Daddy Yankee

As a reggaetón pioneer with three U.S. studio albums (2002's Changri.com, 2003's Los Homerun and Barrio Fino) to his credit, Daddy Yankee is the hottest Latin import since Juanes a couple years back. While Spanish-speaking Puerto Rican MCs such as Vico C, El General and Tego Calderon struggled through the late '90s when they first started mixing rap and hip-hop with salsa and dancehall, today all kinds of American Latinos are buying reggaetón, the Caribbean hybrid that is slowly creeping into the pop charts.

Most of Daddy Yankee's songs are about women, including the ubiquitous smash hit "Gasolina," a song that talks about a girl who loves to party all night long. He claims the hit single is a reflection of his love for clubbing, but he also addresses social concerns in some of his kilometric lyrics. For instance, on "Corazones" ("Hearts") from Barrio Fino, he says, "I'm from the crime capital / And the air smells like death that eats everything that lives / If it was up to me / I would reunite every gang in the name of the fearless people that have fallen / I am a valiant man who's just asking you to stop spilling innocent blood."