Bad Bunny's love letter to Puerto Rico

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Interviews, Music History, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The first great release of 2025 is already here: Bad Bunny's newest album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS. Over the course of its 17 tracks, the Puerto Rican reggaetonero crafts an intertextual, anti-colonial tome of a record, incorporating sounds from across his island and the boricua diaspora. From his use of salsa classics on "NUEVAYoL," to his pointed interpolations on "VOY A LLeVARTE PA PR," and his detour into folk melodies and songwriting on tracks like the somber "LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii," the record features some of Bad Bunny's most creative, intense, and direct work yet. On this episode of Switched On Pop, producer Reanna Cruz takes Charlie and Nate on a journey through Bad Bunny's love letter to Puerto Rico, with additional insight from journalist and translator Carina del Valle Schorske. Read Carina's NPR Music review of the record: Bad Bunny's politics of presence. Songs Discussed: Bad Bunny, "DtMF" Bad Bunny, "NUEVAYoL" Bad Bunny, "BOKeTE" Bad Bunny, "EL CLúB" El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico, "Un verano en Nueva York" Bad Bunny, "PIToRRO DE COCO" Bad Bunny, "BAILE INoLVIDABLE" Rauw Alejandro, "Tú Con Él" Bad Bunny, "VOY A LLeVARTE PA PR" Wisin & Yandel, Héctor "El Father," "La Barría" Alexis y Fido, "Me Quiere Besar" Angel y Khriz, "Cazando Voy" Bad Bunny, "El Apagón" Bad Bunny, Kendo Kaponi, Arcángel, "P FKN R" Bad Bunny, "LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii" Bad Bunny, "CAFé CON RON" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for Switched on Pop comes from the NYU Stern Executive MBA program. An MBA can help take your career to the next level. And with the NYU Stern Executive MBA program, you can make smarter decisions to help drive your business forward. And you don't need to put your life on hold to earn your MBA. Programs are available in both New York and Washington.
0:25.3	Classes are held every other Friday and Saturday in New York, or one Friday, Saturday,
0:27.4	and Sunday each month in D.C.
0:31.6	Search NYU Stern, EMBA to learn more.
0:46.0	Stage on the... Welcome the Switched on Pop. I'm producer Rihanna I'm songwriter Charlie Harding.
0:48.0	And I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. Quick shout out to our new theme song. Just banging
0:52.9	intro already.
0:54.4	It's sounding great.
0:55.6	Thank you, Zach and Jossi.
0:57.0	Now, we're only a few weeks into 25,
0:58.9	and our theme song is not the only major release of the year so far.
1:04.3	What do we got, Rihanna?
1:05.7	I'm talking about Bad Bunny's newest album,
1:08.3	De Be Tierra Most Photos, or in English, I should have taken more photos.
1:13.5	Hell yeah.
1:26.1	Crazy that the album of the year has been released in January.
1:29.3	I know, it's pretty wild.
1:30.4	Though I think fans of Ringo Starr's country record might say something different, but to each their own.
1:37.6	Good point, Rihanna.
1:39.6	So we just heard the title track, DTMF, and over the course of 17 tracks, the beat at Armas Photos constructs through its sounds essentially a love letter to the island of which Bad Bunny is born and raised, Puerto Rico.
1:55.0	It moves through several different genres.
1:57.5	We got Dembo on songs like Nueva Yole.
	...

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