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Daddy Yankee
"El Cartel: The Big Boss" (El Cartel/Interscope)
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It's been three years since Daddy Yankee's turbo-charged "Gasolina" roared to the top of the charts and signaled the mainstream arrival of reggaeton, the down-and-dirty Latino rap style cultivated in the urban barrios of Puerto Rico. The revved-up single triggered predictions of a hip-hop crossover and a new Latin music craze.
But the craze never came and the race for a crossover has since been canceled.
Now, Yankee returns with his first full studio album (in stores today) since the charismatic and disciplined rapper was crowned most likely to lead that elusive crossover bid. The Big Boss has thrust his engines in reverse and signaled the genre's new direction: A reggaeton retrenchment.
But not a retreat.
Like a good politician in shaky times, Yankee is playing to his base with 21 tracks that mostly stick to reggaeton's irresistibly bouncy rhythms and chest-thumping themes: sex, partying, nationalism, barrio loyalty and, as the title suggests, brash bragging about who's the best.
The new work gains a little hip-hop/R&B luster with the help of non-reggaeton collaborators such as will.i.am from Black Eyed Peas, Nicole Scherzinger from the Pussycat Dolls and Fergie, who's featured on the first single, "Impacto," produced by Canadian hitmeister Scott Storch.
Yet with the...