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Bad Bunny discusses his successful music career in a new interview with W Magazine.
The 27-year-old Grammy Award-winning superstar appears in the publication’s Volume 3 The Music Issue, on stands May 18, and talks about his creative process and the power that comes with breaking boundaries.
When asked if singing and speaking in Spanish was a political choice, Bad Bunny, real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, responds, “I’m simply being myself. I think we’ve already proven that music is a universal language. You have people from all parts of the world singing songs in Spanish. We don’t have to sing in English anymore to cross over.”
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Talking about his various writing processes, the Puerto Rican musician continues, “I have, like, a mechanical process that I call mecánico, and it’s the one that I like the least.
“And then there is the real process, the one with the muse, with the creativity, that comes on suddenly, when you weren’t expecting it. Your subconscious is talking to you about what you are feeling without you knowing, and it comes out, a lot of times, when I’m alone at night.
“I write sad songs at night. Happy songs I write during the day, after working out, after a fun day. And so I can adapt a lot when it’s time to write, but that’s the process I like the most—the one where, when I feel it, it comes out naturally in the moment, without even knowing where the lyrics are coming from. But they come.”
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Teasing the character he plays in the upcoming film “Bullet Train” alongside Brad Pitt, Ocasio shares: “It’s about a boy who lost his family at a very young age. He dedicated his life to the streets, to be a murderer. So, an aggressive guy who has suffered a lot.”
Recalling the kind of music he listened to growing up and how it inspires his music now, Bad Bunny says: “My father would usually listen to tropical music, a lot of salsa.
“My mom liked merengue and balada a lot. At my grandfather’s house, I would listen to old man’s music, like bolero, bohemia. With my friends, I would listen to a lot of reggaeton.
“Some would listen to rock. I have musician family members, musician friends. And so I grew up around a lot of musical preferences. Obviously, I always identified more with reggaeton, because it was popular music in my country and from my childhood and my generation. That has always been the foundation. But it’s not like I am just there. I have a lot of rhythms in my head.”