How Bad Bunny’s Recent Album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, Pays Homage to the Island of Puerto Rico

From Music Videos with Concho el Sapo to Highlighting the Negative Impact that Tourism gives the Island, Bad Bunny’s Eight Studio Album Shares a Message about Appreciating Culture and the Future of Música Urbana.

In between Bad Bunny’s album releases and artistry break, his beloved homeland of Puerto Rico, was being targeted and called a “floating Island of garbage” by Republican comedian Tony Hinchcliffe. The Island’s name was a hot commodity in topics that were talked about in the recent Presidential candidacy and after the let down in which the Puerto Rican Independence party lost in 2024 with the contributions Republicans made to that loss, the Puerto Rican Reggaeton artist did not only reveal his endorsement towards Kamala Harris but also released his eighth studio album Debí Tirar Más Fotos [DBTF], an album that pays homage to the beauty of Puerto Rico and brings in a message about appreciating culture and the future of música urbana. 

Producing one of his earnest statements yet in his discography, DBTF explores the beauty that the Island provides through the eyes of a Puerto Rican native who’s become a worldwide sensation. Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio removes the layers that the industry has given him throughout his years as an artist, becoming himself once again and embracing the culture that his music is inspired by. His album not only reflects the importance of the Island itself but you can also listen to the compelling words that describe Puerto Rico’s struggles for sovereignty from both the Spanish and American colonization. 

The album consists of 17 tracks which tells a story of culture in which he uses some song samples of different Latin artists. In his first track,  titled “NUEVAYol”, Ocasio samples the 1975 song “Un Verano en Nueva York” by El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico, which brought back memories to older folks who loved dancing salsa. During the album’s release week his singles “NUEVAYol”, “DBTF” [The album title track] and “EeO” had their breakthrough on social media apps like TikTok and Instagram. People recorded their parents and grandparents dancing to the infamous song [NUEVAYol] that reminded them of their youth while others made short video montages about memories with one of their family members or pets that have passed away and even got into depth about their own homeland that don't look the same. In that same time that these videos were going viral, Ocasio’s connection with his fans was through reposting these videos and doing some of his own that made him as relatable as everyone else: just a latino sharing his memories to the world.

Ocasio’s way in portraying significance to his Island is not only seen through his music and lyricism but also through a visual way in which he made storytelling come to life through his album’s promotion. Aside from the connection that the album brought to his fans, Ocasio also used powerful meanings through his music videos and tour set up. In the music videos, Concho el Sapo and Jacobo Morales, a Puerto Rican filmmaker, are in different sites of Puerto Rico either ordering food in a gentrified restaurant that only takes card payments and sells vegan versions of a quesito, a Puerto Rican pastry and a salsa dance studio remembering how to bailar. The connection between the two characters refers to the older generation of Puerto Ricans or the wider community's care and concern for this endangered toad, similar to how a grandfather might care for a precious part of his family. 

But with a new album comes a new tour and although this new era of Bad Bunny has become everyone’s newest obsession, Ocasio has decided to only hold a residency in Puerto Rico for U.S. tour dates and doing some international dates as well.

“I’m in Puerto Rico, I’m home, having fun and, to be honest, I don’t want to leave”, Ocasio said when he shared the initial news of the tour via an Instagram post. His residency tour titled “No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí” [“I don’t want to leave”] is not only a historic moment, but is political and brings in his own stance on the support Puerto Rico needs.

 In an interview with Rolling Stone, Bad Bunny reflects on his career and explains that his success in the current times we live in is “to show the world who I am and what my culture is, where I grew up.”

For many artists and album tells a story or brings us into a world that we could never imagine, but for Bad Bunny it is more than advocating the trouble that Puerto Rico is dealing with, it is about bringing the right public and tourism into the Island and through the constructive narrative that he’s provided about the culture, music, passion, and his people, Puerto Rico is set to have a positive impact.

A Year Of Reflection: Boosting My Confidence, Making Connections, Dealing With A New City, & much more

Growing up I had a grandmother-like figure who owned a liquor store next to my home. She was Chinese which meant that every Chinese New Year she'd make my brother and I celebrate, handing us our red envelopes, making us wear red to manifest a year of luck & appreciating our ancestors. Though we were obviously not Chinese, she shaped a tradition in our lives that continues to live on today, even when she is no longer with us to celebrate. The reason why I am bringing this up is because this year was the year of the wooden dragon, which for us symbolizes strength, courage & good fortune, all that I believe I attained this year.

Besides giving you a little bit of history context of my childhood, I want to talk about how I changed my own perspective in life, adapting to healthier habits & ways of thinking. I think that my online persona often makes others interpret me as a girl who has it all, and in some ways, I can selfishly say that I do but that is not my main source of happiness. I grew up carrying the weight of handling my mother's illnesses, always focusing on her needs before mine, which tends to make me a selfless person in general. That selflessness is a beautiful trait to acquire, but throughout the years did a lot of damage to myself in friendships, including the worst one I was ever in a year ago. Ever since that experience I learned that although selflessness is something great to have, it is easy for me to be taken for granted which made me shut down a lot in the beginning of this year.

Now you might be asking: but Val, how did you over come that? Well see what I do not let a lot of people know is the inner problems I keep inside my mind. I know I am my own critique and due to the past derogatory friendship experience I had, I became a very difficult person to befriend if I did not already know you. I wanted to keep to myself majority of them time which led to me finding comfort in my alone time or being only with my two other friends, Jenn and Cecilia. I thought that I was in the right for doing this because I deserved to be alone and even pushed away a person who now is someone insanely significant in my life (if you're reading this & think it is you, then you're probably right). Not to say that I was never happy in this period of time, because I was, but it definitely took a lot for me to talk to newer people who shown interest in my life. I overcame this knot in my mind when I realized I was close to moving to Santa Barbara. I had ended in great terms with my job but within the weeks of awaiting to move I made myself aware that my whole life was about to change.

What Santa Barbara brought to me was a feeling of starting over again, to no longer feel afraid to go out and beware of the girls who brought my self confidence down and to make new friends, which is exactly what I did! I met a lot of people who again, at first, I feared a bit but they taught me I should not act that way. I learned that being afraid won't get me further into life especially with the career I want and even though the same people who did me wrong are basically in the same field as me, to learn to forgive and move on from a situation that won't matter in the span of 5 or 10 years. I think the moment that mindset was implemented on me, it was much easier for me to communicate with others and step out of my comfort zone to make newer connections once again. Ever since I was a little girl, it had always been a dream of mine to pursue school and belong to a big campus where I could learn the unknown. I knew that out of everything I wanted to do in life, whether it was being a designer at nine years old, an aerospace engineer at sixteen, or a groupie at nineteen, I knew I wanted to prove to myself that I could do so much more to my life. I knew that the terror I had in life was going to keep me sitting down in the same couch I sat in while bands did soundcheck and I saw the women in music business working the jobs I wanted. That negative mentality I started the year with would've made me nothing but a muse to the teenage girl tunes Twitter loves.

The fears in my brain diminished when I learned that I am more than just what those girls who self-loathed themselves thought of me. I know that I had strength and courage to move on from those situations and become enlightened. The good fortune now are the people who are currently in my life, people who do not mean any harmful acts but will act upon when something does not seem right on their end. At the end of it, friendships are what bring happiness to my life, not the idea of having it all or depending on my online persona to make me feel satisfied. I do not know how much you can grasp from this but one thing I am sure of is this: Do not allow a group of people to stop you from accomplishing the dreams you have for yourself. In fear of looking crazy or insane for reaching so high, if there is anyone who can believe in you, it is yourself. Act on it and the right people will surround you the moment that mindset switches. Cheers to the New Year!

In moments of feeling a knife on the throat, all I could do is is write

The Hollywood Palladium in Ecstasy

On November 21st of 2021 my life completely changed. The day started off pretty regular, at the time I was working at a coffee shop on Melrose Ave and going to college online because of Covid regulations, but still spent majority of my time on the web making friends and discovering new music. Through this virtual exposure, a failed trip to LA that some friends from Arizona had planned landed me with some tickets to an Irish rock band's show that night. I really only knew as much as the music my Arizona friends had shown me but nonetheless found myself making my way to the Troubadour that night alone, unaware of the outcome to my one woman mission. To not bore you all, I'll cut my juicy little details of the night to my biggest achievement, meeting a girl who would turn my world upside down and guide me through the craziest year of my life.

Now you may be asking, why am I beginning this blog post with a 3 year old story that many of you might already know and others may now be curious about? The truth is that although I am a major nostalgic loser, this story somehow revisits me within every time that I get to see that band perform again. This weekend I had the greatest opportunity to see Inhaler live again for what seems to be like the 50th time, it is truly a set I will never get tired of experiencing. I have been lucky to see this band's shows from the beginning of their career, playing in rooms like the Troubadour and the Subterranean to now seeing them fill the Hollywood Palladium up. I found sitting in the VIP section much more appropriate at this time as I've become aware that while I toured in the past with the band, I had no sense of responsibility compared to the life I have now. Though I am aware that I am no longer eighteen, sitting upstairs and not connecting with the crowd below me gave me a bit of fomo, dragging Gigi down with me to dance along to Who's your Money On? and Dublin in Ecstasy, Inhaler's best songs (in my opinion).

What is this infectious feeling teenage girls have in seeing this band perform over and over again? I notice it a lot with the Inhaler fan culture through the years and I am not complaining when I say it feels like something straight of the movie Almost Famous. If I were to talk about the "Bandaids", or better known as the original girls who I got to form beautiful friendships in the past, I can assure you they're still around, making their rounds to different cities and though we are not all connected like we once were in the beginning of this ride along with the band. It is still fun to see a familiar face whenever attending these shows because like any other artist, Inhaler has obtained higher exposure meaning that newer crowds are normal to see. I, myself, have a very strong connection because this is a band I wanted to experience everything I could with. Through Inhaler I got to see the world itself and the beauty in music. I got to go to festivals like Lollapalooza and Outsidelands, exploring cities beyond just a normal family trip that girls at that age take, and absorbing everything I did not understand at eighteen that now I question at almost twenty-two.

The palladium might have been the only show I went to for this recent North America tour because as many of you guys know my life is not so flexible in the traveling aspect, but I enjoyed my only night right. I don't ask for much from the band but to just take me back to when reality was worrying about living in a city like Chicago at nineteen. I think too much on my past because I know that my current present is what will allow me a much more accessible future to the music industry, to experience more cities and shows beyond just the beauty that Inhaler has gifted me. That night while I sat at our booth next to Gigi, I allowed myself to appreciate everything that this band has put both of us through, that if it wasn't for the Arizona girls who couldn't make it to the Troubadour I wouldn't have sat at the palladium this weekend and perhaps I wouldn't even be writing this today. Inhaler was the gateway to my passion for music, friendships, and has created the most clearest vision of a profession I crave attaining more and more every day. There will eventually be an actual night where Gigi and I will experience Dublin in Ecstasy but for now, Hollywood will do it for us.