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Reggaeton and Latin trap artist Arcángel has a trademark cool yet expressive tenor singing voice, which contrasts with a certain melodic sweetness and gritty lyrics in Spanish and English. As a rapper, his smooth, slow delivery is grainy and expressive. Before going solo, he established his identity as a member of the duo Arcángel y De la Ghetto during the mid-2000s. Their hits, including "Agresivo" and "El Pistolón," established his reputation sufficiently to warrant a solo career. Arcángel is as well-known a collaborator as he is a solo artist, and among the most ubiquitous guests on reggaeton and Latin trap recordings. That said, his own recordings, including 2008's Top 100 entry El Fenómeno, are also successful. 2013's Sentimiento, Eleganza, & Maldad (SEM) was certified gold in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Two years later, the official release of his Los Favoritos mixtape with DJ Luian topped the Latin Album charts and was also certified gold. 2018's Ares delivered the hit "Original" (feat. Bad Bunny) on its way to a Top Five finish, while 2019 saw the release of no less than a dozen singles including the streaming hit "Traficante" (feat. King Goyi). Over the next few years, he built on his previous established platform with releases like Los Favoritos 2 (2020), Sr. Santos (2022), Sentimiento, Elegancia y Más Maldad (2023), and Papi Arca (2024).

Born Austin Santos on December 23, 1986, in New York City, Arcángel established himself in tandem with De la Ghetto and the song "Ven y Pegate" on the popular Hector el Father-hosted compilation album Sangre Nueva. Throughout 2005 and 2006, Arcángel y De la Ghetto were featured on a variety of reggaeton albums, including Luny Tunes' Mas Flow: Los Benjamins, and were associated with Baby Records, Zion's (of the duo Zion & Lennox) label. Arcángel announced that he was embarking on a solo career and starting a label of his own in December 2006.

Arcángel's solo releases began appearing sporadically. While "Chica Virtual," his guest feature on DJ Nelson's Flow la Discoteka, Vol. 2 (2007), was a minor hit, his full-length solo debut, La Maravilla, went unreleased after it was leaked to the internet in 2008. At the end of the year, Arcángel was able to release El Fenómeno. It was produced by some of reggaeton's top beatmakers including Luny Tunes, Mambo Kingz, Tainy, and Noriega. The album featured mostly new material, though it also included a handful of songs originally planned for La Maravilla. The lead single for El Fenómeno, "Por Amar a Ciegas," peaked inside the Top 40 at Latin Airplay and drove the album into the Top 20 on the Latin Albums chart. He also enlisted his mother to manage him and founded his own production company.

Despite the chart success, Arcángel didn't rush another recording. Instead, he toured Europe and released the mixtape The Problem Child in the spring of 2010. Upon his return from the road, he released a second mixtape, Optimus A.R.C.A., and began assembling tracks for a proper follow-up album. He also contributed a pair of tunes to the popular El Imperio Nazza compilation series.

Sophomore long-player Sentimiento, Elegancia y Maldad didn't appear until three years later. Its first single, "Hace Mucho Tiempo" (feat. Daddy Yankee and Baby Johnny), did well at radio and streaming before peaking at 13 on the Tropical Songs chart. The album, however, managed to hit the top spot on the Latin Albums chart. Over the next 18 months, Arcángel spent the majority of his time collaborating with and contributing to recordings by others, including a prestigious appearance on Maluma's smash hit Pretty Boy, Dirty Boy.

The notion of collaboration -- so important in reggaeton -- became the motivating factor behind 2015's now-classic mixtape, Los Favoritos. Enlisting DJ Luian as a co-billed conspirator, Arcángel set about recording tracks with his favorite genre artists from two generations, including J Balvin, Maluma, Nicky Jam, Ñejo Flow, Farruko, J Alvarez, and Wisin; there were 20 in all. The single "Tu Cuerpo Me Hace Bien" landed inside the Top Ten on the Latin Rhythm chart and topped the Tropical Songs list. The full-length spent 13 weeks in the Latin Top 40. Over the next three years, Arcángel focused his attention on frontloading singles and videos, among them, "Cula en la Clara" (featuring Tali), "Zum Zum," and "Original" (feat. Bad Bunny). They all charted. In 2018, he dropped the full-length Ares, which all but abandoned reggaeton and dembow rhythms in favor of trap beats and Latin pop. The set entered the Latin Albums chart at number five. In 2019, Arcángel released his next studio set, the deeply personal Historias de un Capricornio; it featured appearances from Bad Bunny and Ozuna, among others.

Over the next year, Arcángel issued a dozen singles and videos, including the charting remixes of "Sigues con El," (feat. Sech and Romeo Santos) and "Wow" (feat. Bryant Myers, Nicky Jam, Darrell, and El Alfa). Arcángel also revisited the mixtape concept explored on 2015's platinum-selling Los Favoritos with DJ Luian. Titled Los Favoritos 2, its 18 tracks included some 25 collaborations with male artists who included Rauw Alejandro, Ozuna, Wisin & Yandel, Maluma, and Farruko. There were only two solo appearances from Arcángel on the set: The opener "Payaso" and the title track "El Favorito." Issued in late October, Los Favoritos 2, debuted at the top of several charts, including Latin Albums. Pleased with the success of the formula, he kept the project going in 2021 with Los Favoritos 2.5, another guest-heavy project with nearly as many tracks as the previous volume. Among Arcángel's numerous 2022 singles were "JS4E" and the Bad Bunny-assisted hit "La Jumpa," both of which anchored his next album, Sr. Santos, released that December. A typically lengthy set, it featured guests like Myke Towers, Eladio Carrion, and YOVNGCHIMI and made a strong mainstream showing on the U.S. pop charts at number 37. 2023 was another prolific year for Arcángel. He released numerous tracks including "Kame Hame," the Jay Wheeler collaboration "TRAPPii," and "La Chamba" with Peso Pluma, the latter of which heralded his 2023 full-length, Sentimiento, Elegancia y Más Maldad. Anchored by other guest spots from Grupo Frontera, Quevedo, and Rauw Alejandro, the album cracked the top 10 of the Latin charts. A surprise EP, Papi Arca, arrived in December 2024 and featured the single "BFF" with Eladio Carrion. ~ Jason Birchmeier & Thom Jurek

Bad Bunny is a prolific Puerto Rican singer, rapper, and producer based in San Juan who has become a dominant voice in Latin trap and a general trendsetter for música urbana. In addition to placing dozens of singles on charts ranging from Latin pop and reggaeton to dance and hip-hop lists, he has also notched a succession of chart-topping albums including his 2018 debut x100pre and a pair of 2020 albums, YHLQMDLG and El Último Tour Del Mundo. Bad Bunny's sweeping commercial appeal lies in his chameleon-like approach, melding Latin soul, pop, and R&B, hard-hitting trap beats, and reggaeton with a slippery delivery that ranges from humor and pathos to heartbreak and anger. He is also one of the top collaborators in the música urbana movement, working regularly with contemporaries like J Balvin, Daddy Yankee, Rosalía, and Jhay Cortez. After releasing 2022's Grammy-winning Un Verano Sin Ti, Bad Bunny notched his fifth consecutive number one album with 2023's Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana.

Born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio in 1994, he began singing at five and always took it seriously. His biggest influences were Héctor Lavoe, Vico C, Daddy Yankee, and Marc Anthony. He studied audiovisual communication at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo and worked as a bagger at a grocery store while making his own music by night and posting it to SoundCloud. In particular, Bad Bunny's song "Diles" caught the ear of DJ Luian, who signed him to his Hear This Music label in 2016. His breakthrough single, "Soy Peor," issued in December of 2016, peaked at 22 on the Hot Latin Songs chart, and established his trap-heavy sound with the masses. Its video rang up more than 650 million views. Appearances with Ñengo Flow, Arcangel, and Ozuna soon followed, and in early 2017 he kicked off an especially prolific run with the singles "Pa Ti," "Loco Pero Millonario," and "Dime Si Vas a Volver," amid numerous collaborative tracks with Poeta Callejero, Farruko, Brytiago, Almighty, and others. In late 2017, Bunny, J Balvin, and Prince Royce scored a hit with the collaboration "Sensualidad." The singles kept coming in 2018 as he notched another Latin hit with the solo track "Amorfoda" and collaborated again with J Balvin and American rapper Cardi B on her single "I Like It," which topped Billboard's Hot 100 in the summer of that year. On Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) of 2018, the most important day in the LatinX year, Bad Bunny issued his debut long-player, x100pre, to universal acclaim. The set was co-produced by reggaeton legend Tainy and La Paciencia (Roberto Rosado), with the exception of the club jam "200 MPH," which was helmed by Diplo. Its songs ranged from the pop-punk of "Tenemos Que Hablar" to reggaeton ballads including "Solo de Mí" and "Si Estuviésemos Juntos" to tense hip-hop on "Caro." It entered the Top Latin Albums chart at number one in early 2019, and in January peaked at number 12 on the Top 200.

In June, Oasis, the long-teased full-length collaboration between Bad Bunny and J Balvin, arrived. Utilizing a cast of producers who included Sky, Tainy, Legendury Beatz, Marciano Cantero, and Nicael Arroyo, the album peaked at number nine on the Top 200. At that year's Latin Grammys, Bad Bunny took home the award for x100pre as Best Urban Album. He surprised fans once more with the unexpected release of his sophomore full-length YHLQMDLG ("Yo hago lo que me da la gana": "I do whatever I want") at the end of February in 2020. Alternately produced by Subelo NEO and Tainy, the set featured collaborations with Daddy Yankee, Yaviah, Ñengo Flow, Anuel AA, and Jowell y Randy. It entered the Top 200 at number two, becoming the debut appearance of an album by a Latin artist. It also hit the top spot at Top Latin Albums. Issued on cassette and digitally, the first pressing of the former sold out in two days. Later that year Bunny issued his first compilation, Las Que No Iban a Salir. Comprised of unreleased tracks from the x100pre and YHLQMDLG sessions, as well as new cuts including the single "En Casita," the collection included appearances by Zion & Lennox, Yandel, Don Omar, Nicky Jam, and Jhay Cortez.

On Black Friday, Bad Bunny continued his habit of issuing albums without prior announcement. El Último Tour del Mundo, with its garish, semi-truck cover photo, offered a side of the urbano we hadn't seen before. In addition to trap and reggaeton, Bunny's songs acknowledged his love of indie rock with production and musical nods to the Cure, Radiohead, and the Police. The Tainy-produced "La Noche de Anoche," featuring Rosalía, was, uncharacteristically, one of only three collaborations on the album. The others included "Sorry Papi" (featuring Abra, it was also produced by Tainy) and "Dákiti," featuring Jhay Cortez. Two weeks after its release, the Grammy-nominated set peaked in the number one spot on the Top 200. Through 2021, Bunny issued a string of singles, including high-charting remixes of Mora's "Volando" and Nio Garcia's "AM," a collaboration with the long-retired Aventura ("Volví"), and the heartbreak hit "Yonaguni," which peaked at number three on the Top 200. His next full-length came with 2022's Un Verano Sin Ti, a sprawling 23-track set focused on the titular theme of summer. The album, influenced by Caribbean and South American rhythms, offered slices of reggaeton, pop, and trap, as well as unlikely collaborations with the likes of the Marías, Bomba Estéreo, and Tony Dize. Headed up by the sexually charged "Moscow Mule," it debuted at number one on the Billboard albums chart and went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Musica Urbana Album. In May 2023, he hit the top 10 of the Hot 100 and Hot Latin Songs charts with "Where She Goes." He also joined Travis Scott and the Weeknd on the song "K-Pop," then kicked off his next album cycle with "Un Preview." Like Bunny's previous set, Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana was lengthy and diverse, with 22 tracks that wound through Latin trap, Jersey club, drill, and points in between. It yielded the charting hit "Monaco" and the album itself topped Billboard's pop and Latin charts. In April 2024, he and Myke Towers released "Adivino," which he followed later that year with solo singles, "Una Velita," "El Clúb," and "Pitorro de Coco." In January 2025, he returned to Puerto Rico on sixth studio album Debí Tirar Más Fotos, a cosmopolitan set that celebrated his homeland's culture and warned against its exploitation. ~ Timothy Monger