Well, he is right. I remember laughing at the spanish reggae being played by my Panamanian neighbors way, way, way before reggaeton hit PR & DR. Remember El General? Military uniform, braids, gold chains and gold teeth. He was making a fool outta himself way before anyone else doing Spanish reggae was!

BK… you are right! El General is the pionneer of regaetton and he is Panamanian, I played musical chairs at birthday parties to the rythm of “muevelo, muevelo”!

Also, el chongo with the infamous “el gato volador” (almost became a teenage mother by dancing that s**t as much as I did) are Panamanian too!

As much as I love my Puerto Rican peeps, I think “nigga” (uggh) has a point. I can’t think of any reggaetonero before “El General” particularly Puerto Ricanm maybe I was too young and don’t know. Please enlighten me.

Sounds like sour grapes to me from the aforementioned and unfortunately named reggae-ero. So how exactly was it stolen? Did a Puerto Rican fly to Panama and smuggle it out in the wee hours of the morning like a Navy SEALS mission? Or did a Puerto Rican pickpocket it from a Panamanian visiting NYC? Absurd.
Latin-American music influences each other, it evolves, it is influenced by other genres, etc. The Panama “sound” was cute for about an hour but it had no teeth, no staying power. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on who you ask) Spanish reggae eventually evolved into or influenced Reggaeton.

Panameños with this “they-stole-it” attitude need to move into the 21st century. Yes, you created it, but your version of it was so lame and became a laughing stock. The Puerto Rican/NYC Urban “sound” is a lot tougher and speaks to some (not all) reality of what is going on in the barrios much like the NYC salsa did in the 70s.

Just want to make a comment on this : “The Puerto Rican/NYC Urban “sound” is a lot tougher and speaks to some (not all) reality of what is going on in the barrios…”

errr…. that’s sad because most lyrics go like:

” dale lo que pide y si no se conforma..dale mas,cojela..y akietala”

or

“Mami, yo quiero Agarrarte por el pelo Mientras te tiro mi lenguaje obsceno…”

Do these songs really speak to the reality of the barrios? or does it perpetuate and glorify some bad attitudes (sexism, crime, etc) in el barrio? I don’t want to be all uptight, I like reggaeton’s rythm but as a child of “el barrio” let me tell you that these songs do not reflect the whole picture…

Living in the barrio is more than what these songs try to tell you… its more than tetas and culos (as reflected in the videos), tight jeans, fighting someone and shooting … its sad that this music just concentrates on that “reality.”

@e: Reggaetoneros have a ripped a page out of the Hip-hop book of mysogynistic and banal lyrics/themes and as we know with Hip-hop, sex sells. Smart, creative lyrics that deal with important and relevant barrio subjects are much tougher to come up with. I am pretty sure these Reggaeton “artists” aren’t really interested in taking this music to that level.

If I had to guess, I would say that the lack of hard edge and explicit sexual references was probably one of the reasons Spanish reggae died off in the 90s i.e. too many Gato volador and other similar light-hearted themed songs.

I think the real question here is who is to BLAME for reggaeton? If I was Puerto Rican I’d be glad to let Panama take the rap because whoever did it should be hung from the nearest piñata.

@el voz: Thank you for keeping the discussion focused here.

He’s right. Aren’t most Panamanians descendants of ex Jamaicans left over from the early Canal Days? El General started that. I remember the video.