By principally any metric, Unhealthy Bunny is among the greatest pop stars on the planet. But as he’s launched the most-streamed album on Spotify (2022’s Un Verano Sin Ti) and bought out live shows across the globe, the Puerto Rican rapper, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, has all the time put his island first. This homegrown, “sobre Puerto Rico para Puerto Rico” ethos has by no means been extra obvious than on his newly launched seventh file, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, a dense and sprawling tome about Puerto Rico’s musical and cultural historical past.
On a file that’s wholly concerning the island’s neocolonization by the hands of turistas, the ideological centerpiece is “Lo que le pasó a Hawaii,” a sparse, moody warning concerning the fast gringo-ification of Puerto Rico. Over a stripped-back instrumental stuffed with sounds you’d hear strolling down cobblestone streets in San Juan—güiros and guitars—Unhealthy Bunny speaks slowly and with a measured intimacy. “Que no quiero que hagan contigo lo que le pasó a Hawái” (“I don’t need them to do to you what they did to Hawaii”), he cautions, drawing connections between the present plight of the Puerto Rican folks and the best way Hawaiian statehood has threatened native tradition. At occasions his vocals reduce off mid-phrase for dramatic impact, simulating {the electrical} blackouts the island often experiences.
On Un Verano Sin Ti’s “El Apagón,” Unhealthy Bunny sang the praises of PR, extolling the island’s seashores, folks, and tradition. “Lo que le pasó a Hawaii” is the brooding yin to the older track’s boisterous yang: Right here, he reckons with what occurs after the holiday ends, the solar goes again behind the clouds, and the guests return to their dwelling nations with a coqui figurine and a sunburn. It’s a track full of a simmering, generational anxiousness not often seen from the reggaetonero, transferring past hometown delight and into radical music.
