On the song “CAFé CON RON” from Bad Bunny’s latest and greatest album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS (I Should Have Taken More Photos), the musical ensemble Pleneros De La Cresta creates a sonic bomb of classic plena, a Puerto Rican folk-rhythm originated by the jíbaros on the island’s mountains. The track, mixed with an electronic production, lyrically illuminates one of the central tenets of the record — make the effort to meet the man where he’s at, even if it means breaking a sweat climbing up a sacred mountain deep in the heart of El Yunque.
The first leg of the massive world tour Bad Bunny is set to embark on in 2026 kicked off in his native Puerto Rico, during prime festival season. Bad Bunny performed a 31-date residency at San Juan’s Choliseo, the biggest stadium on the island. By the end, more than $200 million was added to the island’s economy, during hurricane season.
He certainly used the space during the residency, sandwiching the stadium floor with two stages: one, a mountain and rainforest, teeming with chickens and backup dancers in traditional outfits (some wearing pava hats), and the second a traditional casita straight out of the island’s architecture that doubled as an enviable VIP.
For his tour, the only mainland U.S. show he’s set to play is at the Super Bowl, his choice as the half-time performer upsetting the Republican far right, starting with the president, but subsequently schooling some ignorant people that, yes, Puerto Rico is a part of the U.S., and Puerto Ricans are American.
Bad Bunny performs with Gorillaz on the Coachella Stage during the 2023 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 21, 2023, in Indio, California. (Credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Coachella)
The logic behind bypassing the U.S. he at first coyly explained as the States being an “unnecessary” tour stop. But he later clarified in an interview for i-D magazine his understandable concerns about the menace of ICE presence at shows, mindful of his predominantly Latinx fan base.
And though Spanish-speakers may be his most ardent fans, it’s a mistake to pigeonhole Bad Bunny, an artist with four consecutive No.1 albums in North America who doesn’t break a sweat breaking streaming records across language barriers. He addresses that issue in DTMF’s opening song, “NUEVAYoL” (which samples a classic track by El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico) — “¿Cómo Bad Bunny va a ser rey del pop, ey / Con reggaetón y dembow?” (“How is Bad Bunny going to be the king of pop, hey / With reggaeton and dembow?”)
Bad Bunny performs during his Most Wanted Tour at Kaseya Center on May 24, 2024, in Miami, Florida. (Credit: John Parra/Getty Images)
Reggaeton as a genre has been racking up streaming records that match, or overtake, traditional pop music. It’s warped the landscape entirely. And with the presence of Latinx in the U.S. growing (despite the efforts and to the horror of the current administration), those aren’t the only sounds el conejo malo is playing with on this record. He’s no stranger to experimentation, as past rock and trap-heavy efforts show.
DTMF sees Bad Bunny lean heavy into an exploration of Puerto Rican identity, from his visual aesthetic — his take on traditional jibaro garb topped with a straw pava hat — to the sound that moves between the island’s key exports: “el perreo, la salsa, la bomba, and la plena.” His mastery of these classic genres and the traditional attire, could have been corny if it wasn’t so authentic and done so well.
Bad Bunny’s always been one to lift others as he’s climbed, collaborating with a new generation of salseros and bomba musicians, as well as featuring Pleneros De La Cresta, experts in the Afro-Puerto Rican genre.
Bad Bunny performs in Puerto Rico in July 2025. (Credit: Kevin Mazur / Getty Images)
If the album extends a hand for us to enter his world, it’s also about remembrance as an act of resistance, what the Swiss art curator Hans Ulrich Obrist called “a protest against forgetting.” This manifests itself in anti-colonial warnings transmitted as somber history lessons (his roaring “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii”), to heartbroken reminiscing (“BAILE INoLVIDABLE”, a salsa-centric ode to love long gone), and deeply tender reminders to stay present (the title track, with a bomba-fueled closing chorus that would warm the hardest of hearts).
Eyebrows have been raised regarding the Puerto Rican nationalist sentiments inherent in the symbols Bad Bunny has used and some of their ties to local parties like the Partido Popular Democrático, whose logo is a man in a pava. That said, why would he not be proud? Reggaeton and salsa, genres with origins on the island, have influenced the entire world, despite Puerto Rico’s in-between status under the thumb of one of the world’s most aggressive superpower.
Here is a map to the mountaintop. Even if you can’t (or refuse) to make the climb toward the coffee and rum-fueled bacchanalia, rest assured you’ll hear the drunken drums as laughter drowns out tears. With any luck you’ll feel it, preferably in your hips.
