusher and has shared stages the world over with reggaeton pioneer DJ Negro of The Noise, brandishing his cybergoth vision of deconstructed club reggaeton alongside an old school-centric set from Negro at the latest edition of Puerto Rican underground party Isla Del Terror.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\t\u201cI wanted to make something dark, reggaeton with witch house sounds that still felt emotional \u2014 I showed the beat to Alejandra (Ghersi, aka Arca), she wrote her part, and all of it changed,\u201d says Safety Trance of producing Arca\u2019s \u201cRakata.\u201d \u201cThe song took a life of its own, and it was her idea to name it \u201cRakata\u201d; I think it does justice to Wisin y Yandel\u2019s legacy, thinking about how Pa\u2019l Mundo<\/em> is a key album of the genre.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tLet\u2019s be clear: reggaeton is electronic club music. The Caribbean architecture of its riddims makes it danced differently than anything you\u2019d hear at your local rave, but Latinx DJs and producers the world over have taken to spinning reggaeton beats, as well as guaracha and Venezuelan raptor house, alongside techno, house, trance, and more. In that regard, we can consider Wisin y Yandel \u2014and Pa\u2019l Mundo<\/em>\u2019s impact in particular, with its glittering electronic flourish\u2014 to be foundational to the current wave of quote-unquote \u201cLatin Club.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cTainy did a lot of the production, and he was all over the album, not on the biggest tracks, but he\u2019s all over it. Aesthetically, it\u2019s quite an electronic sounding album: The sounds they\u2019re using, like the plucking, is trance-y, almost,\u201d says the artist Nick Le\u00f3n. \u201cWhen I\u2019m making music and pulling from things that inspire me, even if I\u2019m not thinking about it, I go back to a lot of those sounds because they\u2019re quite emotional sounds or just like clubby. It blends well with faster dance music, some of the acapellas and the lyrics and these things. I think of \u2018Paleta\u2019 and hear Kamixlo, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWisin y Yandel officially broke up in 2023. Since then, the now-legendary duo have shown a willingness to bridge the generational gap, both together and separately. Their aptly named final album La \u00daltima Misi\u00f3n<\/em> (\u201cThe Final Mission\u201d) ranges collaborations with reggaeton\u2019s new stars from Rauw Alejandro and J. Balvin to dancehall icon Sean Paul and Spanish experimentalist Rosal\u00eda on \u201cBesos Moja2\u201d, a re-imagining of their hit song from 2009\u2019s La Revoluci\u00f3n<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThis penchant for collaboration and cross-genre experimentation comes as no surprise:at the height of Pa\u2019l Mundo<\/em>\u2019s popularity, Wisin y Yandel lent verses to a Luny Tunes remix of Paris Hilton\u2019s flash-in-a-pan pop single \u201cStars Are Blind\u201d, which was recently covered by Catalonian reggaeton star Bad Gyal. Despite (allegedly) going their separate ways \u2014there are rumours of a follow-up to 2022\u2019s supposed final mission\u2014the pair\u2019s legacy, reputation, and willingness to pass the baton have made them some of reggaeton\u2019s most reliable hitmakers and mentors.<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\tDespite not being together anymore, the pair remain relevant the world over, from up-and-coming reggaeton acts and Latin electronic producers to masked French DJs mixing \u201cPaleta\u201d with Linkin Park at festivals in the U.K. It would seem the groundbreaking pair, now on their separate ways, have made good <\/strong>on quite a few of their self-proclaimed nicknames: \u201cThe Aliens, The Leaders,\u201d \u201cThe Kings of the New Millennium,\u201d and perhaps most pertinently \u201cEl Duo De La Historia\u201d \u2014 \u201cThe Historic Duo.\u201d Their lasting success, and the waves made by the album 20 years since it dropped, call to mind some of the closing boasts of \u201cPaleta,\u201d which have proved to be something of a dedication and a self-fulfilling prophecy. It was an album made Pa\u2019 Puerto Rico \/ Pa\u2019 los latinos, y Pa\u2019l Mundo<\/em>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhere I grew up in Broward, it was less Latino, so it was kind of like a way to identify myself a little more by listening to this stuff; it gave me something to explore that felt like a part of my heritage, or whatever,\u201d says Le\u00f3n. \u201cThere\u2019s like a way that it connects with people from Latin America. It\u2019s a throughline for the diaspora and to have like a thing that they can pull from or find themselves with a bit more or just like apply to what they do in music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
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