Bad Bunny fans started December with a head-scratcher. In his bellowing new hit video for “Chambea,” Puerto Rico’s breakout trap star could be seen shuffling across rooftops in a lightly choreographed routine with Ric Flair, one of the WWE’s most beloved megaphones.
“B-B-B-B-B-B-BAD, BAD BUNNY!” Flair yells to open up the clip, proceeding to drop a string of his new cohort’s catchphrases. “And Hear This Music because it’s the New Religion!” El Conejo Malo and his team look to the sky, overwhelmed by their pride in this moment. “Wheel and deal!” Flair is known for his hip-hop-worthy verbal riffs of joy. “Woo!” Bad Bunny contributes, having practiced his woos to such an extent that they boom out, nearly matching the timbre of Flair’s practiced lungs.
“Ric understands the [Latin trap] movement now,” explains Spiff TV, the person who is responsible for this strategic alliance. Though director Fernando Lugo helmed “Chambea,” Spiff served as its key connector. The Dominican-Puerto Rican Orlando native has been building up to the release of his album The Union since at least 2015, spoiling fans of urbano and hip-hop with a string of singles demonstrating his powers to connect the big boys across language barriers and making the common-sense lateral links that gringo music heads have largely missed. Under Spiff’s watch, Yandel and Future have coupled for reggaeton banger “Mi Combo,” and Spiff has teased collabs between DJ Khaled-Arcángel-T.I., among many others.
Turns out, Spiff also works with pay-per-view champions. Sixty-eight-year-old Flair has been in the pro wrestling ring for over 40 years, starting out as a competitor and eventually moving onto a role as manager for older statesmen. “I met Ric three years ago in Miami while I was doing a segment with the The Rock and Rick Ross,” Spiff explains over email. He later booked Flair for Monday Night Raw. “Currently, we are working on some big things for Ric that you will soon know about.”
Turns out, Bad Bunny is a wrestling ride or die. “I know he likes everyone who was part of the NWO [New World Order],” says Spiff, who himself stans for The Rock, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, and André the Giant (or when he’s feeling more contemporary, his own client Enzo Amore, Finn Bálor, and Bray Watt).
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So Spiff got Flair on the phone. “Ric knows the Latin movement is big through conversations we’ve had,” he says. “I sent him links before the video shoot of who Bad Bunny was and the movement that was going on within Latin music.” Flair is not new to urban music cameos, his vaudevillian braggadocio having figured largely in a 2012 Dom Kennedy track “We Ball,” and of course, Killer Mike’s 2015 anthem “Ric Flair.”
Thus, the allegiance came to pass. Spiff says Flair required no instruction on the coordinated hunchback creep he and Bad Bunny pull off in the “Chambea” video. “Ric is a living legend so no coaching was needed, as he is an entertainer. We just gave him his marks of where to stand for the camera and he did his thing.”
At the end of the day, Spiff says it was all about mutual love between two divergent stars. “[Ric] was just excited to be part of it and help a fan bring his vision for his music to light.”