Live in Puerto Rico Concert Review

Before the first show, on March 8, Bad Bunny’s stylist Patricia Alfonso took our photographer David Cabrera into Bunny’s dressing room. There, he saw what Bunny was planning on wearing for the shows, spotting brands like Jaded London, Talentless, and the Italian GCDS (God Can’t Destroy Streetwear), along with Poppy Lissiman sunnies and Dragon Ball Z rayon button-ups. On his feet, Bunny mostly wore Yeezy 500s customized by French artist Agent 33 and Fear of God. Not only is he becoming a global superstar before our very eyes, Bunny is turning into an international fashion icon as well. But in his native P.R., he’s already the most influential reggaeton artist since Daddy Yankee in the ’90s.

I was in Puerto Rico back in the summer of 2018 to cover a Trap Kingz concert headlined by Bad Bunny and to check his collaboration with Puerto Rican streetwear brand FRSH Company. Twenty-five thousand people packed the Centro de Convenciones de Puerto Rico. It was fucking madness. Bunny brought out a who’s who of the reggaeton scene, old and new, legends and rookies. Maybe I’m jaded from being a fan of the hyper-competitive world of rap music, but I had never seen such camaraderie between “competing” artists. Beefs do happen within the scene, but the majority of the time, you’ll see rappers featuring on each other’s songs or just hanging out as friends. There’s really no cliquing up like you often see in American rap, and it’s refreshing.

Bad Bunny’s success is everybody’s success. Reggaeton legend and OG Arcángel, a mentor to Bad Bunny, feels the same way. “For me, it’s not important just to support him. It’s important for me to support anyone who has talent,” he says. “The more superstars that exist in this genre, the more life it’ll have in the future. And obviously, if my genre is successful, then I will be successful, too.”

Somehow, last year’s concert was dwarfed by the three shows Bunny and his team put together in Puerto Rico on his 25th birthday weekend. While I was out there, I ran into a co-owner of FRSH, Omi Rivera, who also manages Arcángel. He was full of excitement, as always, but more so than usual in the midst of this year’s shows. “Last year’s Trap Kingz concert was like a pregame for him,” Omi told me while attempting to wrangle people to head out to an afterparty. “This concert at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico included songs off his new album. The stage and production were another level compared to that first concert. Here at El Choli, we saw Bad Bunny more mature, more established, more dedicated.” He added, “Every detail was thought out, and the level of creativity that they used for the fan experience hasn’t been done before in our genre.”