ENTITY · PERSON (ARTIST, SELECTOR, PRODUCER…)

Daddy Yankee

Well supported

Ramón Ayala, the San Juan artist who took reggaeton from cassette underground to global chart music, and the named lead defendant in Steely & Clevie's copyright suit. He came up on DJ Playero's tapes in the early 1990s; "Gasolina" (2004) is the record that opened the format worldwide. The suit's argument, in short, is that the rhythm he built that career on was made in Kingston in 1989.

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At a glance

Type: Person (artist, selector, producer…) →
Era: Streaming and the living archive →
Confidence: Well supported
Sources: Billboard; Rolling Stone; Stereogum, on the Steely & Clevie v. Ramón Ayala litigation.

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Footage

Daddy Yankee — "Gasolina" (Video Oficial)

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · performs

Rights-holder upload, on Daddy Yankee's own channel. The record that took the rhythm worldwide, and one of those named in the complaint.

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Luis Fonsi — "Despacito" ft. Daddy Yankee

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · features

Rights-holder upload (LuisFonsiVEVO). Sixteen weeks at number one, and for a time the most-watched video on YouTube -- thirty-eight years downstream of a Kingston rhythm track.

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In stories

Story · Well supportedWho owns the riddim?

A rhythm built in a Kingston studio in 1989 travelled to Panama, through New York, into San Juan, and became the pulse of the biggest Spanish-language pop music on earth. A Los Angeles court is now preparing to put the question of who owns it to a jury.