It’s almost midnight and Jesús Antonio Dominguez Collazo tells Remezcla he is off to hanguear. He takes a pause. “De donde tú eres? You know what that means right?!” he asks. Shootter Ledo is on his way to celebrate the remix of his single “Subimos de Rango” with Omy De Oro, featuring Bad Bunny. Fresh out of an eight hour security guard shift, the 26-year-old expresses how grateful he is to the other Vega Baja native for hopping on the track. “What that man did, no one does… The most popular artist in the world did a remix to someone else’s first song. And he didn’t even know me…. no tiene nombre lo que él hizo.”
Bad Bunny is a trapero and a puertorriqueno first and foremost, and his latest one-off projects are a reminder to listeners that he’s hyper-cognizant and proud of that amidst the rise. Similarly to his track with Eladio Carrion, the artist shows he doesn’t take himself too seriously here, and is all but selfish in sharing his success — particularly when it comes to emerging talent from home. La Paciencia, friend and producer on a good batch of his work, played a key role in making this track happen. Shootter admits he had not even put the thought out into the world when he got the call. It was early Fall of 2018, a mutual friend had played the track for Benito in a hotel room, and the “Callaita” singer had it on loop ever since. “Diablo, duro,” Dominguez recalls thinking. Next thing you know, he gets another call that the already thriving Conejo Malo had written a verse to coincide with it.
Perhaps nervous and aghast, Dominguez ran his lines at the studio pop-up they’d set up at a hotel in PR, only to be called back in to give it another whirl the following morning. Bad Bunny felt he was forcing it, and wanted him to try again. Ledo whipped up a couple of new lines during his overnight shift, and took on the challenge in stride. The overall result is a buttered, smooth-flowing, cocksure ode to the climb.
Shootter Ledo, Omy de Oro, and YonDellinger’s original version was released on Soundcloud a little over a year ago. The idea, hardly overthought, spewed from a night of messing around at the studio. Dominguez started dedicating himself more fully to music on his off hours about two years ago after graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in biology. Unbeknownst to him at the time, music is his true passion and a number of well-received experimental freestyles encouraged him to make it official with a Soundcloud account.
Bad Bunny, once a hopeful risk-taker on that platform himself, freely reflects on the present here rapping “Si quiero, me retiro feliz y contento.” Then, in perhaps tongue-in-cheek references to Tekashi 6ix9ine and others, he sings “¿Qué es lo que yo hago que hace que te ofendas? No abuso de menores ni robo la ofrenda” to invisible haters on the sidelines. “Me muero y me hacen un monumento, estoy en mi momento,” Benito sings humble as ever. Luckily for him, Omy and Shootter already set the blueprint for his statue on the track’s cover art.
Dominguez is working a 2 – 10 p.m. shift the following day, and hangs up to get a little bit of well-deserved turn up in before the clock strikes 12. “I’m going to see what fruits this [single] brings,” he says thinking about what’s next. “I’m going to see who sticks, who wants to collaborate. Pero, yo estoy puesto pa’ zumbar canciones… and get to where I need to get to.” In the lawless land of La Nueva Religion, anything is possible.
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