We took dancehall and hip-hop and mixed it in the middle. I knew we had something. I thought, 'This sound is Puerto Rican sound.'
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The first Latin music that blew my mind was bumba, which was a Puerto Rican beat.
I grew up dancing salsa - you know, a traditional Puerto Rican dance.
I see dancehall reggae and hip-hop as fused together, When I was a kid, they were the two kinds of music that spoke to me and said 'Move!'
Once I tried to find myself as a musician and a composer, I went back and saw that there was something special about Puerto Rican music. I knew that before, but had never sat down and thought about it. The more I learned about it, the more it found its way into the music I was writing.
I come from a pop background, but I'm also a Puerto Rican and I do feel this music. My approach to salsa is a humble one, and I defy anybody to prove that I'm faking it.
New York had this wild beat that anybody could dance to. It was very nurturing to young people.
New York feels like the whole city is into dance music. That's not how it felt when I was younger. There was more of a hipster scene.
From the beginning, I wanted to make dance music with a human element to it.
You say 'African music' and you think 'tribal drumming.' But there's a lot of African music that's like James Brown, and a lot, too, that sounds very Hispanic.
When I heard Puerto Ricans in New York City, it sounded very strange. And the first time I heard someone from Spain, I thought they had a speech impediment!