One month after Bad Bunny’s new album release, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS (transl. I Should Have Taken More Photos), Benito Antonio has reached the top of the global charts and the hearts of Boricuas and Spanish-speaking people around the world.
Image: Album cover of DtMf by Bad Bunny
A very personal project with multiple references to his home country, Puerto Rico, DtMF touches on the island’s gentrification, using various traditional rhythms such as bachata, plena, bolero and reggeatón. Before his release on January 5th 2025, the artist published a short film under the album’s title, starring Jacobo Morales, director of the only Puerto Rican film to ever be nominated for an Oscar, Lo que le pasó a Santiago, 1989. The short film follows a Borinquén in PR, now almost empty of Boricuas, after the Americanisation of the island.
Image: Poster for DtMf by Bad Bunny, starring Jacobo Morales (pictured above)
Although his last release, Nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana (2023), already spoke on Benito’s love for Puerto Rico, DtMF opens a broader conversation about losing the Boricua identity in a sea of globalization and the nostalgia after leaving the country you were born in. “NUEVAYoL” opens the album with a sample of Puerto Rican band El Gran Combo’s 1975 salsa “Un Verano en Nueva York”, before exploding into a heavy dem bow rhythm that feels impossible to resist. The track also mentions Willie Colón, a legendary salsa artist whose songs illustrated the Puerto Rican diaspora in NYC. “We are in NY, but now I’m going to take you to Puerto Rico*, and then we’re going to stay here” (Bad Bunny, 2025); and what a better way to put it but call the next track “VOY A LLeVARTE PA PR”*. With a simple but effective Reggeatón, we are invited to its birthplace to ‘perrear’ all night while “listening to the one who brings the heat“.
Following the second track comes the sensible and passionate “BAILE INoLVIDABLE”, one of the album’s fullest instrumentals, with an expressive piano solo that plays above the captivating salsa rhythm, making your feet move to the beat (even if some of us don’t have the moves). The track is performed by a choir from La Escuela Libre de Música de San Juan, who lead the refrain “No, no te puedo olvidar/No, no te puedo borrar/Tú me enseñaste a querer/Me enseñaste a bailar” (“No, I can’t forget you/No, I can’t erase you/You taught me how to love/You taught me how to dance). “BAILE INoLVIDABLE” isn’t the first song with dancing as an expression of love, in fact, the track seems to reference “Enséñame a Bailar”, from his 2022 album Un Verano Sin Ti, reminiscing of the time when a lover taught him how to dance. Benito later continues to show his most vulnerable self in the delicate “TURiSTA”, a bolero about a transactional and fleeting relationship, and later on with “BOKeTE”, a slowly-revealed bachata where he explores his feelings after a breakup: “One day you’ll grow old, look back and regret that you let go of the realest thing you had“. On the same topic but in a very different light, we find “EL CLúB”, almost halfway through the album but released a month before; a nostalgic house track about overcoming a breakup that evokes a feeling of literally being in “The Club”.
Although DtMF explores different genres, Bad Bunny always delivers a soundtrack for ‘Perreo’. As well as pure Reguetón, we find a more Pop-y sound in “PERFuMITO NUEVO”, featuring Puerto Rican urban singer RaiNao and “VeLDÁ”, a trap-reggaetón track with Omar Courtz and Dei V, and an interlude led by old-school icon Wisin. The dirtiest Perreo comes with “EoO”, produced by the great Tainy and reminiscent of 90s Reggeatón, using Hector y Tito’s chorus in “Perreo Baby”. “EoO” reaches a generation that experienced the suppression of the genre after being considered a threat to social order by the Puerto Rican government, with its explicit lyrics and roots in urban communities: “You’re listening to Puerto Rican music/We grew up listening and singing to this/In the farmhouses and suburbs/From the 90s until the 2000s forever“. The desire to represent the Boricua identity heightens at “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAII” a misty synth-based track that meets música jíbara with a provocative message of resistance: “Don’t let go of the flag nor forget the ‘lelolai’ because I don’t want them to do to you what they did to Hawaii.” Soon after, the title track “DtMF” wraps us in a feeling of nostalgia accompanied by mourning lyrics wishing to have been more present at the time, one of the key sensations throughout the album.
“CAFé CON RON”, a traditional plena track performed by Los Plenos de la Cresta brings the party energy together, connecting, like this, with the closing track “LA MuDANZA”. A spoken introduction that inevitably reminds us of Puerto Rican rapper Residente is followed by a display of talent and musicianship in a salsa that culminates the album with: “I’m from P-f*cking-R”.
DtMF is a carefuly-curated collection of feelings and genres, from nostalgia to pride, from boleros to perreo, but always acknowledging Puerto Rico as Benito’s birthplace and the origin of his music. His most complex and aesthetically shaped project until this date, and a must-listen especially for those who aren’t familiar with his music.
Genre – Rap/Pop/Latin
Label – Rimas Entretainment
Written by: Carlota Moreno
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