There’s a lot of music stars at Billboard Latin Music Week 2021, but even among that rarified company, Daddy Yankee is a king. On Wednesday (Sept. 22) in Miami, the reggaeton pioneer and Billboard cover star sat down with Billboard VP/Latin Music Lead Leila Cobo for The Superstar Q+A with Daddy Yankee Presented By Samsung Galaxy.

Yankee touched on a number of topics in the wide-ranging interview, sharing stories from his come-up, reflecting on his role in creating reggaeton and offering career advice for the next generation. He also provided an update on his upcoming album, his first in nearly 10 years.

“I’m still working on it. No pressure. We’re almost at the end,” he said. “When it’s ready, I’ll let you guys know.” In the meantime, lead single “Problema” just sailed past one billion streams, and he’s executive producing a documentary on reggaeton. “That’s where I see me growing – an executive producer of movies, documentaries,” he shared.

From his 2021 Latin Music Week discussion, here are five pieces of career advice from Daddy Yankee.

Talent Is What Matters

Yankee pointed out that two of the biggest songs of his career were collaborations with artists who weren’t on career hot streaks at the time: “Despacito” with Luis Fonsi and “Con Calma” with Snow. “I’m always grateful to Fonsi for making me part of that song. Our friendship is what made that happen,” Yankee recalls. “When I saw Fonsi and the musical impact, I felt happy at what we were able to achieve, and he was able to bring his career back up. It’s a lesson. You don’t have to record with a new talent – you can still create really big things.” Similarly, when “Con Calma” hit, he says, “Nobody was thinking about Snow, but I said, ‘let’s do it.’

“We gotta work with new and established talent. That’s the goal: Just work with talented people. It’s not just recording with hot artists – which is nice and good – but do things that are unpredictable. Two of the biggest hits of my career were with people that were underestimated,” he says. “This is what happens when you underestimate a talent: You give them power.”

Don’t Whine

When asked to give rising artists advice, he asked Cobo, “You want my political answer or my real one? I don’t speak a lot because they tell me, ‘you can’t speak like that,’ but sometimes I want to.” Here’s his no-prisoners take: “The artists that are starting up and are being crybabies, I can’t talk to them. A new artist that is complaining, I leave. With all of the platforms now – we started with none of this – you starting now and you’re complaining? You’re a loser. You have so many things to connect to your public. You have to work.”

Don’t Worry About Relevance

“Music doesn’t have age. It’s infinite. That’s my philosophy,” he says. “There are legends that continue to make music for the love of it. I focus on enjoying the journey and the process. I don’t have a formula. We make the beat, the rhythm, and from there we continue.” And if it doesn’t land, there’s always next time: “If they like it, great. If not, we’ll work harder for the next one.”

Learn the Process

After having doors slammed in his face early on, he learned how to take the production and distribution of his music into his own hands, asking himself, “It’s part of the business, so how can I learn?” Being in charge of his own career means owning his masters, and that’s made each paycheck that much bigger. “Eventually when I distributed a CD that got into Billboard, I got the check and almost died,” he recalls.

Don’t Listen to the Haters

“A social network has a nice public and audience, but a whole ‘nother group think they have the truth — but they don’t,” Yankee says. “And sometimes they attack an artist.” But he keeps it in perspective, pointing out that if you’re racking up millions of streams but seeing some haters online, just remember that “they’re [in the] minority.”

Billboard Latin Music Week Presented by Samsung Galaxy. For All News, Videos, and Coverage Click Here. This link opens a new window.

Who Are The Top Latin Music Artists on YouTube?

What’s driving the success of Latin music? A range of styles via the Caribbean, South America and Mexico, according to an analysis by YouTube. “There is no single signature sound or single country that serves as the focal point,” says music trends manager Kevin Meenan. Read more.

 

Emerging Latin Music Styles: Six Genres You Should Know

While reggaetón still dominates the global charts, Gen Z artists are now generating hits by putting new spins on traditional music and fusing disparate styles — flamenco pop and urbano with Dominican dembow, for example — to create updated sounds. Read more.

 

A Global Guide To The Latin Music Business

Latin music revenue rose 19% to an estimated $655 million in 2020, according to the RIAA. For those looking to get into the game, here’s a directory of the companies, executives and entrepreneurs in key markets. Read more.

 

The Story Behind Regional Mexican’s Global Growth

A new generation of artists with new sounds like trap corridos is selling out arenas, drawing the attention of collaborators like Bad Bunny and Snoop Dogg, and connecting with listeners around the world. Read more.

 

For more information on Billboard’s “Lean Latin, Go Global” special Deep Dive report, click here.

Investors’ enthusiasm for newly minted Universal Music Group shares spilled over to Warner Music Group on Tuesday (Sept. 21), helping WMG shares climb as much as 13.2% to $45.57 before ending the day at $45 — an 11.8% gain.

Earlier in the day, during trading on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, UMG shares climbed 35.7% — from a conservative 18.50 euros reference price — to 25.10 euros, valuing the world’s largest record label at 45.5 billion euros ($53.4 billion). UMG’s first day as a standalone entity followed a spin-off from Vivendi SA, UMG’s full owner since 2006, as a means to capture the value that was hidden inside the French conglomerate. Upon UMG’s departure, Vivendi’s share price fell 66.7% on Tuesday.

Demand for UMG shares may have helped two more music companies: the share prices of French music distributor Believe SA and U.S. music rights company Reservoir Media increased 3.1% and 11.6%, respectively, on Tuesday.

Investors also appeared hungry enough for UMG to purchase shares of Pershing Square Holdings, which has a 10% stake in UMG, and drive its share price up 5%.

Sensing an opportunity, WMG’s owner, Access Industries, sold 2.34 million shares to Morgan Stanley & Co. on Tuesday for an unspecified amount. WMG could benefit from the added liquidity to the market. Although the shares represent less than 0.5% of WMG’s outstanding shares, WMG’s float – shares available for trading – represent about 19% of its shares, according to multiple financial sources. (UMG says its float is 42% of outstanding shares.)

For its part, WMG, which went public in 2020, has proven to be a reliable investment: before Tuesday’s surge, WMG shares were already 61% above the $25 IPO price. Going into UMG’s listing, four securities analysts gave UMG a 10% to 40% premium over WMG — meaning they believe $1 in WMG’s hands would be worth from $1.10 to $1.40 to UMG.

After WMG’s valuation rose to about $26.4 billion on Tuesday, UMG has a 14% premium over WMG. Using each company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in 2020, UMG and WMG have multiples of 35.9 and 31.5 of value to EBITDA, respectively. Had WMG shares not grown on Tuesday, UMG would be worth a 28% premium over WMG.

The two companies’ values should be correlated to some extent: They are similarly structured – mainly record labels and music publishers – and affected by the same market forces. Both music companies benefit when Spotify and Apple Music spread the subscription model throughout the world. They will each earn royalties from emerging sources such as Peloton and TikTok, worth $235 million annually for WMG’s record labels, CEO Stephen Cooper said in the company’s Aug. 3 earnings call. Likewise, labels and publishers are almost equally exposed to global pandemics, piracy and competition from movies and other entertainment. If labels are at “the threshold of a new golden age of music,” as Cooper stated in WMG’s Nov. 3, 2020 earnings call, WMG and UMG will share the bounty.

There’s a chance the market misinterpreted UMG shares’ incredible run as a true measure of investors’ interest. First-day trading volume was only 6.8% of available shares, possibly because not enough Vivendi shareholders, who receive 60% of UMG shares through a one-off distribution, could satisfy investors’ demand. Once the market has more liquidity, supply will converge with demand, and the share price could better reflect UMG’s true market value.

UMG’s first-day market value was, however, well within analysts’ estimations. A dozen securities analysts estimated UMG’s value to be from $35.5 billion to $62 billion, with an average of $47.5 billion.

The 2021 MTV Video Music Awards (Sept. 12) impact both the Billboard 200 albums and Billboard Hot 100 songs charts (dated Sept. 25) as a bevy of performers, and performed songs, post gains on the tallies in the wake of the show.

Billboard 200: On the latest Billboard 200, which reflects the sales and streaming tracking week of Sept. 10-16, the parade of performers is led by Kacey Musgraves’ debuting Star-Crossed, which arrives at No. 3 with 77,000 equivalent album units earned. Doja Cat’s (who also hosted) most recently album Planet Her is up 1% (5-6 with 50,000 units) while her previous release, Hot Pink, bumps 84-74 with 11,000 units (up 4%).

Polo G (who performed on the pre-show) has a trio of albums that gain on the Billboard 200, as Hall of Fame increases by 2% for the week (18,000 units; though falling 24-25), The Goat gooses 4% (13,000 units; 49-50) and Die a Legend re-enters at No. 183 (7,000 units; up 6%).

Justin Bieber’s Justice notches a 6% increase (18,000 units; moving 26-27), Machine Gun Kelly’s Tickets to My Downfall increase 15% (to 15,000; bumping 42-37) and Ed Sheeran’s ÷ (Divide) rises 4% (11,000; 75-64). Rounding out the gainers on the Billboard 200, among the show’s performers, are Jack Harlow’s Thats What They All Say (98-81; 10,000 units – up 8%), Twenty One PilotsBlurryface (199-194; 7,000 – up 1%) and Foo FightersGreatest Hits (re-entry at No. 196; 7,000 – up 2%).

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.

Billboard Hot 100: Over on the Hot 100, a range of performed songs perk up on the list, following their showcase on the VMAs. (The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming [official audio and video], radio airplay and sales data to present the 100 most popular songs of the week in the U.S. The chart’s latest tracking week reflected the Sept. 10-16 period.)

The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” rebounds 6-1 on the tally for its fifth week on top, with gains in both sales and airplay. The tune is able to jump back to No. 1 thanks in part to Drake clearing out after a monster week on the list a week ago where all 21 of the tracks on his Certified Lover Boy album arrived on the list. On the previous week’s chart, Drake held nine of the top 10 (save for “Stay” at No. 6) of his total 21 titles in the top 40. On the new chart, Drake has three songs in the top 10, of 10 in the top 40 – thus clearing the path for many songs to rebound up the list – like “Stay.”

Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow’s “Industry Baby” zips 20-6 (with gains in sales, airplay and streaming activity for the week), Olivia Rodrigo’s former No. 1 “Good 4 U” bounces 15-7 (up in sales), Lil Nas X’s former leader (and winner for video of the year) “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” ascends 30-13 (up in sales) and Ed Sheeran’s “Shivers” debuts at No. 16.

Doja Cat’s “You Right,” with The Weeknd, vaults 36-18 (up in sales, airplay and streams); Chloe’s “Have Mercy” debuts at No. 28; Normani’s “Wild Side,” featuring Cardi B, climbs 83-59 (up in sales, airplay and streams), Camila Cabello’s “Don’t Go Yet” bumps 93-88 (up in sales and streams) and Shawn Mendes and Tainy’s “Summer of Love” rises 96-93 (up in sales and airplay).

T.I. isn’t mincing words on his new song “F— Em.”

The track comes after news broke that neither the rapper (né Clifford Joseph Harris Jr.) nor his wife, Tameka “Tiny” Harris, will face charges stemming from 2005 incident involving a woman who alleged that the couple drugged and sexually assaulted her in Los Angeles. Charges cannot be made because the statute of limitations expired after 10 years, according to court documents obtained by Billboard.

In the song, T.I. raps, “Listen, lying ass h-, better shut that/ Upset ’cause they ass ain’t up yet/ Listen, I ain’t never gave no f— about a b—h/ If i did, h-, give my f— back/ Listen, I never gave a f— about them/ Pretty h–s stay in my DM.”

He later says, “On my life, me and my wife run this city/ Can’t snatch these stripes, we don’t care what they talking about, f— them lies.”

Ahead of the release, T.I. teased a clip from the new “F— Em” music video. “As promised our official msg dropped at 1pm @worldstar GO SEE IT‼️ S/O @liljon  Every storm runs outta rain ‼️,” he wrote.

In a statement issued to Billboard by T.I. and Tiny’s attorney, Shawn Holley, regarding the couple’s recent legal outcome, the lawyer said, “Mr. and Mrs. Harris are pleased, but not surprised, by the District Attorney’s decision to dismiss these meritless allegations. We appreciate the DA’s careful review of the case and are grateful to be able to put the matter behind us and move on.”

Last year, a second woman accused T.I. and Tiny of sexually assaulting her in Las Vegas in 2010. Her case was declined due to the statute of limitations.

T.I. has since denied the allegations against himself and Tiny. In a recent podcast interview with Big Facts Live, he said, “Why, all of a sudden, after all of these many years of service to the community, decades of integrity and showing people who I am… I just become a creep to people. I ain’t bullsh–ting, bruh. Motherf—ers just want me to be a creep so f—ing bad. Like, my n—a, where that come from?”

The person behind the NFT discussion account @CozomoMedici has been revealed, and it’s… Snoop Dogg?

“I am @CozomoMedici,” the rapper tweeted Monday (Sept. 20), just five minutes after the user behind the NFT account promised they would imminently reveal their identity.

“Shortly, as promised, I will dox from my personal account,” the tweet from @CozomoMedici read. “As my fame is considerable, the tweet will no doubt be discovered. Those who are curious to know my identity will soon know it.”

The owner of the @CozomoMedici account, which is only about a month old, had been promising to reveal themselves for several days before Snoop posted his tweet on Monday. It even ran a poll inviting followers to guess the owner’s identity, though interestingly, Snoop Dogg wasn’t one of the options listed.

Since launching in August, the account — named after famed Italian banker and patron of the arts Cosimo de’ Medici, whose portrait is prominently featured in @CozomoMedici’s background photo — had garnered significant interest due to its owner’s well-documented speculation in the NFT space. According to @CozomoMedici’s OpenSea account, they currently own over 140 NFTs, some of which were purchased for millions of dollars in the cryptocurrency Ethereum.

Lending some credence to Snoop Dogg’s claim is the fact that many of the NFTs listed on OpenSea are cannabis-themed. Shortly after the rapper’s tweet was posted, @CozomoMedici purchased a pair of NFTs by the artist NyanDogg, one of which — a GIF of a cat smoking a joint and wearing what appears to be a giant marijuana leaf — now serves as Snoop Dogg’s Twitter avatar. Also notable is the fact that @CozomoMedici always signs off with a wine emoji — another passion of Snoop’s, who owns the wine company 19 Crimes.

There are other clues that point to Snoop being the true owner of the account. Earlier this month, singer Jason Derulo tweeted his thanks to @CozomoMedici for helping facilitate his purchase of the CryptoPunk NFT that now serves as his Twitter avatar. Though it’s unclear whether Derulo knew he was dealing with Snoop Dogg for the sale, it seems likely that he did given their past collaboration on Derulo’s hit 2014 single “Wiggle.” A subsequent tweet by @CozomoMedici, retweeted by Derulo, was written in a distinctly Snoop Dogg-esque flow: “On the shores of Lake Como. @jasonderulo and Cozomo. Better hide yo punks cause we no longer Ridin’ Solo.”

In March, Snoop Doog announced his first NFT collection, “A Journey with the Dogg,” on Crypto.com. The eight-piece collection included “memories from his early years with art inspired by the NFT movement,” as well as an original track titled — you guessed it — “NFT.”

Kacey Musgraves scores her first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Sept. 25) as her latest studio effort Star-Crossed debuts atop the list with 47,000 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 16, according to MRC Data. It’s her second-largest sales week ever, trailing only the debut week of Pageant Material in 2015 (55,000; chart dated July 11, 2015).

Of Star-Crossed’s opening-week sales, a whopping 26,000 were sold on vinyl LP — marking the largest sales week for a country album on vinyl since MRC Data began tracking sales in 1991. Previously, the best week on wax for a country set, since 1991, was held by Sturgill Simpson’s Cuttin’ Grass, Vol. 1: The Butcher Shoppe Sessions, when it sold 15,000 copies in its first week of availability on vinyl (Dec. 26, 2020-dated chart).

Star-Crossed also opens at No. 1 on Billboard’s Vinyl Albums chart, Musgraves’ second leader on the tally, following her last studio effort, 2018’s Golden Hour.

Of Star-Crossed’s sales of 47,000, physical album sales comprise 37,000 (with 26,000 on vinyl; 9,000 on CD and nearly 2,000 on cassette) and 10,000 via digital download.

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now MRC Data. Pure album sales were the measurement solely utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Metallica’s self-titled 1991 album jumps from No. 63 to No. 2 on Top Album Sales following its 30th anniversary reissue on Sept. 10. The album sold 29,000 copies in the week ending Sept. 16 (up 1,365%), with all versions of the album – old and new – combined for tracking and charting purposes.

Iron Maiden’s Senjutsu falls from No. 1 to No. 3 in its second week on the list, with 16,000 sold (down 74%) while Aaliyah’s long-out-of-print self-titled 2001 album re-enters at No. 4 with 15,000 sold after its reissue on Sept. 10.

Olivia Rodrigo’s former No. 1 Sour falls 3-5 with 14,000 sold (down 27%) while ATEEZ’s Zero: Fever Part.3 debuts at No. 6 with 12,000 sold. A pair of chart-toppers are next, as Halsey’s If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power dips 5-7 with 9,000 sold (down 47%) and Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever falls 6-8 with 8,000 sold (down 31%). The latter surpasses Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album to become the third-biggest selling album of 2021 with 264,000 sold (ahead of Wallen’s 259,000). Taylor Swift’s Evermore and Rodrigo’s Sour are the Nos. 1 and 2 sellers, with 424,000 and 350,000 sold, respectively.

Hayley WilliamsFlowers for Vases / Descansos re-enters the chart at No. 9 – a new high – with 7,000 sold. Nearly all of the sales came from its vinyl LP release, which dropped on Sept. 10, following the album’s initial release on streamers and via digital retailers on Feb. 5. (The set previously spent one week on the list, on the chart dated Feb. 20, when it debuted at No. 59 from 2,000 in download sales.)

Rounding out the new top 10 on Top Album Sales is Drake’s Certified Lover Boy, which drops 2-10 in its second week with nearly 7,000 sold (down 86%).

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