Puerto Rican reggaetonero Farruko celebrates his 30th anniversary this Sunday as one of the main artists of the Latin urban movement with a decade as a singer in which he has also stood out as an interpreter of ballads.
A native of Bayamón, a municipality adjacent to San Juan, Carlos Efrén Reyes Rosado, Farruko’s given name, grew up listening to Puerto Rican artists outside the urban field, such as José Feliciano, and some of his favorite reggaetoneros at the time.
And although his family did not agree with him becoming a singer, as he revealed to Efe in an interview in 2010, Farruko always had ‘the determination and desire’ to achieve his dream of being an artist.
It was then, in June of that same year, Farruko released his debut album, ‘El talento del bloque’, which featured collaborations with Feliciano, and reggaeton artists Cosculluela, Arcángel, among others.
Farruko, likewise, kept looking for more opportunities, and so, in 2011 he was invited to participate in the song ‘Llegamos a la disco’, along with Daddy Yankee, Baby Rasta y Gringo, De La Ghetto, Ñengo Flow, Arcángel, Kendo Kaponi and Alek Kyza.
Second album earned him his first Grammy nomination.
Refining his style, in May 2012, Farruko released his second album, ‘The Most Powerful Rookie’, which earned him his first Latin Grammy nomination for Best Urban Music Album.
At the time, Farruko assured Efe that the album would make him stand out among the other new exponents of the urban genre at the time.
Continuing to focus on music and after his second album, Farruko released in October 2013 together with Colombian J Balvin the single ‘6 AM’, which gave the Puerto Rican his second Latin Grammy nomination for Best Urban Song.
That nomination gave Farruko a boost to continue reaping triumphs.
Thus, in November 2014, the young artist released his third production ‘Farruko Presents Los Menores’, an album loaded with collaborations with J Balvin, Arcángel, De La Ghetto, Ñengo Flow, Nicky Jam, the duo of Zion and Lennox, among others.
This album also earned Farruko his third Latin Grammy nomination for Best Urban Album.
His physical image changes
And just as Farruko’s musical tastes in his songs, such as Jamaican reggae, his image also changed to that of a more mature young adult, revealing a beard on his face.
Farruko’s desire to continue conquering success and become one of the main urban artists led him to release another album in 2015, ‘Visionary’.
For this album, Farruko’s voice was more husky than usual and he moved away from including Latin artists of the urban genre as he had done in other albums.
An example of this was the track ‘Sunset’, in which Jamaican Shaggy and veteran reguetonero Nicky Jam collaborated.
Farruko also propelled the Latin trap genre
Some time later, a new musical genre began to reign in the music industry: trap, a rhythm that emerged in the United States.
Thus, Farruko proposed for his next album, ‘TrapXficante’, to include a range of new Latin urban artists who were then dominating the charts with their trap tracks, such as Bad Bunny, Anuel AA, Darell and Fetty Wap.
Together with Bad Bunny, currently considered the top Latin artist in the world, he recorded the song ‘Krippy Kush’, while with Anuel he did the same in ‘Oscuridad’.
Stumbling upon justice
However, in the midst of his career peak, Farruko had a stumble with Justice, when on April 2, 2018, he was detained by federal authorities in Puerto Rico, when upon arriving on the island on a flight from the Dominican Republic, he failed to report that he was carrying $51,802 in cash.
Subsequently, in June of that same year, Farruko was sentenced to three years probation, after being charged for failing to declare the amount of cash to customs at the San Juan airport.
Farruko propels Pedro Capó to success
Despite the situation, Farruko continued working and reaping success, such as his great collaboration in the remix of his compatriot Pedro Capó’s song ‘Calma’, which has brought him his greatest triumph, at the moment, by placing at the top of the charts and winning international awards.
Taking advantage of this boom, Farruko released in 2019 his new album, ‘Gangalee’, which included the ‘remix’ of Calma with Capó and another with Alicia Keys and the track ‘Delincuente’, in which Farruko recalls part of the moment in which he had been arrested the previous year.
However, assuring that he is a great interpreter of any genre, Farruko dared to make ‘En Letra De Otro’, an album in his own style with classic songs that have been big hits, and that in turn, had a positive impact on his life and served as inspiration around his musical career.
Finally, the Puerto Rican artist is working on his next production, ‘167’, an album that he told Efe will present all his facets as a singer of other genres, including salsa.
