Daddy Yankee

Daddy Yankee
Ramon Raymond Ayala a.k.a Daddy Yankee, born on February 3, 1977 in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, is an unbeaten Latin Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican reggaeton recording artist.

His immediate flight to success was mainly due to the hit Reggaeton song Gasolina from his 2004 album Barrio Fino. The album has sold over 2,000,000 copies in the United States alone and has sold well throughout Latin America and internationally.

Considered as the King of Improvisation, Daddy Yankee entered into the Latin music industry through his affiliation with DJ Playero and ultimately made his recording debut on the One Tough Cop soundtrack in 1998 (Posicion, a collaboration with Alberto Stylee). Yankee's album debut came in 2000 with El Cartel de Yankee, followed by a second volume after a year, which resulted in the release of El Changri.com (2002) and Los Homerun-es (2003), by the VI Music label, and Los Homerun-es became the biggest-selling album in Puerto Rico.

With the major-label backing of Universal, Barrio Fino became the first reggaeton album to debut at number one on Billboard's Latin albums chart, where it hovered for weeks and weeks on end (off and on, it retained its number one spot on the stateside Latin album chart throughout 2004 and far into 2005 -- spending roughly a year atop the chart!). The omnipresence of Gasolina no doubt helped drive the sales of Barrio Fino, as the song crossed over into numerous markets, arguably becoming the token reggaeton song among people with only a passing knowledge of the music style.

Yankee continued on with his steady output, as both the live album Ahora Le Toca al Cangri! Live and a reissue of Los Homerun-es were released in March 2005, which further insured his lasting presence on the Latin music scene. Before the year's end, another live album, Barrio Fino en Directo, hit the shelves.

He has appeared on over 70 albums, with collections such as; Mas Flow 2 and Blin Blin Vol. 1. He performed with Nicky Jam from the late-90's to early 2000's and has also performed with Luny Tunes, DJ Blass, DJ Eric, Eliel, Nas, DJ Tony Touch, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, Snoop Dogg, Fergie, and many others.

Daddy released his new album entitled El Cartel: The Big Boss in 2007. Ayala has stated that his new album marks his comeback to Hip-Hop.

In 2004, Ayala was casted in a Paramount Pictures film, Talento de Barrio (Barrio talent). According to Ayala the movie is a representation of the lives of him and others living on the streets of Latin America.

In 2006, Ayala launched his own clothing line, named DY. He also collaborated with Reebok inorder to have his own merchandise. Ayala also hosts Daddy Yankee On Fuego, a syndicated radio show from ABC Radio Networks.Ayala, with Andres Hernandez, is one of the owners of El Cartel Records.

Ayala created the Fundacion Corazon Guerrero charitable organization in Puerto Rico, which works with young imprisoned people. The foundation helps troubled youth and ex-convicts in computer skills to encourage them to lead a positive lifestyle after their release.

As the urban regional style of Latin music heated up in the mid-2000s, spearheaded by the burgeoning reggaeton sound, Daddy Yankee sold millions of CDs in the wake of his international breakthrough hit, Gasolina. The reggaeton star enjoyed success not only throughout Latin America but also in the profitable markets of the United States and Europe, and alongwith fellow urban regional figureheads Don Omar, Tego Calderon, Akwid, Vico-C, El General, and Ivy Queen, even such highbrow media outlets as The New York Times and the BBC took note (the former crowning Barrio Fino as one of the best hip-hop albums of 2004), not to mention industry publications like Billboard, which tracked the exploding urban regional market with fervor.