30 Fantastic Facts About Daddy Yankee You Didn’t Know Before

Daddy Yankee, famously known as the “King of Reggaetón," is a Puerto Rican rapper and singer. He has sold around 20 million records, making him one of the best-selling Latin music artists. He has won five Latin Grammy Awards, two Billboard Music Awards, 14 Billboard Latin Music Awards, two Latin American Music Awards, eight Lo Nuestro Awards, an MTV Video Music Award, and six ASCAP Awards. He is one of the highest-paid Puerto Rican rappers in the music industry. Here are some really interesting facts about the singer that will blow your mind away:

 
Daddy Yankee, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
1.  His album “Barrio Fino” made history, when it became the top-selling Latin music album of the decade between 2000 and 2009.
2.  His single “Despacito,” in collaboration with Latin pop singer Luis Fonsi, is the first Spanish-language song to hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 since "Macarena" in 1996.
3.  The music video of “Despacito,” became the most-watched video on the YouTube platform, receiving its billionth view on April 20, 2017.
4.  With the success of this single, Yankee became the most-listened artist worldwide on the streaming service Spotify in June 2017, the first Latin artist to do so.
5.  He was named by CNN as the "Most Influential Hispanic Artist" of the year 2009, and was also included in the list “Time 100” in the year 2006.


Daddy Yankee, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

6.  Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez was born on February 3, 1977, to Ramón Ayala and Rosa Rodriguez in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. He was raised in the Villa Kennedy Housing Projects neighborhood.
7.  His father was a salsa percussionist, while his mother's family came from a long line of musicians. He has a brother named Nomar.
8.  Since they were children, he and his brother had been exposed to music, as their father would often perform in front of them.
9.  At the age of 13, he started singing and rapping, and had special focus on lyrical improvisation. He became interested in reggaetón, Spanish-language dancehall reggae, and was immensely influenced by the style of Vico C.
10.  He aspired to become a professional Major League Baseball player as a teenager, and was all set to even get signed by the Seattle Mariners.
11.  However, he was hit by a stray round from an AK-47 rifle, in the crossfire of a barrio gun battle, before he could be officially signed. His baseball dreams were shattered.
12.  Since it took nearly a year and a half to recover from the wound, he got the opportunity to fully focus on his music career. Even before the accident, he already collaborated with DJ Playero and was a featured artist in his 1992 mixtape “Playero 37.”
13.  With Playero’s help, he released his first mixtape “No Mercy,” as a solo artist on April 2, 1995. The politicians imposed a ban on him as the album contained rebel lyrics.
14.  Throughout the 1990s, he appeared in several of DJ Playero's underground mixtapes, which were banned due to explicit lyrics by the Puerto Rican government. However, these songs later became a part of the first reggaeton songs ever produced.
15.  DJ Playero and Daddy Yankee were later credited for inventing the name "reggaeton" to describe their music on the album Playero 36 in 1994.


Daddy Yankee, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

16.  In 2004, Daddy Yankee released his international hit single "Gasolina," which is credited with introducing reggaeton to audiences worldwide.
17.  He collaborated with the rapper Nas, who was one of his inspirations, in the song "The Profecy", for the album “Boricua Guerrero” in the year 1997.
18.  He, along with Nicky Jam, formed an unofficial duo called "Los Cangris," and released several successful singles together in the year 2000.
19.  However, the duo fell apart due to creative differences in 2004, but reconciled in 2012 and performed in various concerts together.
20.  In 2002, he released “El Cangri.com,” his first album with international success, receiving coverage in the markets of New York City and Miami with hits including "Latigazo", "Son Las Doce", and "Guayando."
21.  Ayala collaborated for the first time with the prestigious reggaeton producers Luny Tunes on the album “Mas Flow,” with his commercial success song "Cógela Que Va Sin Jockey," in the year 2003.
22.  Daddy Yankee was featured in N.O.R.E.'s single "Oye Mi Canto" which hit number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, which was a record for a reggaeton single at the time.
23.  He released “Barrio Fino en Directo,” on December 13, 2005, which sold more than in 800,000 copies in the United States, becoming the 13th best-selling Latin album in the US and over 3 million of copies worldwide.
24.  He appeared on the 2008 Rockstar Games' video game “Grand Theft Auto IV” as the DJ of Radio San Juan Sounds, with spanglish lines.
25.  The single, "Grito Mundial", which was released on October 8, 2009, in order to promote his ninth album, “Mundial,” was initially going to be the official theme for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.


Daddy Yankee, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

26.  However, when Ayala got to know that the offer gave them 100 percent rights to the song, he rejected the FIFA offer.
27.  On February 25, 2013, Daddy Yankee performed hits like "Limbo", "Gasolina", "Pose", "Ella Me Levantó" and "Descontrol," in the 2013 Viña del Mar International Song Festival, to a sold-out audience.
28.  He has known his wife Mireddys González, since they were kids, and when they were 17 years old, they decided to get married. The duo welcomed they first daughter Yamilette Ayala González, at a young age of 17. They have a son Jeremy and another daughter Jesaaelys.
29.  He became the spokesperson of the environmental organization "Yo Limpio a Puerto Rico" (I Clean Puerto Rico) founded by Ignacio Barsottelli, in the year 2007.
30.  On April 28, 2016, Daddy Yankee was awarded the "Industry Leader Award" during the 2016 Latin Billboard Awards.
31.  Daddy Yankee Net Worth: $40 Million