Fairly new artist, Bad Bunny, has made it to the top of the charts globally within two years of his music career. Like many modern rappers, Bad Bunny gained most of his following through Soundcloud and late 2018 was signed with Disrupter Records, now having collaborated with artists like Cardi B, Drake and J Balvin. Bad Bunny, though, has gained most of his popularity because of his sense of style.
When first being introduced to Bad Bunny, one can read that he isn’t like most other rappers; he likes to wear bright attire, statements pieces and loves to turn heads to his direction. Although Bad Bunny is killing the music game currently, he is also making a social statement to “machismo” in Latin culture. In Latin culture, machismo is an exaggerated set of standards put onto men and boys to find a sense of pride in their masculine abilities. Although the idea of having certain male standards sounds good at first, the concept has begun to stray away from its intentions.
Within Latin men, there are certain morals and standard set socially that have created what a “Latin male” looks, acts and thinks. Most of the times this means always having a sense of aggressiveness to prove their strength and dominance, never asking for assistance or help and only pertaining to things of men set by Latin men culture. Thus, this has caused an influx of boys and men to question many of their valid feelings, emotions, ideas and opinions simply because it doesn’t quite match the precedented standards.
The truth of the matter is that the issue of this is that of toxic masculinity and the thought of hypermasculinity to make up for it. Like mentioned before, the concept had good intention to show boys how to act like well-raised men, but somewhere along the way, lines got blurred. Suddenly, by trying to relieve the issue of toxic masculinity, the solution of hypermasculinity was thought to be the answer which has caused more hurt than help to the issue.
Artists like Bad Bunny, who has spoken out about and been an advocate against hypermasculinity and machismo, change that. In his first album, X100PRE, he addresses many related topics such as self-acceptance, gender violence, hypermasculine sexual fantasies, sentimentality, mental health and even painting your nails. By speaking out on these issues, Bad Bunny is helping reform what healthy, safe masculinity looks like, all while making hot new beats for your summer.
Make sure to add some of Bad Bunny’s songs to your summer playlist, collegiettes!