Dominican urban movement Around the early and mid-2000s, a variety of urban rhythms such as merengue urbano,
Dominican hip hop, and mainly
Dominican Dembow were born as an artistic expression from underground and low social classes. Since 2005, a considerable amount of artists began hitting the airways and receiving mainstream exposure in the Dominican Republic. In 2006,
Don Miguelo became the first urbano act to receive national airplay and widespread attention, winning best new artist at 2006
Soberano Awards while the track "Ma` Taide" hit 15 at US Tropical Airplay. In 2007 and 2008,
Lapiz Conciente became the first hip hop act to receive attention by local media while
Vakero introduced elements of reggae and afropop on his songs and was named a Top 5 Hot Rising Latin Urban Act by
Billboard. During the late 2000s and 2010s, a new format of merengue become very popular—Merengue de Calle, or
Urban Merengue.
Omega is regarded as one of the most popular acts and was the recipient of Best Merengue Urban act in the 2009 and 2010
Soberano Awards. His studio albums
El Dueño del Flow (2009) and
El Dueño del Flow (2011) charted on the US Top Latin Albums and Tropical Albums. He collaborated with other Latin American artists, including
Daddy Yankee,
Ozuna,
Shakira,
Akon, and
Pitbull. In 2011, Vakero became the first recipient of Best Urbano Artist at the
Soberano Awards. In 2014, Don Miguelo released "Como Yo Le Doy" with
Pitbull, which peaked at number one on US Tropical Songs and 16 on Hot Latin Songs. It was nominated at
Premios Juventud 2015 and was certified platinum by the RIAA for selling over 60,000 units in the United States, becoming the first urban act to do so. In 2015,
Mozart La Para hit the top 20 at US Tropical Airplay and Latin Rhythm charts with the track "Llegan los Montro Men" and later signed a recording contract worth $2 million to
Roc Nation. In 2016,
Lapiz Conciente's studio album
Latidos debuted at number 7 on the US
Billboard Latin Albums; the following year, his song "Papa" with veteran rapper
Vico C was nominated for Best Urbano Song at the
18th Annual Latin Grammy Awards.
Colombia's reglobalization Colombian artists like
Maluma or
J Balvin put out hits every two or three months, and the South American country pays tribute to this genre in all its cities. If
Medellin concentrates on the most successful artists and producers, Bogota has specialized in theme parties around this
rhythm. One of the keys to the success of this music is its ability to eliminate the existing social gaps in Colombian society since this genre triumphs both in the humble neighborhoods of southern
Bogota and in the most exclusive clubs in Zona T or the Parque de la 93.
Karol G is a Colombian
reggaetón singer who has done collaborations with other reggaetón singers, such as
J Balvin,
Bad Bunny, and
Maluma. Throughout her career, Karol G has had troubles in the industry because reggaetón is a genre that male artists dominate. She recounts how when starting her career, she noticed that there were not many opportunities for her in the genre because male artists dominated reggaetón. In 2018, Karol G's single "
Mi Cama" became very popular, and she made a remix with
J Balvin and
Nicky Jam. The "Mi Cama" remix appeared in the top 10 Hot Latin Songs and number 1 in Latin Airplay charts. This year she has collaborated with
Maluma called Creeme and with
Anuel AA in "
Culpables". The single "Culpables" has been in the top 10 Hot Latin Songs for 2 consecutive weeks.
Latin trap is a subgenre of
trap music that originated in Puerto Rico. A direct descendant of
southern hip hop, and influenced by
reggaeton, it gained popularity after 2007 and has since spread throughout Latin America.
The trap is slang for a place where drugs are sold. Latin trap is similar to mainstream trap with lyrics about life on
la calle (the streets), which deal with love, sex, drugs, and violence, often without censorship. Puerto Rican reggaeton and Latin trap singer
Ozuna states that it originated in 2007 with the song "El Pistolón", performed by
Arcángel & De La Ghetto,
Yaga & Mackie, and
Jowell & Randy (the former two were duo at the time). In an August 2017 article for
Billboard's series, "A Brief History Of", they enlisted some of the key artists of Latin trap, including
Ozuna,
De La Ghetto,
Bad Bunny,
Farruko and
Messiah to narrate a brief history on the genre. In 2018,
Cardi B's
hit single "
I Like It" featuring Bad Bunny and
J Balvin became the first Latin trap song to reach number one on the US
Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The 'Despacito' effect and mainstream resurgence of reggaeton In 2017, the music video for "
Despacito" by
Luis Fonsi featuring
Daddy Yankee reached over a billion views in under 3 months. As of December 2020, the music video is the all-time's second most-viewed YouTube video. With its 3.3 million certified sales plus track-equivalent streams, "Despacito" became one of the
best-selling Latin singles in the United States. The song's success and its remix version led Daddy Yankee to become the most listened-to artist worldwide on the streaming service
Spotify on July 9, 2017, being the first Latin artist to do so. He later became the fifth most listened-to male artist and the sixth overall of 2017 on Spotify. In June 2017, "Despacito" was cited by
Billboards Leila Cobo as the song that renewed interest in the
Latin music market from recording labels in the United States. Julyssa Lopez of
The Washington Post stated that the successes of "Despacito" and J Balvin's "Mi Gente" is "the beginning of a new Latin crossover era." Stephanie Ho of
Genius website wrote that "the successes of 'Despacito' and 'Mi Gente' could point to the beginning of a successful wave for Spanish-language music in the US." Ho also stated that "as 'Despacito' proves, fans don't need to understand the language to enjoy the music", referring to the worldwide success of the song. But
Te Boté not only achieved that. Many artists began to mark strong commercial trends in a market dominated by mixing
Reggaeton and
Latin trap. For example, "
Adictiva" by
Daddy Yankee and
Anuel AA, "Asesina" by
Brytiago and Darell, "
Cuando Te Besé" by
Becky G and
Paulo Londra, "No Te Veo" by Casper Magico, have influenced the style. ==2020s==