Bad Bunny gets real about his journey from Puerto Rico to becoming a global music icon. The Latin superstar discusses his groundbreaking album dedicated to Puerto Ricans worldwide, his fusion of traditional Plena rhythms with modern sounds, and why authenticity matters more than pleasing everyone. He also explains how inspiration doesn’t wait for timelines and how “Baile Inolvidable” changed everything and taking us inside his creative process, from making beats at age 13 and more.

Bad Bunny: We’re going to go with the flow. I’ve always had this idea that someday, I’m going to make a salsa album, and I’d say later, “I don’t know, when I’m older, 40, when I turn 40,” something like that. But what happens, this song comes to me first, “Baile Inolvidable.” The idea comes to me, the feeling comes to me, it comes and I said obviously I’m not going to save this song until I’m 40 years old when I’m making this … while I’m doing it and since the idea was born to start working on this album, I said I’m going to make an album from Puerto Rico for Puerto Ricans.

The cover says it, the back part says this album is dedicated to all Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico and in the entire world.

Leila Cobo: You didn’t think it would transcend so much?

No. I don’t care if this album isn’t heard in such a place, in such a country, if the people here don’t want to listen to me anymore. I’m happy as long as my people listen to me. I’m happy as long as this album is successful in Puerto Rico. And if I have to spend the rest of my career only performing in Puerto Rico, I’m happy with that.

Being Latino, when you leave, that’s when you realize how the rest of the world sees you, isn’t that right? And you realize that how you see yourself is completely different from how they see you and you say, “Wait a minute, that’s not how we are, that’s not how I am.” Was that like the idea behind the song and the album?

100%. A big part of this album is due to those conversations when … From the first time you leave your country and you go to another country and you start to hear how other countries see you, people who don’t know anything about your country.

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