The diss monitor is ubiquitous in music, and it’s an particularly widespread fixture in reggaeton. The style, which flourished in Puerto Rico’s underground within the Nineties, drew closely on hip hop and dancehall, two genres by which feuds between artists and crews erupt frequently. In reggaeton, these influences, together with the realities of organized crime lurking across the trade, gave rise to the tiraera (name it “tiradera” at your personal threat). A slang time period for diss tracks, tiraeras turned nearly like a ceremony of passage for artists who wished to show themselves to followers and exhibit their avenue cred to maximise their rising fame.
As reggaeton gained momentum within the early aughts, new tiraera songs turned as extremely anticipated as skilled wrestling matches. Followers would wait excitedly to listen to artists like Arcángel and Franco El Gorila battling it out lyrically; select sides at any time when pioneers Eddie Dee, Julio Voltio, and Tego Calderón bought into it with rappers Lito & Polaco; and hear as friends-turned-enemies Don Omar and Héctor El Father launched barbs at one another over the airwaves. However it’s the bellicose rapper Tempo who may maintain the title because the undisputed tiraera heavyweight, having traded vocal blows with lots of Puerto Rico’s main artists and leaving basic takedown tracks like “Conozcan Otra Parte de Mí” in his legendary wake.
Tiraeras, like most issues within the digital age, have continued to evolve at this time, with some diehard followers lamenting that the music has misplaced the hard-hitting ferociousness that characterised its early days. Lately, artists like Anuel AA introduced again some old skool vitality with notorious tiraeras launched on the rapper Cosculluela. The ever-aggressive Residente (extra on him later) has often taken intention at friends and even authorities and legislation enforcement figures. Probably the most unlikely artists have been swept up within the second, too: After bickering on-line, Jhayco and Rauw Alejandro channeled their hostility into back-to-back songs and even a music video final 12 months, going at one another and barely holding again.
Social media has introduced a brand new dimension to those battles, and 2022 confirmed us simply how private they will get. This 12 months, when spats between artists like Daddy Yankee and Don Omar exploded, they mirrored decades-long tensions which have simmered between a number of the greatest names within the style. As reggaeton has grown and develop into a world phenomenon, the industrial methods and ambitions of some artists have additionally led to irritations and provocations, like when Residente went after J Balvin and made enjoyable of the simply consumed, pop-oriented fashion of music he’s used to take over the charts. Different feuds replicate the uglier sides of the trade, together with the rampant homophobia and transphobia that Cosculluela’s assault on Villano Antillano and Tokischa dropped at the forefront a number of months in the past.
Regardless of the spectacle of all of it, the one factor that by no means modifications is the gripping vitality of those feuds after they go public. Beneath are a number of the greatest blow-ups of 2022 that may be finest expressed by Héctor & Tito in a now-classic tiraera: “Si quieres la guerra, pues voy” (“If you would like conflict, let’s go.”)
Residente vs. J Balvin
J Balvin and Residente’s skilled relationship has been contentious, to say the least. In an interview with Rolling Stone en Español, Residente revealed that the primary time they ever met, Balvin mocked him for not having larger Spotify hits, immediately sparking animosity. Tensions boiled over in 2021, when J Balvin spoke out after the Latin Grammys that November, implying that his music — and reggaeton on the whole — had been ignored by the Latin Recording Academy. He advised reggaeton artists boycott the awards ceremony, however woefully miscalculated how a lot help he’d obtain. Residente fired again and referred to Balvin as a hypocrite, then in contrast his expertise to low-cost avenue meals. (“Your music is sort of a sizzling canine cart… lots of people like them, however after they need to eat effectively they go to a restaurant,” he stated in a scathing Instagram video).
After the 2 of them went back-and-forth for some time, issues appeared to lastly settle down – till this March, when Residente hopped on Bizarrap’s freestyle present and unloaded about Balvin for eight minutes straight. No matter armistice had existed up till then was over. Residente mocked Balvin for making kids’s film soundtracks, lambasted him for issuing a half-hearted assertion after protests broke out in his native Colombia, and even insinuated that he’d exploited his personal psychological well being struggles to advertise a documentary launched on Amazon Prime.
However Residente’s most cutthroat line got here when he used Balvin’s personal phrases towards him and known as him a racist: He introduced up a 2021 interview Balvin did by which he claimed that he lastly felt represented by reggaeton when he noticed Daddy Yankee, who he perceived as white (Daddy Yankee’s father is Black.) To many, the remark mirrored the broader whitewashing of the style, and confirmed how Balvin had capitalized on that erasure to develop into a star. Residente took that chance to teach Balvin, in no unsure phrases, about how Black Latinos have a steeper hill to climb within the more and more white style, naming Black artists akin to Myke Towers, ChocQuibTown, Sech, Don Omar, and his shut buddy Tego Calderón in solidarity. It was a nuclear missive that successfully deaded the rivalry; J Balvin’s solely response was a tweet that stated “amor y cariño” (“love and affection”).
Don Omar vs. Raphy Pina and Daddy Yankee
Don Omar, the “King,” and Daddy Yankee, the “Massive Boss,” have had a rivalry that stretches again to considered one of reggaeton’s peak within the 2000s, after they have been each reigning stars. The particular causes their feud started isn’t precisely recognized and causes appear to range wildly, however some have speculated it has to do with behind-the-scenes pettiness that intensified over competing alternatives and options on songs. Nonetheless, most modern friends and followers agree that the animus principally needed to do with clashing egos.
Daddy Yankee and Don Omar put their variations apart lengthy sufficient to report some well-received collabs over the past a number of years and even launched a joint tour collectively in 2016. Nonetheless, their conficts surfaced once more when Don Omar sat down for a bombshell interview with El Chombo in October. Don Omar let all of it out: He accused Daddy Yankee’s shut affiliate, the music supervisor Raphy Pina, of working with Daddy Yankee’s staff to undermine his a part of the 2016 tour. In line with Don Omar, his sound tools was disconnected beneath suspicious circumstances simply earlier than he went onstage after Daddy Yankee at a tour cease in Las Vegas. He maintains it was onstage sabotage that Daddy Yankee had a task in, and it spurred him to drop out of the tour. He additionally accused Pina and Daddy Yankee of shopping for off newspapers to favorably overview Daddy Yankee’s a part of the present.
Pina, who’s at the moment serving a three-year jail time period, and Daddy Yankee, who’s winding down his retirement tour, each pushed again. Pina’s staff printed a video on YouTube by which Pina spoke up from jail and shot down the allegations, saying Don Omar solely had himself in charge if he felt the tour didn’t go effectively. “You didn’t rehearse your present. You didn’t put together your self like the opposite man did,” he stated. Yankee determined to take a web page out of Don Omar’s ebook and did his personal radio look, showing on the Dominican music program Alofoke RadioShow to share his facet. In line with him, Don Omar stop on his personal volition as a result of he couldn’t deal with the truth that individuals have been extra smitten by Yankee’s performances than his in the course of the tour. Whereas their frustrations might need made it into the music prior to now, the squabble displays how as of late, accusations are made in an interview chair as a substitute of inside a recording sales space.
Villano Antillano vs. Omy de Oro and Cosculluela
Reggaeton has made some strides towards inclusivity, with extra queer artists taking the mic and making house within the style. Nonetheless, there are nonetheless struggles combating homophobia and transphobia. We noticed this earlier within the 12 months, after Villano Antillano and Tokischa made out with one another and a number of other viewers members throughout a liberated present at a San Juan nightclub. Each artists have been vocal about their queer id: Villano has been a public trans determine who’s advocated for her group, whereas Tokischa is keen on breaking taboos in her songs. The rapper Omy de Oro instantly reacted with scorn, importing an Instagram story expressing how important he was of the 2 artists and stated he couldn’t get behind their efficiency. (“Followers and artists that help this may unfollow me,” he wrote.) Cosculluela, a rap veteran who has spent over a decade singing about drug offers and violent assaults towards his rivals, stood with Omy, accusing Tokischa and Villano of setting a “unhealthy instance” for younger listeners whereas additionally utilizing a Puerto Rican homosexual slur to explain them.
His feedback have been ridiculous, they usually have been met with the suitable quantity of anger. Villano spoke out fiercely, tweeting that she didn’t want his help or permission to reside her life on her personal phrases. She additionally took a while to teach individuals concerning the realities of being a trans artist in a traditionally misogynistic style: She identified the variety of loss of life threats she obtained as soon as Cosculluela started ranting about her sexuality. In a video shortly after, the rising star — whose album La Sustancia X was amongst this 12 months’s finest data — stated she was prepared to maneuver on from irrelevant, attention-seeking artists (“It was about lesbians, babe! Y’all weren’t even invited to start with,” she stated.) Followers and different artists quickly started rallying round her, illustrating how sick and drained many individuals of coping with homophobic tirades and close-minded crybabies — a hopeful signal that the style is evolving.
Residente vs. Cosculluela
Residente and Cosculluela have by no means appeared to love one another, however their animosity had by no means gone past a number of catty feedback and lightweight jabs (like when Residente threw mild shade at Coscu on the music “Adentro” from Calle 13’s 2014 album Multi_Viral.) All that modified when Residente publicly backed Tokischa and Villano Antillano after Omy de Oro and Cosculluela determined to focus on them with homophobic feedback. Residente confirmed what facet he was on by taking a cheeky selfie with Tokischa by which they each seem licking a photograph of Villano Antillano.
In late August, Cosculluela hit again with “#RenéRenuncia”, a six-minute rap blasting the previous Calle 13 frontman and including some pointless transphobia in there to take issues even additional. Two days later Resident replied along with his personal monitor, “Cosquillita,” by which he known as Cosculluela out for a bunch of issues, together with his avenue posturing regardless of coming from an upper-class privileged background. (In a funnier flip, he additionally mocked his questionable haircut.) He made positive to offer followers the form of insider tea they reside for, revealing that Cosculluela allegedly apologized to him after Residente confronted him in particular person some time again, a transfer meant to emasculate and take energy away from the bravado Cosculluela initiatives in his songs. Collectively, the 2 tracks amassed 22 million performs on YouTube, proving that at the same time as time passes and context modifications, followers will nonetheless present up for a great old school dust-up between two seasoned lyricists.